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Microsoft Releases MSN For iPad In The U.S.

Shaylin Clark — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:02:21 +0000

Microsoft has released their MSN iPad app in America following the successful launch of the app in France, Germany, Britain, and Canada last month. The app provides access to MSN’s news, photos, and videos. Users can also access Hotmail and Windows Live Messenger.

The app also includes a variety of sharing features. Users can email links to what they’re viewing, as well as post them to Facebook and Twitter. It also sports a Bing search box at the top of the screen.

The app is available now in the iOS App Store as a free download. There aren’t many reviews up yet in the App Store, but so far users seem pretty pleased. Check it out and let us know what you think in the comments.

MSN iPad App Launched

Chris Crum — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:18:51 +0000

Microsoft has launched a new MSN app for the iPad. The company says it features the same content as found on its redesigned MSN UK site (unveiled in November).

It’s split up into six main channels: News, Sports, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Cars and Video. As far as search, it comes with Bing obviously. Given the popularity of the iPad and iPad apps, this could be a new opportunity for Bing to grab a bit more market share.

“Just like its desktop counterpart, the MSN iPad app uses Bing to search the web,” says Microsoft’s Leena Shah. “The Bing search box can be found at the top of your screen. To perform a search just tap into the Bing search box located at the top of the app. Don’t worry about having to exit the app, Bing will perform a web search without leaving the app – just hit ‘search’ on the keyboard to begin. When you’re done, tap the blue ‘Done’ button to close the search window.”

As others have pointed out, the design of the app bears a striking resemblance to the popular Pulse news reader app.

The app is currently available to download (for free) from Apple’s iPad App Store and iTunes.

Golden Globes Info Can Be Found with Bing and MSN Features

Chris Crum — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Bing announced some special features for the Golden Globes, for those who are unable to watch the ceremony this evening. One feature is called Golden Globe Instant Answer, and is essentially what its name implies.

You can search Bing for "Golden Globes" and get an instant answer at the top of the results, showing relevant content. Here you can see nominees, past winners, etc.

Another feature, Golden Globe Visual Search Gallery, lets you check out nominees in all the different categories visually. "Whether you’re looking for ‘best original score’ or ‘best motion picture’, you can sort by category in a matter of clicks," says the Bing team.

Microsoft also has a Golden Globes guide that you can check out to catch up. "To help prime you for the ceremony, MSN Entertainment has created a guide for the event with comprehensive coverage on the nominees, red carpet coverage from the event, photos and videos of the stars and even the latest celebrity news," the Bing team says.

The content will of course be updated as the ceremony goes on and afterwards, so if you can’t watch it, but are interested in the results, this should be a good place to find what you’re looking for.

Granted, the results will no doubt be all over Twitter, Facebook, Google, and everywhere else on the web.

Bing Adds Enhanced Auto Search Results

Chris Crum — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 19:21:18 +0000

Bing has added a new feature to its search results in enhanced auto results, which show information about automobiles right on the search results pages. The Bing Team writes:

Now you can search for your favorite car and Bing will assemble all of the important information (price, Fuel Economy, user rating, listings in your area) as well as quick links to additional information right within the search result.

Simply enter in the make and model and Bing autos will pull together everything you need to research in one place. You use the filters in the left rail to narrow down your search by model, price, year or comparable vehicle.

You can see the feature in action in a video shown here, or you can simply go to Bing and try it out. I find that for some queries, you have to add a year to get the results to come up immediately, though if you leave it off, you can still get to the results by clicking one of the options (which contains a year) in the left rail.

The feature is in line with other recently launched Bing features, such as those for sports tickets and TV listings. The feature really falls in line with Bing’s whole "Decision Engine" philosophy it launched with from the beginning – providing answers directly in search results without providing the need to click through to other sites to get the info.

The auto results provide info from MSN Autos, and when you click through on the links within these results, that is where you will be taken.

Zynga Reportedly Pulls Farmville From MSN

Chris Crum — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:18:57 +0000

Zynga has apparently removed its massively popular game Farmville from Microsoft’s MSN Games, and nobody seems to know why. The timing of this is interesting as Google has reportedly been in investment talks with Zynga, while it has been acquiring other social game-related properties.

While Zynga has offered no comment on Farmville’s absence from MSN, Chris Morrison at InsideSocialGames.com (via VentureBeat) writes:

The departure from MSN looks much more notable, in the grand scheme. MSN itself claims to have about half a billion monthly users worldwide between Games and Messenger — equal to what Facebook claims for itself.

One of the big stories in social gaming right now is that developers are interested in moving beyond Facebook, keeping a line back to the social network’s graph with Connect. With partnerships like FarmVille on MSN, Zynga has been a leader in that move.

The move seems pretty odd to say the least, and I suspect the picture will become clearer before long.

Zynga has been expanding its reach and making moves that should help it expand more in the future. Besides a reported investment from Google, the company recently acquired Japanese gaming company Unoh, and launched Farmville in app form for the iphone.

Microsoft Launches Online Circular Ads for MSN Local

Chris Crum — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:10:27 +0000

Microsoft Advertising has unveiled new localized deals through interactive online circulars (like those ads that fall out of your newspaper, the company notes) as part of MSN Local Edition.

The site is geo-targeted, so only location-relevant circulars will be shown to consumers.

Site visitors will be able to rotate through the different circulars on one screen, as well as browse and flip through them just like print versions. They will also be able to search for products across circulars, add items to a shopping list, find retailer locations with Bing Maps, and share offers with friends through Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live.

The back-end data for the circulars comes from ShopLocal. As long as retailers update their info on ShopLocal, their circulars will be refreshed. If they’re not current, they won’t be shown.

Microsoft says it intends to leverage more of its assets (including mobile) as it evolves its circular offerings. Advertisers need to talk to their account execs if they want to take advantage of this kind of offering.

MSN Homepage Gets Bing Prominence Tweak

Chris Crum — Tue, 25 May 2010 14:55:03 +0000

Update 2: Microsoft has decided to give Bing a little bit more prominence on the recently redesigned MSN homepage. Probably not a bad idea, considering MSN.com had nearly 90 million unique visitors in March, according to Compete. Bing had 52 million.

Update: After some delay, Microsoft is reportedly now rolling out the new MSN home page design over the next couple weeks.

Original Article: MSN.com gets about 85 million unique monthly visitors in the US alone, according to Compete. That’s significantly more than AOL.com. So now that Microsoft has unveiled a redesign to it, it stands to reason that a lot of people are going to be affected by it. Microsoft calls the new design MSN’s most significant home page redesign in over a decade.

"Now is the time to clean up the mess on the Web — people need less clutter and less hassle to find what matters most to them," said Erik Jorgensen, corporate vice president, Microsoft. "Microsoft is uniquely invested in search, media experiences and technical innovation. Combining these assets to deliver our new MSN home page is a tremendous win for customers and advertisers."

What do you think of the new design? Share your opinions here.

The new design pays significant focus to local, Bing, social networks, and news. Coinciding with the announcement of the redesign was the unveiling of MSN Local Edition. This is a section of MSN that gives you local news, weather, sports, movies and events, restaurants, gas, traffic, a directory, lottery numbers, etc.

The Bing integration with the new MSN is deeper. It’s now used as the core search technology throughout the home page in areas like shopping, travel, and local. It is also used as a way to highlight hot topics, trends, and people.

There is a clean integration of social networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as Microsoft’s own Windows Live "What’s New," which aggregates up to 50 web activities from various places like Yelp, Flickr, Pandora, etc.

"Customers told us they want the latest information from their favorite sources, their friends and the breadth of the Web — and the new MSN home page delivers via a fresh new look and new features," Jorgensen said. "Today is an important transformation for MSN, and it’s just the beginning."

There is also an emphasis on de-cluttering the home page. Microsoft says there are 50% fewer links than on the previous version. Here’s what the whole thing looks like:

The design is not live on a wide scale yet. It will be rolling out gradually over the coming weeks. It is, however available as a preview here.

On a related note, Microsoft is finally launching MSN Music this week. The launch has been postponed since July.

Related Articles:

> MySpace, MSN Now Said To Be In Talks

> Microsoft Partners With Advance Internet On Local Ad Deal

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features in The US

MSN Launches Online Magazine For Women

Mike Sachoff — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:23:53 +0000

Microsoft’s MSN has launched Glo, an online magazine aimed at women.

The new site is a joint partnership with BermanBraun and Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., which publishes Elle magazine and Woman’s Day.

Glo has the feel of a magazine and has navigation similar to MSN’s celebrity focused site Wonderwall, which BermanBraun also helped to develop.

Glo features vertical scrolling and focuses on topics including style, beauty, living and relationship content.

Microsoft said it developed the site because women spend more time online looking at lifestyle content than any other category. For MSN, lifestyle is one of the most popular content categories, reaching more than 8.2 million users a month.

Key features of the site include:

*Scrapbook- this feature allows users to save a page of content

*Sharing tools- allows users to share content via email, Twitter, Facebook and Windows Live

*Facebook- users can comment on articles they see on Glo using their Facebook logins

*Full-screen photo galleries

"Lifestyle is one of our top content priorities because of its popularity among consumers and advertisers, and Glo is a great addition to our lifestyle portfolio," said Scott Moore, regional partner executive producer, MSN

"The launches of the new MSN home page and Wonderwall have shown us the importance of delivering visually compelling and innovative designs and how quickly we can attract millions of customers using the distribution power of MSN."

Yahoo And NBC Benefit From Winter Olympics

Mike Sachoff — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:19:13 +0000

Yahoo Sports said today traffic to its site during the Winter Olympics has soared, beating out both NBCOlympics.com and ESPN.com.

According to comScore, Yahoo’s Winter Games coverage attracted 9.3 million unique visitors, more than NBC’s Olympics site (7.6 million unique visitors) and ESPN (8.4 million unique visitors). Yahoo Sports attracted over 17.5 million unique visitors over the week, more than double the visitors to its nearest competitors.

Meanwhile, NCBOlympics.com on MSN has generated more than 177.4 million page views, 414 percent more than the nearest competitor, according to comScore. NBC says visitors to its Olympic site spent more time and viewed more pages than visitors to Yahoo’s Olympic site.

On average, visitors to NBCOlympics.com spent 8.2 minutes per visit, 64 percent more than the five minute average for Yahoo users; and visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN averaged 27.5 pages per visit, more than seven times the 3.8 average pages per visitor for Yahoo.

While NBCOlympics.com leads in pages views and time spent, and Yahoo Sports leads in unique visitors, there is little doubt that the Winter Olympics have been good for both properties.

MSN Teams With NBC And Hearst On Local Video

Mike Sachoff — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:07:16 +0000

MSN Local Edition has struck content deals with NBC Local Media and Hearst Television.

Microsoft says the partnerships with NBC Local Media and Hearst Television will give MSN around 3,000 news video clips a week across 36 local media markets. The new video content will be available in January 2010.

Microsoft sees a big opportunity with local and video. Local online advertising is projected to grow to $10 billion by 2013. The company also notes that 62 percent of online adults have watched a video online and 35 percent have viewed a televsion show or movie online.

NBC Local Media will provide video clips from their "Locals Only" websites in Los Angeles, San Francisco/Bay Area, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York, Washington, DC, Connecticut, and Miami.

Hearst Television will offer local video clips in Albuquerque, Baltimore, Boston, Burlington, VT / Plattsburgh, NY; Cincinnati, Des Moines, Ft. Smith, AR; Greensboro / Winston-Salem, NC; Greenville, SC; Honolulu, Jackson, MS; Kansas City, Lancaster / Harrisburg, PA; Louisville, Manchester, NH; Milwaukee, Monterey, CA; New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Omaha, Orlando, Pittsburgh, Portland, ME; Sacramento, and West Palm Beach.

Related Articles:

> Microsoft Unveils Big Redesign Of MSN

> Microsoft Partners With Advance Internet On Local Ad Deal

> Bing Gets More Mobile Features in The US