MSN finally modernized

[Cliff_Simonds]

I'll probably get sh*t stormed for this but... I'm an avid Bing user and today I just found out microsoft will be updating their MSN site and have a MSN preview (http://preview.msn.com/en-us/) out. I've tried it out and it's really good and have already set it as my homepage in FF on Ubuntu and IE11 on Win7. It's almost like Yahoos homepage but less cluttered and guaranteed safer, and customizable like Google news is, but being microsoft better privacy.

[user1397]

it sorta looks the same to me as before...

and i don't know what you mean by microsoft = better privacy, never heard anyone say that

EDIT: nvm read your post better and saw the link. yes it does look way better and modern. I still don't know anyone that uses msn anymore, let alone bing. May I ask what is it about bing and msn that you find so helpful/useful? As compared with the more accepted standards, like Google?

[Cliff_Simonds]

May I ask what is it about bing and msn that you find so helpful/useful? As compared with the more accepted standards, like Google?
I like the way bing presents the search results with pictures, wiki's , people also searched for, maps, weather and related searches offered without extra searching. And what I like about MSN news is in my first post. Microsoft let's you decide what if any "tracking" advertising will be shown. Of course I use an adblocker on all my browsers in win 7 and ubuntu, but I've never saw an ad in outlook, calendar or onedrive. Also microsoft is fighting the US government to protect user data, where as Google wants to sell it, and also is fighting against it in the "right to be forgotten case". Google only "DOES EVIL". And yes I use google also too when searching and need a second opinion.

[Erik1984]

Much better. After logging out of Outlook/Hotmail you are redirected to this page so it better look good ;) The current version looks really outdated. A bit weird to see the brand MSN still being used. I know it is/was more than just the messenger application but that's what most people will associate MSN whit. At least where I live.

[EuclideanCoffee]

When will Ubuntu.com do the same?

Just kidding. :)

[Cliff_Simonds]

When will Ubuntu.com do the same?

Just kidding. :)

NO. NO. Don't back down now. The idea is good, maybe not for ubuntu.com but a linux news centralized site. I've already set msn up for my interests, including linux and ubuntu and utopic unicorn and windows 9. But come to think of it, it's ironic that I'm using a microsoft search engine and site to find linux news and information.:p

[EuclideanCoffee]

NO. NO. Don't back down now. The idea is good, maybe not for ubuntu.com but a linux news centralized site. I've already set msn up for my interests, including linux and ubuntu and utopic unicorn and windows 9. But come to think of it, it's ironic that I'm using a microsoft search engine and site to find linux news and information.:p

I think Planet is Linux's decentralized solution to this "problem." But I can sympathize. Sometimes I would like to open a browser and have a homepage that feels like an MSN.com page.

[mastablasta]

Also microsoft is fighting the US government to protect user data, where as Google wants to sell it, and also is fighting against it in the "right to be forgotten case". Google only "DOES EVIL". And yes I use google also too when searching and need a second opinion.

could not disagree more. Microsoft is fighting to keep users data installed in cloud servers outside of US because they know if they can't guarantee that they will loose business clients which are their most important revenue source. this is user data as in their texts and pictures.

google is selling data but not in the way MS is fighting against. not in the way that advertizers actually get you email look it through and then decide what add they will serve you. no! advertisers pay google and google promieses to serve their add to relevant cusotmers. now to fin otu which those are it scans wehat people do and serves them appropriate adds. which is actualyl good because the way it was before was that you would get a lot of spam and irrelevant stuff served. things that are of no intereset to you.

as for the "right to be forgotten" - this was a stupid rule. public archives are nothing new so why should people be removed from search? in other words if i want to check someone out and his shady past i can still go to local library (or their website) and browse articles with their name in it., yet I can not do this from google page? what sort of silines is that? also don't want you personal data online? don't put it there.




I still don't know anyone that uses msn anymore, let alone bing.

here we have about 3000 computers prelaoded with win 7 and 8. all have bing preset as search engine in IE and almost all people use it.

[Cliff_Simonds]

@mastablasta,
it's not so much the adds in gerneral, it's the tracking even when I state I don´t want to be tracked for advertising purposes:crwdcntrl, doubleclick, crsspxl, and scorecardresearch(tracking is necessary when for in-site movement eg. ubuntu forums). I use adblockers on all my web browsers, and self destructing cookies on firefox anyhow, because of security, especially when downloading(turned off on sites I absolutly trust) because it hides the fake download buttons.
Here in Germany we can even put a "keine werbung" sticker on our postbox so the postman and people who put ads in, don´t -- this should be respected in internet too as a matter of choice.
As with google looking at emails for keywords, as with real mail there should be a post secrecy and right to privacey, only the judicial system(with court order) or the military for soldiers in war time(to filter out info that could help the enemy, troop movements etc.) should have that right and not a megalomaniacal company.

[PondPuppy]

@Cliff_Simonds: I sympathize, and yet the matter of internet tracking, privacy, and security is not -- in my mind, at least -- something you can pin on Google. They track users, but so do a lot of other services. Hundreds of them. (I'll bet Diligant grins like a cat every time somebody bashes Google -- because Diligant (sic) is doing the same tracking, and they'd rather the spotlight stay on Google instead of them.)

I think the basic structure of the Internet was not designed for anonymity. It was designed for sharing information (military-academic information on Arpanet), not hiding it. To my mind, the Internet is pretty much like a city sidewalk. It's quite hard not to be seen and photographed on a sidewalk, and quite difficult to be sure your conversation is not overheard.

If you don't want to be tracked, you have to pretty much take responsibility for it yourself. Luckily, there are a number of browser extensions which selectively disable Javascript, cookies, and block trackers. You can go as far as using anonymous proxies and encrypted email, but I don't.

[craig10x]

Yahoo's home page still looks much nicer...which is why i use it as such ;)

[Cliff_Simonds]

Yahoo's home page still looks much nicer...which is why i use it as such ;)
Like I said in my first post, "it's almost like yahoos", but more secure(if you've been reading softpedia lately, there is no such thing as absolutly secure)and less cluttered, but be sure I really like the yahoo homepage too, just don't find their search engine too hot. Yahoo has had the number one looking homepage since Marissa Mayer took over as ceo in 2012, she has made real good decisions. It was about time microsoft updated MSN. It's been the same since 2005 when they reorginized it for Windows Live services. That's why I have been using Bings homepage the last couple of years, new picture everyday and at the bottom, a few headlines, nothing great but streamlined, I had MSNs´ My MSN set to the only 3 topics that interested me, and some of them were hardly ever updated especially microsofts own that hasn't been updated in over 3 years. Typical microsoft, they start something good but don't develope it, then some other company wants to develope it further, THEN Microsoft screams "COPYWRITE INFRINGEMENT!!!" or what ever. I hope they stay on the ball with this one.

Oh and one more thing about Yahoos homepage, being that I only have HD2000 intergrated graphics on my laptop, their homepage was is very cpu active on windows 7 specially the weather, but with Ubuntu I have absolutly no problem because there are not as many services or daemons running in the background, like antivirus for example. I have 8 gig ram that's more than enough but what people don't think of it's the cpu tha matters for graphics, the next time I buy a computer or laptop, I'm going to pay more attention to the cpu(most important) and/or gpu(if applicable), I can always add more RAM or upgrade the HDD to SSD.

[Mike_Walsh]

I'll probably get sh*t stormed for this but... I'm an avid Bing user

Sounds to me as though you have a fairly good idea of what to expect, then..!

No, seriously though. You're right, in that most people associate MSN with Messenger. I lost track of the number of times I attempted to turn it off in XP, only to have the damn silly mini-splash screen rear its stupid head, usually right in the middle of something important...

(Of course, unlike Linux, in XP you couldn't just switch to another desktop on the spur of the moment, and get away from it...)

I think it was another of those annoying Microsoft ideas; integrate it so closely into the system that if you tried to get rid of it, you would make the system so unstable that you'd have to do a re-install.....and hey, look! There it is....back again.

One of the first things I did in XP, YEARS ago, was switch to Firefox. It was fast, it was reliable, and it was SO much easier to use than IE6 (and then IE8...)

I never had ANY time for Bing; always used Google, even in the early days. And once I discovered Chrome, I just switched to Google, totally. It's easy enough to turn off all the auto-tracking features, once you know what you're doing...

But it's like a lot of things; whatever 'floats your boat'. And the decision of whether or not to use Bing, is exactly like that of using Linux; freedom of choice.

Regards,

Mike.

[Cliff_Simonds]

Mike,
On my system chrome has been slower then IE11 until the last update, now it's blazing when I use win7, in ubuntu I prefer FF. What'S great with Chrome and FF is when you have to reinstall or upgrade your system, you just have sign in and sync and POW all settings and tabs are there again. I was just using the my msn site once in a while, but bing homepage was what I preferred until now. "I" think other than win7 bing is the best microsoft "product" to date. The problem with IE is they fell asleep at the helm until netscape became the mozilla foundation(1998) and then Chrome(2008) which blew'em all away in speed and security. But with IE11 microsoft finally got the spin(english in pool) and a fast product. I realize as long as there are enough people with criminal energy not even my beloved ubuntu is 100% safe. The advantage with ubuntu is it only takes me about 1-2 hours to reinstall and set up every thing instead of 1-2 days.
Back to MSN, what I like about it is: it's now set up kinda like a online info center with all my preferences no matter whic OS or which browser I use, like Yahoos' and Google news, Yeah it's set up for touch(like moszt sites these days), but it works great with a mouse too(one could say biHIDual(Human Interface Device)).

[CantankRus]

I like the way bing presents the search results with pictures, wiki's , people also searched for, maps, weather and related searches offered without extra searching. And what I like about MSN news is in my first post. Microsoft let's you decide what if any "tracking" advertising will be shown. Of course I use an adblocker on all my browsers in win 7 and ubuntu, but I've never saw an ad in outlook, calendar or onedrive. Also microsoft is fighting the US government to protect user data, where as Google wants to sell it, and also is fighting against it in the "right to be forgotten case". Google only "DOES EVIL". And yes I use google also too when searching and need a second opinion.
No problem with anyone using MSN.com or bing but find your microsoft v google comments naive and inaccurate.