Filed under: Design, Internet, Features, Microsoft, Search
MSN.com gets its first major redesign in a decade
A prettier, less cluttered layout and a prominent Bing search bar aren't the only upgrades to the homepage. In a touch that says Microsoft actually knows what year it is after all, you can add your Facebook newsfeed and your Twitter stream to an area on the right side of the page. The news is still there, but it's more customizable, and the layout presents fewer stories at a time than the cluttered old MSN.com did. There's also a local focus, with local weather and a Bing-powered local news widget at the bottom left.
I have to say that, compared to the MSN of old, this new design looks attractive and functional. Speaking of comparisons, though, have a look at our gallery of MSN.com designs since 2001. Looking at how slowly the site changed over the years only underlines how much it just changed overnight.
I don't know if this is a labor of love or merely the brainchild of four very gifted games designers, but Level Up is a really weird mash-up of gaming elements that you have probably never seen in a Flash game before.
Let's start with the premise itself: Groundhog Day meets Memento. The game experience revolves around 'days': you explore the world and the clock slowly ticks towards the evening. You bounce around picking up gems and talking to the denizens of 'Level Upland'. Eventually you feel tired and head back to ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
RUGRLN said 10:52AM on 11-04-2009
Which currently seems to be exclusive to US...
Reply
the pl4gue said 7:01AM on 11-04-2009
I wish it retained some of the blue it used to. Now it looks like some boring news website like all the others (CNN, Faux, etc. etc.)
Reply
Josh said 12:01PM on 11-04-2009
CNN's new design is a lot better than it was with the color usage.
Sir Loin said 10:10AM on 11-04-2009
Remember how huge it was when MSN's designers switched from table layout to CSS? Thanks for the gallery, interesting to see the updates over the years.
Reply
motang said 11:13AM on 11-04-2009
Actually looks better now that it has a white background.
Reply
michas_pi said 1:14PM on 11-04-2009
Reinstalling Windows and launching Internet Explorer for the first time (to download Firefox, of course) is always scary because I have to see the travesty that is the MSN page layout.
Reply
chris said 2:19PM on 11-04-2009
I'm not a fan of all the white...tends to hurt my eyes being to bright.
Reply
Karol said 5:13PM on 11-04-2009
It does kind of boggle me sometimes how some don't do frequent updates. I suppose microsoft thought a lot of ppl were used to what they had. Makes me vawncast inside but I guess I'll see what's in store from them, should be good though, they tend to never let down, I like them..ya..
Reply
chrishigh said 6:40PM on 11-04-2009
It seemed really empty to me - then I realized it's because of Adblock :)
Reply
chrisaroz said 8:32PM on 11-04-2009
It looks the same as always on my end. (and I'm in the US)
Reply
DiRT said 3:32PM on 11-05-2009
Yeah, the same old MSN for me (in the US too)
Reply