Microsoft has revealed the final new look of MSN. Over 10 million visitors took the opportunity to test out the new site and around 80,000 of them even dropped in with their feedback. In the next 72 hours, Microsoft would be rolling out the New MSN to 425 million people in over 50 countries around the world that come to the site each month. In addition, people using Windows and Windows Phone 8.1 will have the option to update their devices to the New MSN apps starting today.
New MSN
Microsoft says that it built the New MSN on its Azure cloud platform. It makes use of more than 30,000 Azure cores for serving and 100 Terabytes of storage, reliability, and ongoing agility for a cloud-first, mobile-first world. A noticeable change in the new design is the top ribbon where there’s easy one-click access to favorite Microsoft services like Outlook.com, Office, One Note, OneDrive and Skype. Social services like Facebook and Twitter are also present.
Bing apps rebranded as MSN apps
Microsoft also announced the rebranding of Bing apps to MSN apps. According to the Microsoft Blog post :
“With today’s release, we now have one unified, consistent Azure-powered experience that spans the apps on your Windows 8.1 device to MSN in the cloud. While Bing will continue to provide search and intelligent experiences, now the apps will be branded to reflect their alignment with MSN as a premium experience for content, combined with personal productivity features. Aside from Bing Finance, which will now be MSN Money, all of the apps retain their existing names”.
Looking to deliver the best-in-class content for the New MSN, Microsoft has entered into a partnership with major Newspapers across the world. In the US, it has tied up with The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, AOL and Condé Nast. Worldwide, Microsoft has tied up with The Yomiuri Shimbun and The Asahi Shimbun in Japan; Sky News, The Guardian and the Telegraph in the United Kingdom, NDTV and Hindustan Times in India, Le Figaro and Le Monde in France
