MSN offers faster, simpler, more personal homepage for consumers in South Africa

MSN consumers will benefit from localised and up-to-date information with one-click access to the things they do most including searching, communicating and browsing for content - with a clean page design and easy to use personalisation tools. The new MSN homepage www.msn.co.za gives people the ability to be more selective in the content they want to access on the Internet, whilst providing a seamlessly integrated online experience.

Key new benefits include:

Faster access to online essentials
Technology enhancements on the new homepage, www.msn.co.za, allow the page to load more quickly, greatly improving the consumer experience. Whether people are looking for specific information or just browsing to see what's new, the speed of the new MSN homepage gives users easy access to key MSN information and communications services. Some of these services include MSN Search, MSN Hotmail, MSN Messenger and MSN Spaces, which allow people to find what they are looking for and communicate with the people that matter most to them - faster than ever before.

Providing personally relevant information that consumers want, when they want it
Want up-to-date local news? The new MSN homepage, www.msn.co.za, will feature MSN® News - a new way for people to discover the news that impacts their lives and matters most to them. MSN News searches thousands of news sources, updating the headlines every fifteen minutes, providing access to the information consumers want to read when they want to read it. MSN News is built on MSN Search technology, thereby providing access to stories and photos that are most relevant to peoples' search queries, as well as offering other information of interest such as the most popular news stories from the Internet.

On the new MSN homepage, consumers will be able to find the top headlines from across the globe as well as those locally relevant. They can also find headlines from top stories in the areas of Business, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, Science and Health, Local and World News.

A simple and uncluttered page is easier to use and navigate
The new MSN homepage has a clean, uncluttered design, making it easier for people to find what they're looking for without being distracted, and allowing them to customise the homepage to their liking. The new homepage also allows consumers to take Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds from blogs and news sites across the web and locate them on their personalised MSN homepage, providing an easy way to keep up to date with the Web content that interests them.

Adrian Hewlett, Managing Director of Habari Media, commented: "MSN have been providing software services to people on the Internet for ten years now and as the Web has become integral to our lives, what we want from the Internet and the way we use it is changing.

"We know from talking to our consumers that, with today's long working hours and information overload, they want more choice, relevancy and immediacy from their online experience. They want the ability to get the information they want, when they need it, and we're meeting this need with the new MSN homepage www.msn.co.za that delivers a faster, more personal and relevant content in a seamlessly integrated online experience."

The new MSN homepage will roll out to additional markets including Malaysia, Austria, Ireland, Indonesia, Singapore, Switzerland and The Philippines over the coming months.

The new homepage www.msn.co.za is the gateway to the world's leading free Web based e-mail service, MSN Hotmail, with more than 200 million users¹; MSN Messenger, the most popular instant messaging platform with more than 170 million users worldwide²; and MSN Spaces, which attracts more than 60 million unique users worldwide each month³.

As the global leader on the web with over 420 million unique users worldwide per month4, MSN is continually seeking new ways to deliver a better service to consumers and advertisers through improving its integrated best of breed MSN information and communications suite of Internet services worldwide.

To access the new MSN homepage go to www.msn.co.za


¹ MSN Internal data, July 2005
² MSN Internal data, July 2005
³ MSN Internal data, July 2005
⁴ MSN Internal data, July 2005