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With customizable 7.0 versions, AOL and MSN hope to lure more users
11/01/2001
The latest upgrades to Microsoft's MSN portal and rival America Online's
desktop software have more in common than their shared version number:
7.0.Both represent redoubled efforts to lure customers to their high-speed
Internet services. Both aim to capitalize on personalized options, such as
instant weather and traffic updates for subscribers. Both will serve as
the platform for new subscription-based services – chiefly music downloads
and streams.
AOL
7.0
FRESH LOOK:
The new look puts local, community-focused features, shopping and resources
front and center.
RADIO:
The first built-in radio service is designed to make it easy for mass-market
consumers to access their favorite music online.
PHOTOS:
An upgraded You've Got Pictures allows subscribers to upload pictures directly
from any digital camera or scanner for viewing, sharing, storing,
and printing, and offers free, unlimited photo storage space and a
bundled pricing plan for both prints and online photos.
ONE-CLICK ACCESS:
This allows users to view high-speed audio and video content threaded through
AOL's Entertainment, Music, News, and Sports channels.
WELCOME SCREEN:
The new screen features local weather, news headlines, sports, headlines,
movies, dining, and weekend guides personalized for each
subscriber's hometown.
BOX
OFFICE:
Consumers can get online access to local entertainment events. Users can also
buy tickets for concerts, performing arts, sports, movies and
family-oriented events.
ENHANCED E-MAIL:
Users can see whether recipients in an e-mail message are currently online,
along with adding new screen names to their address books and
buddy lists with a single click.
INSTANT MESSAGE AND BUDDY LISTS:
Members can quickly expand an instant message conversation with one person
into a chat with multiple friends.
NEW
MEDIA PLAYER:
Support is provided for playback of members' own CDs in addition to nearly all
major audio formats, volume control, and the capabilities to
organize play lists.
MSN
7.0
MUSIC:
Subscribers can select new tunes based on their musical interests. Users can
also select an option to stay informed of album releases and other
information about their favorite artists.
PHOTOS:
Microsoft has simplified sharing, editing, and ordering print photos online.
My Photo provides a range of online photo features, including
online photo albums, prints, enlargements, cards, and personalized
photo gifts, as well as online photo-editing tools.
MESSENGER:
A revamped interface is integrated with MSN Chat, so subscribers can send
instant messages to other members of their MSN groups.
MEMBER DIRECTORY:
This allows subscribers to communicate even when they each use different
services, including MSN Chat, MSN Messenger, MSN Communities, and
MSN Hotmail.
NEWS ALERTS:
Subscribers can opt to receive news and production information. Users select
how they want to receive notifications, such as via PC, mobile
device, instant messaging, or e-mail.
HOME PAGE AND MY MSN:
A redesigned home page loads faster than before and includes a new My MSN,
which allows subscribers to personalize their Internet experience.
SEARCH:
MSN Search, when used with Internet Explorer 5.0 and later, supports a new
feature that will replace the error page that is displayed when a
user types a misspelled (e.g., ''www.microosoft.com'') or
nonexistent domain name into the browser's address. The user will
see a page of site suggestions that closely match the user's
intended search.
In this race, Microsoft is playing from a weak second position. AOL is
currently the choice of 31 million subscribers; MSN has about 7 million.
But MSN contends that it is making headway into AOL's turf.
For consumers, the heightened competition could translate into lower
costs. Microsoft is offering three free months of Internet access, then
a guaranteed monthly rate of $21.95 for unlimited service through Jan.
1, 2003. MSN began the promotion in response to AOL's July move to raise
monthly fees from $21.95 to $23.90.
As these two behemoths escalate their battle for dominance, look for AOL
to increase its use of parent AOL Time Warner's access to vast holdings
in television, magazines, and film.
Microsoft will counter by using its desktop operating system – the new
Windows XP – to push users into trying its own online features,
including Microsoft Messenger and MSN Music.
AOL 7.0
Within the larger, redesigned Welcome window, AOL 7.0 greets users with
weather and news information tailored to locale, based on billing
information. No longer must you enter a ZIP code to get a personalized
display.
Radio@AOL is the company's first streaming music offering, based on its
recent purchase of the Spinner.com music portal. Radio@AOL's 75 music
channels replace AOL Plus Radio, which had only six.
The company says it will upgrade the low-quality sound of these
stations, optimizing them for high-speed connections later this year.
Clearly, more music offerings are being set up with enhancements to the
AOL Media Player, which allows creation of playlists and CD listening.
This platform will serve as a springboard to future subscription music
services. A related shopping feature, AOL Box Office, helps users buy
tickets for sports, concerts, plays, and movies.
When checking e-mail, users will now see the AOL "running figure" icon
next to the names of friends who are online. This melding of AOL Instant
Messenger and e-mail programs is designed to help people choose the best
and fastest method of communication with friends, family, and business
associates.
The e-mail program in 7.0 is a tad smarter and more forgiving. After one
or two letters are typed into the recipient field, the program now
"auto-suggests" a list of possible e-mail addresses from your address
book. And AOL 7.0 will allow slightly larger messages before they're
turned into attachments.
As part of its efforts to push special programming designed for its
$31.01 monthly DSL Internet hook-ups, the old Multimedia Tower has been
scrapped for a High Speed AOL bar, which appears only if DSL, cable, or
other fast connections are detected. The bar lets users access an
expanded array of live and on-demand coverage from CBS News and the
National Football League. Other material comes from Time Warner's CNN,
HBO, the Cartoon Network, and E.
MSN 7.0
At the same time, MSN is ramping up its own high-speed offerings to
match AOL's DSL reach. Microsoft is expanding its broadband menu through
new agreements with Verizon, BellSouth and SBC Communications. This
service effort, with plans starting at $39.95, was introduced
simultaneously with Windows XP on Oct. 25. Eventually, it will cover 90
percent of the country's 45 major metropolitan markets, said Brian
Gluth, MSN senior product manager.
Like AOL 7.0, MSN's new portal has a broadband zone for accessing
specialized content, with Disney, MSNBC, ESPN, MSN Music, and other
partners as the suppliers.
MSN 7.0 provides a preview of Microsoft's Internet vision, broadly
described as the .Net strategy. Microsoft plans to tie all sorts of
customized services to portal membership. Inside the redesigned portal,
for example, users can configure news, stock, and traffic reports based
on their locations. Alerts can be delivered via Hotmail or the MSN
Windows Messenger pane.
Setting up a Carpoint alert allows real-time traffic reports to be
delivered to the PC, cellphone or PDA at specific times. Alerts from
eBay will allow quick notification of the status of auction bids.
Users of MSN's free Web-based Hotmail e-mail service will find better
filtering for spam, but they're also being thrown a new charge if they
want to store messages beyond 2 megabytes, about the size of two small
novels. Recently, Microsoft began offering Hotmail's 118 million users
the option to pay $12.95 a year to expand the storage capacity to 10MB,
about the same as 10 small novels.
And the newest incarnation of MSN Music presents more customizable
options for visitors. Subscribers can now select streaming music based
on moods or musical genres. Within My Music, users can also choose MSN
Alerts to tell them when their favorite artists are releasing new work
or appearing in concerts nearby.
"We've really focused on providing things the Internet was missing
before," Mr. Gluth said. "This is more of what users say they want."
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