Another rebirth for MSN
Microsoft is officially renaming the Net access service as part of the company's continuing effort to turn itself into a Net portal.
Now known simply as MSN or the Microsoft Network--officially called "MSN Premier"--the service will now be named "MSN Internet Access." The name change follows Microsoft's move two months ago to label its portal effort, previously dubbed Microsoft Start, to MSN.
The announcement is the latest move in the deconstruction of the strategy that the company began nearly two years ago when it launched MSN 2.0, its Web-based Internet service.
The plan also included "free" services for the public that were mostly based on e-commerce.
The company was banking, along with the rest of the Net, that the real money will lie in advertising and e-commerce, not in charging for access. Now the idea is to compete with other top portals, such as Lycos, Excite, Yahoo, and America Online by trying to lure Net users onto their sites, where users would then receive marketing and pitches to buy online.
All those in the portal battle have been gobbling up companies that can provide specialty services aimed to lure and keep Net users, such as free email. Microsoft, for instance, bought Hotmail, giving it the largest free emailing service on the Net.
Toward that end, MSN has dropped its shows and put the other material, such as bulletin boards, onto the Net. Chat also is migrating there. In fact, besides dial-up access, customers paying $19.95 a month get little else, except a free subscription to Slate and discounts for other services for which Microsoft charges, such as investment services.
There had been some industry speculation that Microsoft would drop dial-up Internet access, which it gets from UUNet altogether. But at least for now, the company will stay in the dial-up business as another way to lure people into the Microsoft Web.
Today's renaming of the site also follows Microsoft's move two months ago to label its portal effort MSN.