Posted by Paul, Homepage Editor
Microsoft is preparing to unveil a new look and new features on the MSN UK homepage.
The new homepage is faster to download, adds more video content, more news and adds access to Facebook and Twitter as well as Microsoft services like Hotmail and Windows Live.
MSN’s redesign is the result of analysis and worldwide design and audience research and follows a new homepage on MSN in the United States and Brazil.
The new homepage has a simple and fresh design that fully integrates content from Microsoft’s new search engine Bing as well as a bold new search bar.
MSN Video Player, the site’s video on demand service where you can watch your favourite shows for free, plays right on the homepage for users with
Silverlight.
The new page re-launch also adds new features, incorporated to strengthen the quality of the user experience with simpler navigation, faster download and clearer imagery and to showcase the exclusive and unique content that MSN publishes every day. These include:
• Social media – an integrated social networking section that means users can access and update Windows Live, Facebook and Twitter directly from the homepage
• More news – an innovative news info-pane, with top headlines, breaking stories and weird and wonderful tales from around the world
• Bigger and better Hotmail – Hotmail inbox from the homepage, allowing you to be updated when new mail has been received
• Larger images – a new slideshow at the top of the homepage that provides access to up-to-the-minute news, exclusive editors’ picks and the latest new videos at the click of a button. Sports, Cars and Money also have a new spot on the homepage, while the simple alphabetical navigation bar locates MSN channels instantly
• New brand – a sleek new MSN logo that has been rolled out across the UK site, synching up with the new global brand of MSN
• Content – all the best from user favourites, such as Entertainment, Life & Style, Tech & Gadgets, Shopping, Him, as well as personal essentials like Local, Weather, Horoscopes and stock market updates
• Video – the ability to watch clips from within the homepage, plus access to the latest HD videos and VOD with MSN Video Player
Homepage team blog 
Surely you must realise how strongly people feel about the change and that they want the old page back. Please don\’t leave it any longer. Josephine Taylor again.
a load of shite why fix something if its not broken
I have made Google my homepage! I HATE the new one!
Not a great improvement…bit naf really. When are you going to sort out the bug in Hotmail? I\’m not the only one who\’s contact list keeps getting viagra messages sent. The contact list comes and goes…must be the viagra! Almost impossible to contact the Hotmail team (if there is one).
don\’t know where my comment went….no surprise really can\’t get into my facebook account either, l did say it if its not broke don\’t fix it, why why do companies and people in power never listen to us and assume they know whats best…….
sorry can\’t stand itwhy you people do not get a poll going for this sort of stuff instead of trying to find out which celeb is better with another celeb is beyond me get it right we use the site so it is our opion that counts not yours bring back bill gates
Changing mine now,, will check back and see if its been changed back before I use it as my home page.. windows live! what do i want that for.. every time I hide it it comes back next time I open my homepage,,, rubbish!!
Your homepage is changingPosted by Paul, Homepage EditorPaul – do the decent thing & resign. This is an epic fail of the highest order.
This new home page is rubbish, it is a lot slower. The reason i chose msn as my home page is because i liked it how it was, then you change it. Well it is time for me to change my home page now. Goodbye.
rubish yahoo here i come
My second comment…after using this homepage for a little while..I find it hard on the eyes..all that white space is getting to me.
fuckin…fuckin …fuckin …helllllll……………….. why do you lot fuck about with things when they are workin perfectly well … ? I chose MSN because it was different…and in my opinion better than YAHOO\’s homepage for instance …. …now you have just copied and ripped off their home page…and now there is no fuckin choice ….. ! Why didn\’t you have an opt out and leave everyone who was happy with what was already there and working well…. with a choice .???????? No ….. You C****S always have to fuckin justify your existence ..by giving us .." the new and improved version " which never is of course … AND….no one ever fuckin asked for in the first place …AND as someone said previously..it looks like it was a schoolchild who designed this… !!!!!!Well I hope your fuckin happy …\’cause…………………………………….. I A\’INT … !!!!!!
I hate it. the white is painful on the eyes and I just hate the whole thing. It looks like a page that is still under construction.
What a load of rubbish, it doesn\’t work \’at a glance\’, the news headlines aren\’t as easy to get through, it looks half loaded and at the same time it\’s too busy, too much going on. You have tried to put too much on the page.It\’s no good trying to tell us this new page is better when it clearly isn\’t, I have had it now with MSN and microsoft, time for me to go and see Mr Apple, Ipad – here I come……… 🙂
dear oh dear i think some people need to get out more, the page nice, neat very simple and does the job, did not see the point to change from the old one, but thats my view, could you do something about the white, like shade it down a bit Thanks.
Sure the old page wasn\’t that great, but now what shite have we got. Did the guy who set this up work for one of your rivals!!??. I\’ve read every comment and it\’s like you have 2 in your favour. Doesn\’t that say something? If it isn\’t changed back in the next day or two, then add one more to the list of deserters. Do yourself a favour and listen to the public consensus and get rid of this slow working crap NOW!!!!!!!!!!
It is so hard to distinguish between the lines now, I am not going to bother anymore. What stupid team of idiots designed this rubbish. MSN you have made a lot of people very angry and think you should revert back to the original uncluttered design. We all can\’t be wrong in what we are seeing.
Far too difficult to read. put it back the way it was. Strange pages destroy user confidence… dont you guys ever get that. for me I will change my browser.
yep .. cool smooth new look … just take a while to get used to new things … but I like it
prefer the old site by far i will now change my homepage because of this.
Biggest load of tripe I have ever seen, why mess with something that was working okay in the first place?This new layout is so hard on the eyes and has nothing to make it stand out.My homepage will now be changing to YAHOO until you see the light and change it back.
DON\’T LIKE THE NEW PAGE…HURTS THE EYES ….WILL BE CHANGING MY HOMEPAGE.. ASAP
most of the images won\’t load for me but they used to on the old version. it\’s also much slower and buggy when you click on any hyperlinks, some of which are just broken and take me back to the home page. overall i think the new look is less sophisticated although maybe i\’d like it better if it worked like the old one used to
Hate it!
hate it.
Surely when something is `new` it should be `improved` , a bunch of school children could have done better. Just put it back as it was please or at least give us the choice
why fix something thats not broke bring back the old page
Farewell MSN I have just switched over to AOL as my home page, will check back next week to see if the idiot editor Paul has received to boot and things are back to normal
After using MSN UK as my home page for years I have to say you have truly screwed this \’new\’ home page. I absolutely hate it and now have to drill down various menus to find the information I want, ironically this info was previously instant such as Market Data (FTSE). I also feel that when compared to the old homepage the old version was more visually defined, allowed the user to hit the + and – icons to adjust the number of articles etc, this has now all gone! WHY? I find the new homepage a totally undefined \’grey water\’ of a homepage which is not easy on the eye, difficult to navigate and far from user friendly custom. I have not even experienced the benefits TOUTED by this change. STRONGLY SUGGEST YOU PUT THIS BACK TO WHAT IT WAS! It would seem to me that you MSN UK folks have made this change for????????? change sake, after reading other users responses why the hell did you change something that worked so well?
It\’s dreadful! PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK a.s.a.p. I agree with Nigel – TOO MUCH IRRELEVANT INFORMATION TO BE SCROLLED THROUGH. Where\’s the instant info like the FTSE???? The movement of the FTSE is important information which the new homepage doesn\’t show at all. Please give us back the easy to navigate old homepage.
Everything is jumbled, nothing is immediately clear and it is a lot less accessible than what it used to be! If it\’s not broke, don\’t fix it!!
Quite frankly I think there were more important things for MSN to improve on. In actual fact as a web designer I was very happy with the MSN home page and always found what I wanted and navigation is key to any website.What I think MSN should tackle as a matter of urgency is the new pages and other various stories. More indepth new would be great from MSN. And also instead of simple comments let us debate issues of news.But alas you made the changes and I have to say they are good and give the site some room for play whereby I guess the otherone the designers probably felt hemed in with. Nice start.
its awful,change it back or give us the choice of old or new style
I fully agree with "S". Why oh why do you guys have to fix something that isn\’t broken!
Well I like it,it loads faster and everything you want is there and much quicker.Much more modern less fussy !
I 100% AGREE WITH EVERYONE THE OLD VERSION WAS USER FRIENDLY AND NOW EVERYTHING IS ALL OVER THE SHORE OR SHOULD I SAY JUMBLED.MORE PICTURES FROM TOP TO BOTTOM USED TO DO THE TRICK FOR EVERYONE…EVEN FIRST USERS OF INTERNET.LIKE EVERYONE WE NEED THE VISUALLY DEFINED VERSION.
I prefer the new version much brighter
Load of c***. if it aint broke dont fix it. I will be changing my home page instanter!!!
If the five half wits at the top of this page are responsible for this almighty cock up I suggest they start look for new employment!!!
Goodbye I\’m back to Google
Agree with most comments ,don"t fix it when it"s not broke . Please M.S.N. change it back !.
Everytime I open hotmail, I get a boxed advert in the right top corner that I cannot seem to get rid over..Very Irritating indeed !!!!
I thought it was just my employer who employed people who wasted money trying to justify their positions.
Please go back to the old one. I find this not very user friendly at all.
Veronica Kirk Did I have a say in this change? Why can\’t you leave things alone? I am really annoyed by all the adverts. Why don\’t you change the reporters who refer to everyone in their reports by their last names – condescending and unecessary.
I do not like this at all, why not leave it alone.
Further to my comments yesterday, why does everything seem to happen much slower on this \’new\’ homepage. It\’s nothing but a poorly executed \’makeover\’.
Why have you wated money employing an idiot to change something that was perfectly okay The new look is unreadable and full of adverts I will be changing to Google Bye Bye
It is more like a kids page. It\’s the same info swapped around. Change it back or Im off to another home page.
Oh yet another company that thinks the world should be "Americanised"……. you are a bunch of idiots, the new page looks like a 3 year old has designed it, bye bye MSN, this really is the final straw, I hope you, the americans are the cheap flight spammers (who pay you not to be deleted) get on very well……
i ont mind the layout too much but the amount of time it takes to load?this ridiculousi\’ll be changing my homepage to google and you won\’t find me coming back for news or anything of the sort, in fact i don\’t see the point in hotmail anymore when gmail has google docksmsn- if you\’re going to change, do it for the better.
how does easier to navigate and read become kids pages? the easier something is to read the easier it is to process. people in this country find the smallest thing to complain about. its obvious they have never had real problems like being hungry all the time and having nowhere to live. get a life! kendo
why change it – it was great as it was , easy to read & find news , its all over the place now , why change something thats not broken !! I shall be changing my homepage
Now loads much slower – layout confusing and dumbed down – awful – will be going elswhere unless you revert back
What the **** – stop messing with things, get rid of Bing, bring the old page back, stop it being so slow, and sack the person who\’s idea it was. Stop changing things that work – and stop putting advertising in our faces every minute of every day.
TERRIBLE design – no stories/items "grab" you because it\’s all just similar, bland text. Loading time is a joke. As for "worldwide analysis and consultation", come off it! You\’re not kidding anyone. NOBODY has suggested the re-design is a good thing, it\’s just what you decided you wanted to do. I am now changing my homepage to the BBC News page. Goodbye.
Page jumbled and very slow to load. Too many fancy bits and stupid social networking tools, plus Bing is rubbish! I\’d demand that the page design is returned to the way it was, but this is MSN we\’re talking about, they never listen anyway! Instead of making pointless changes to the homepage Paul, MSN should be concentrating on making hotmail less vulnerable to hackers.
If it ain\’t broke, don\’t fix it. There\’s nothing more frustrating than change for change\’s sake. The re-design is awful and I\’m changing my homepage too.
so the boss pulled rank and his 8yr old was allowed to play with the frount page…. PUT IT BACK…..PLEASE…… Some of us liked it the way it was……… by the look at the comment a lot of us……..
ok so now our names are included and not our on line names………..so no private comments any more……..not good
This homepage change is awful, put it back how it was. If it ain\’t broke don\’t fix it. It comes over as a jumbled mess. It was fine and well ordered just as it was, I will be looking for a new homepage now as just hate your new one. I have recommended your previous homepage to family and friends for some time but will not be doing so with your new one. Will probably now switch to the Opera browser (its faster than explorer and more stable) and use their homepage.
Microsoft, just look at the percentage of people that hate this change then change it back. However you will probably behave like any other large corporation and ask for our views and then ignore them. Goodbye Microsoft.
As usual someone with nothing better to do decided he would show everyone at MSN how clever he was at upsetting people, congratulations he succeeded, now sack the idiot and restore the old version. Windows Live has been and is continuing to be intrusive into our surfing habits, I for one am fed up with emails and messages appearing from unknown Windows Live "members", which I treat as SPAM. So much for protecting us from it, MSN are contributing to its expansion. Unless there is a radical change back to how things use to be I also will be using other home pages. NOT ALL THINGS ARE BLACK AND WHITE MSN…………….
why can\’t you leave things alone, if it\’s not broke don\’t fix it. horrid, horrid, horrid!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you don\’t like the answers, don\’t ask the question. Like everyone else, as soon as we get used to something, you change it. WHY?? This page is far too slow to load. Not impressed at all.
Extremely slow when loading. I was happy with the way things were!
Takes an age to load, is this progress?
So slow , there was nothing wrong with it before so why change it?. Was someone bored in their office?
I\’m now changing my homepage, it looks so bland.
New homepage – dreadful – extremely slow, bring back the old one – change for change sake – waste of time and waste of money.
Amateurish and bland looking-plus takes too long to load. Not an improvement at all!
You have made a major mistake with this homepage please return the old one.There is no ftse index,no horoscope,news information is sketchy,you have to look for all this info,with the old page current information was posted clearly and informative.Why fix it if its not broken.
This rubbish page still here – get rid of it or people will leave MSN
This homepage is more like a tumbledown rotting cottage than anything resembling home. Its awful!!!! Takes forever to load and is a jumbled mess. Bing is a joke…utterly useless. If things aren\’t changed back then I\’m off to another site. TOTALLY AND UTTERLY GUTTED!
nice,but to slow in loading up,the old one was a lot faster
this is absolutely awful and so slow I think its crashed end up double clicking and end up back at square one.Its even slow going back a page.Sack whoever thought of this rubbish and goodbye from me until it is changed back
New homepage is rubbish. WHY change?? It is so slow and causes internet explorer to NOT RESPOND many times. If this is here to stay then i will be having a new homepage.
It is terrible,I can\’t find things as quickly,the layout is all over the place. When you click on hotmail it doesn\’t open it in a new tab and keep your home page open. It looks like it has been done for 10 year olds. Go and look at the BBC homepage and get Google as your search engine Bing is worse than useless. If it doesn\’t improve I am off to the BBC or something that at least is for adults.
You are supposed to be improving the system not buggering it up as now its really slow, painfully slow. Didnt you think to test the page before you went live with it, its not rocket science you know. Who uses bing, its rubbish too, use google. If you carry on like this you wont have any customers as they will all drift off, sort it today by bringing back the old page or have you deleted that.
So glad I read these comments – I thought there was something wrong with my computer. It is painfully slow to load and I also find Bing useless. Google is best.
The new homepage is so slow I will be looking at alterantive browsers. If you cannot make improvements faster then don\’t make them, it is only going to lose you support! I want a home page that loads fast, accurately and reliably, if any of these criteria are missing I will always look for alternatives, of which there are several.
Wow Just wanted to say a big thankyou to every one the new home page is fantastic
Julie -Ann are you talking about the same thing as everyone else here ???? What, thanks for making it take three times longer to check your emails ???? Fantastic!!
You all fail to realise that MS can access the fastest pc\’s going to test the new pages on. I don\’t think MS has ever considered that average people can\’t afford to keep upgrading to catch up to their bloatware\’s needs
I don\’t like the changes to the layout, it pushes the information in which I am interested too far down the page and makes it slower to access. It gives too much prominence to stuff I consider to be of little or no value and not enough to serious news and financial info. Can the layout be modified?If it cannot then I will not be back, I will find another site which fits my needs.
Hi guys i know the new look is crap and have complained no end, at least it is a bit quicker than yesterday, just need changes to the page,Can anyone help me with a small problem, I have a short cut on desktop for msn, when i click on it to open it opens up in a minimum window rather than Maximum, anyone know how to change the window size to max?Cheers Carl
Why change?? if it aint broke dont fix it!!!! excuses sound like something from a politician,,,,, UTTER RUBBISH>>>>> off to yahoo see you again when common sense returns…
At least the page is now loading a lot faster – thanks for fixin that but their remains issues..the page layout is bad, too much white and please return the option to customise, your users would then be able to repair whats been done by your \’designers\’. As for bing, what makes you think that this is any good, it\’s very average at best and compared to google, not good at all. Fix the page and then fix bing..
you could not care less what people want,put it back as it was,EVERYONE SHOULD LEAVE MSN UNTIL YOU DO.
Well, what do we know, we are only the users and the new home page sucks!I do not suppose you will take any notice of the high percentage of people who have objected to this rubbish and begged, pleaded, implored you to revert to the previous page, typical "Nanny MSN knows best and what is good for you", Well, I for one am off, now using Google as a homepage. Let me know when ( if ever you see sense!
Well, I said earlier in the week that I wpould wait to see if you changed it back and have been using google intermittently. I find the new page faster now than it was but the layout and whiteness is still appalling!! I will reserve my final decision untiil monday to see if you listen to us and bring back the other page. I t would be helpful if, unlike the politicians, you would give a straight answer to a straight question- Will you or wont you bring back the other page? Just using platitudes and cliches does nothing to help the situation.
They have no real intention of listerning to the populace opinion and no interest in reinstating the old screen. They might twiddle here and fiddle there but no one has ever told them that..you can\’t polish a turd..and as such they will end up having s#it on their hands.
THE CLOCK ON MSN POSTERS PAGE IS SHOWING WRONG TIME SORT IT
DONT TELL ME NO ONE IS CLOCK WATCHING
would love to have the options/tools tab back, so i can change my colour scheme and take of the bits that don\’t interest me like sport etc, like i could before the change of the home page Where oh where have they gone.
theres no add to favorites icon there.