SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Microsoft is rolling out a revamped MSN home page that incorporates its new Bing search engine and easy access to trendy online services Twitter and Facebook.
"Now is the time to clean up the mess on the Web; people need less clutter and less hassle to find what matters most to them," Microsoft corporate vice president Erik Jorgensen said in a blog post.
Microsoft hopes to enhance the popularity of MSN and drive traffic to Bing by weaving the search engine into home page features including shopping, travel, trends, people and "hot topics."
MSN's "smart design" includes news and entertainment from online sources such as MSNBC, Fox Sports, Hearst, and Hulu.
The home page integrates links to leading social-networking community Facebook and wildly popular microblogging service Twitter.
A "What's New" feature on the home page lets people channel in feeds from as many as 50 websites, including Pandora, Flickr, and Yelp.
"People no longer have to jump from site to site to update their status, tweets or see what their friends are up to; the new home page makes it easy to view and update in-line," Microsoft said.
Nearly 100 million people visit MSN monthly, and the home page has gained 10 million new users in past year, according to the Redmond, Washington-based technology titan.
Home pages offered by rivals Google and Yahoo! eclipse MSN in terms of popularity, according to industry statistics.
Microsoft is providing an online peek at the new home page at preview.msn.com and expects to complete the US rollout early next year.
