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Short for the Microsoft Network, an umbrella term for
microsoft's dial-up internet access and online content
business. Inspired by the success of aol in the early 1990s - modest
at that time -msn started life as a proprietary network
designed to attract people interested in electronic services and original
content.
Originally accessible only to windows 95 users who
dialled a local number for access to msn's servers, the service was
slow to attract content providers, with the result that subscribers stayed
away in their droves. Nonetheless, Microsoft persisted with its proprietary
approach until well into 1996, when it become clear that the world wide
web was where people wanted to be. Several changes of strategy quickly
followed, in which Microsoft began to offer internet access as part of a
series of differently priced and stablest incarnation is now based
principally on its free-to-all portal, a huge site localised for many
countries. Msn is now one of the biggest such sites in the
world, owing to the fact that most Microsoft browsers are pre-configured to
use msn as their home page. Many million of windows users, in particular,
are herded towards msn by default the first time they access the web. |
