MSN.com is one of the most popular websites on the Internet with roughly 100 million unique visitors per month that come to the website. The design of the Internet portal has not changed a lot in the last ten years. Users who are visiting the old MSN page notice a lot of links and elements on the page leaving many users with the feeling that the page looks cluttered and confusing. Microsoft has recently made the decision, after conducting surveys, that the MSN page needed an overhaul. And that overhaul is now available as a preview.
The best way to see the changes on the page is to display the old and the new MSN homepage as images:
The new page looks much cleaner and more interactive. Microsoft claims that they cut the number of links by almost 50% and while that may be true for the links that are displayed visually it is another story if you analyse all the links on the page. The new MSN page sports 219 external links currently compared to 186 on the old page. These figures are subject to change but it currently means an increase by almost 30 links on the MSN homepage.
The number of objects on the page on the other hand was reduced from 46 on the old page to 29. The total size increased on the other hand to 192568 bytes from 135594 bytes which can be largely attributed to the larger photos that are displayed on the page.
The new page should on the other hand load faster for Internet connections faster than 128 Kilobytes per second thanks to the reduced number of objects that need to be loaded. Here is what Microsoft has to say about the new MSN homepage:
The clean, new MSN is designed to be the best home page on the Web, with powerful Bing search, the top news and hottest entertainment, and convenient access to some of the most popular social networks — all in a fresh new look. Based on customer input, the new design has 50 percent fewer links than the previous home page and a simplified navigation across news, entertainment, sports, finance and lifestyle. In addition, sophisticated technology powers the home page to deliver personally relevant information and improved performance satisfies people’s need for speed.
The new homepage will be gradually enabled for visitors from the United States with the option to access the preview MSN homepage at anytime and from anywhere. What’s your opinion on the new homepage?
Update
We have discovered a way to get the old MSN back, at least for now. Visit the second part of this article entitled How To Access The Old MSN Website.
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I’m all for trying to upgrade, make something new, but this new MSN page is just a mess to look at and way too bright. I much prefer the old one and I too will be looking for a new page if they don’t make some adjustment toward the easier to see, easier to navigate OLD MSN Page. What’s next, the LA Times putting recipe’s on the front page, and making us try to find the news we want on page 15 or 16
Why change what worked so well? I’ve had MSN as my home page since 1996. Now looking for a new home. I wonder if MSN’s advertisers realize many people will be changing. What is the consensus, Google, CNN, Yahoo? Someone make a suggestion, my ears are open!
I completely agree – the New Web page is horrible! Is it posible to get the Old Web Page Back?
It’s almost Like Dianne Pelosi designed it – Yukkkk!!!
I do not like the new page. I want my old one back. This one is too hard to read and find things. When I bring up this page it just runs together which makes it difficult to read. I’m looking for a new homepage tonight.
It’s really bad folks. Better you bring back the old as an option or risk the loss of millions of internet users.
There is ONLY 1 comment that says the change was “good for users”. I agree with the other 99.9%. The new change is TERRIBLE and unless MSN provides a way to keep the old page, I will be looking for a new homepage after having the old page as my homepage after 10 years due to this change.
PLEASE DONT FIX WHAT IS NOT BROKEN.
It sucks! I used many of the links that used to be at the top of the page. Now they are all gone. The color scheme sucks too. Good-bye MSN homepage. I’ll find a new one.
It is too bright! It hurts your eyes. I sure don’t know who they surveyed because, I can’t find one favorable opinion on here. Now I’m gonna have to change home pages.
This is RUBBISH! A survey really? Who did they survey the obama admin? A change is good even if it sucks. /sigh Good bye msn
WOW, did my eyes just decieve me or what?
1. MSN totally screws up their website.
2. We post our distaste for the new website.
3. Today, Tuesday Nov, 24th @ 12:30, they change it back!
YEEHAA, bitching does work!
Hate the new home page will be going to google.
I do not like the new home page at all, if this continues I will switch to another home page
To much chitt to look at to find what you want and way to bright my eyes hurt from looking at it. Back ground color options would have been nice. I believe I will be changing my home page. From the looks of things no one likes it! What do you think microsoft??
My first reaction was: WTF! Do I have a virus or something?! microsoft pulled a switch without any warning, at least not to me…but who am I – just a lil’ ol’ nobody. Also, the ultra bright white background is blinding! And there’s no way to change the color. It’d taken me years to getting used to finding things on the old MSN homepage, now I have to learn how to navigate through the new one all over again…SUCKS, big time! And there’s no way to go back to the old version; at least not from what I can figure out. Maybe it’s time to ditch MSN altogether. Thanks for nothing microsoft!
This is awful. I couldn’t believe it when I logged on this morning and found this mess! I want the old page back. Hate it, hate it, hate it!
Heading over to google. What a shame.
The new design is terrible. I used to enjoy getting all the news, sports, financial, and entertainment headlines at one glance without the requirement to scroll down. The new approach is too bright and unappealing. I’ll be searching for a new “home”…too bad since MSN.com has been my homepage for at least 8 years.
Is there any chance that MSN is reading/listening to these comments???? I’d say, “it’s not lookin’ too good!!” How about at least some comment from MSN as to the availability of the old site, and the possibility that we can opt for that one. Please Listen!!!!!
Couldn’t agree more with the other comments made. Too light and not enough content and the old MSN home page was much much better. Will also switch and am experimenting with other home pages. I got discontented with Yahoo for similar reasons a couple of years back.
Yes this thing smells to high heaven, but now I’ve made the choice to delete my msn desktop icon and now use the one for Google news and a seperate one for finances. These sites are great and they don’t have all the extra garbage that msn has been overloading with these past years. With this new setup I think that they have just thrown in the towel and will just make it a sham link scam to their Ho Hum bing search.
You can see they were doing that slowly all along as time went on so they can claim they are getting better hits than Yahoo & Google, which by the way is rolling out a new version after the new year and the beta was more accurate and slightly faster than the regular google. So just delete them from your life and I guarantee with in 2 weeks of useing others information sites you will not miss them in the least. My message to MSN is KMA…….H
If they don’t let me have my old page back, I’m changing web-pages, period. And Bing stinks.
Seeing the new MSN Page I was wondering if I had a virus. In any case I as other am looking for a new home page. This new one sucks. I wish they would give the option of staying with the old one
I will change my homepage if I am not able to get to the old view. So called upgrades can occur without such a radical view changes and should be preceded with ample notification and the option to retain the old view if desired…Goodbye MSN!
Also, my time is 9:27am Central Standard Time. What is with the time on my post?
Paul it is server time, not your time.
Very boring. No color. Don’t like it at all! Want the other page back and I want a link to choose the old MSN page as my home page… until I find my old MSN page, I will start using a new non-msn home page.
This new page is total garbage. It would appear that twitter and facebook and links of that nature are the most importatnt things in this world. It is much harder to find the things that you need.
Right on Jeff! I don’t know why they have to put that twitter,…ect crap on that page. Come on! That is a load of doo.
Can’t stand the new page, my wife hates it and my father-in-law will lose his mind when it switches on his computers.
I have to agree with all of the “Hate It” comments. IMSN is my home page on both my home computer and my office computer. Why is it that my office computer still has the old page and my home computer has the new page.
And why weren’t we given the option of which page we want to use.
Hate is so much……….. will be changing. What were they thinking?
I’m not sure how I did it, but on the new homepage, there is an option marked ” Settings” at the top upper right. I clicked on it, figuring I didn’t have anything to lose, and I was able to make “MyMSN.com” my home page. On top of that, you can move the modules around, change themes and background colors and basically, my homepage is not to awfully different from the old one. And it’s pretty easy to navigate.