New MSN - The 2.0 Approach
Published by: Children Trundle. The Microsoft Network, or MSN, is a collection of services provided by the Microsoft Company. This range of Internet services started on August 24, 1995 as an online service and Internet service provider, at the same time when the Windows 95 operating system was released. While at the beginning it was just a simple online service for Windows 95, since then MSN has come up with more and more various and complex products. The MSN brand name was used by Microsoft to put on the market a number of popular web-based services in the 1990s, such as Hotmail and Messenger. Then, lots of services got reorganized in 2006 when Microsoft reinvented MSN in the form of Windows Live. In spite of the changes, MSN.com, MSN’s Internet portal, maintained its popularity. Actually it is the 6th most visited domain name on the Internet.
As an Internet service provider, the MSN was designed as a dial-up online content provider.
It used to supply proprietary content by relying on an artificial folder-like interface built in the Windows 95 interface linked to the Windows Explorer file management.
The most common of capabilities provided by the first form of the MSN included email service, chat rooms, newsgroups, weather info, product support and discussion. Although originally the open access to the World Wide Web was not included in its service, in time Internet access could quickly be offered through the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. The browser option could downloaded from the MSN service and was part of the Windows 95 package.
The first MSN classic version proved insufficient for the growing demands of the Internet, and only a year after its launch, Microsoft had to come up with MSN 2.0.
Besides Internet access, this updated version brought web-based multimedia content under the name MSN Program Viewer. In recent years, in the US and Canada, MSN is still a dial-up Internet service provider, yet it is not as significant as AOL. The MSN service is now accompanied by an e-mail account at MSN.com and security software – firewall, and anti-virus programs.
After the changes in 2006, many MSN services were renamed under the new brand name Windows Live. Among these services that underwent modifications, MSN Hotmail (now Windows Live Hotmail), MSN Messenger, MSN Search, (now Live Search), MSN Virtual Earth (now Live Search Maps), MSN Spaces, MSN Alerts and MSN Groups were included. With the release of Windows Live, new services were announced: Windows Live Favorites and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner. At the same time, MSN switched to online news and entertainment as well as in its quality as a common interest content provider through its Internet portal, MSN.com. The software and the services that support MSN belong in fact to Windows Live.
Author: Children Beds.