MSN changes the butterfly

November 6, 2009 | Paul Boutin | Comments | |

MSN Butterfly LogoMSN’s new home page, which you can see at preview.msn.com, is the first one that doesn’t look like it was designed by Microsoft. The new page has the same cheery look and feel as the Bing search box that perches at its top, waiting to grab your next search away from Google.

The MSN butterfly logo has been redesigned to match the new look. It’s pretty, but I doubt many users will notice the change. It still pushes the NBC peacock button in my brain, and I’m sure I’m far from alone.

msn23The big surprise is the new design of the “verticals” as they’re known to advertisers — News, Money, Sports, Entertainment, Lifestyle — plus a catch-all “More.” Microsoft corporate vice president Erik Jorgensen told me the biggest change is that they threw away 25 category links that had piled atop the page. They’re gone. Not redesigned. Gone.

The verticals are much more visible now. But more important, the page finally gets to breathe. I’m sure there was some serious office politics required to get many managers to give up their spot atop the home page.

Microsoft is “more evolutionary than revolutionary,” Guidewire Group analyst Jeremiah Owyang said in a phone call.” To be revolutionary, they should show you custom content based on your profile.” The Huffington Post already does.

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About the Author, Paul Boutin

Paul (paul@venturebeat.com) covers Apple & the iPhone, social networks & social media, digital music & video, and any crazy Internet story. Paul wrote and edited for Valleywag from 2006-2008, after several years with Wired magazine and Slate. He writes regularly for The New York Times' technology section and sometimes for Wired and The Wall Street Journal. He studied computer science at MIT in the early 1980s, and worked as a software developer and network administrator for 15 years before becoming a professional writer. Follow him on Twitter at @paulboutin, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • Finally Microsoft changes the msn butterfly logo. It was getting to boring to see the same msn logo whilst other Microsoft logos were changing.