Check out the new MSN.com website here

I think this is a fantastic advertising idea, and finally demonstrates that Microsoft does have some creative minds at work. When I first saw the website, and I’m sure some of you experienced the same, I actually froze for a second and thought “what is going on?”. I’m an Office 2007 user myself, and for that second, I actually thought I had Microsoft Word 2007, and the Ribbon Interface I really love open. And then it took me another second to realise that I could actually still click the search box and type something in, and wasn’t really stuck in Word or some other dream world.

There will certainly be 100’s of copycats around; it would be interesting to see how long this advertising technique will last, not only on MSN.com, but on the Internet as a whole. How willing will Webmasters be to allow entire homepage(s) to turn into an advertisment for a product? Or should I be saying - how much will companies be willing to pay to advertise products in such a way on high-traffic websites, compared to simple banners? On the other hand, will this technique simply remain used within company websites?

Before turning this blog entry into a mini-review (actually, maybe I should write one!), I highly recommend users upgrade to Microsoft Office 2007. It a fantastic new product with loads of (added) functionality - e.g. I can now save directly to PDF files - and the advertising team definitely deserves some credit for their work.

The Official Microsoft Office 2007 Website
Download a 60-day trial of Microsoft Office 2007

3 Responses to “MSN.com turns homepage into Microsoft Word 2007”

1. Woods Says:
   April 19th, 2007 at 7:54 pm

   I disagree entirely. I tried the trial not so long ago and I cannot stand the ribbon interface. Microsoft spent too many years staining the old interface in people’s minds. I cannot get familiar with the new interface and don’t think I will for a long time to come.

2. bla Says:
   April 20th, 2007 at 4:22 am

   msn sucks as bad as yahoo why cant they both learn from google and stop putting so much crap on their page

3. crooked pirate Says:
   April 21st, 2007 at 6:25 am

   thanks for the links and interesting opinion.

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