MSN, after a 20-year run has had a redesign that makes it look lot like a hub of news items, while it’s deeply integrated with the other Microsoft services.
The homepage real estate has fully been utilized for the news categories and the search bar is on the top. There is also a services stripe listing Microsoft’s services such as Outlook, Skype, OneNote etc, and upon hovering over the icons users can check their Outlook messages or Skype activities and OneNote status whenever required without having to navigate away from the MSN page and logging in separately on different tabs.
It also has other Microsoft services like Bing maps and productivity tools like shopping lists, etc. The other utilities included are a symptom checker and a 3D body explorer for the health front.
It is said that Microsoft has signed deals with some top content providers to provide content for the site and users get to choose what categories they are interested in reading about.
The company will also bring various apps such as Food & Drinks and Sports to the platform, which were previously available only for the Windows environment. Android and iOS versions of the MSN app are in the works and Microsoft said they will be available for download ‘in coming months’.
All the preferences the user sets on one device will be synchronized across all connected devices seamlessly. The new design is said to be rolled out in 55 markets worldwide in the next few weeks.
