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.