MSN Homepages throughout Time

In 1995, “World Wide Web” tied for The American Dialect Society’s Word-of-the-Year: World Wide Web, also known as the Web, WWW, W3, refers to the newly prominent resource on the Internet. At the time, The American Dialect Society said, “It seems to us to be clearly the most important of these items and the one that will have the greatest future impact on both language and society.”

And in 1995, MSN wanted to use the World Wide Web to impact the world. MSN has changed dramatically since we launched our first homepage in 1995, and since this is a big week at MSN, we thought it would be fun to look at MSN homepages of times past and enjoy a glance at some of the most popular homepages from the last 14 years …

First, let’s ride the bus on the Information Superhighway and check out what the MSN homepage looked like when it first launched on November 20, 1995, about the same time as Windows 95 and Internet Explorer, when Bill Gates wrote his Internet Tidal Wave Memo:

In 1996, we offered a free custom start page and also an Internet tutorial for our customers who were still learning about the new world of the Web. Today, MSN is available worldwide in 46 markets, but when the new MSN Beta launched in 1996, MSN International spanned audiences in only six markets: the U.S. & Canada, Australia, France, the U.K. & Ireland, Japan, and Germany:

Ten years ago, the homepage launched a brand new design that placed communications services more front and center than the previous one. Now customers could navigate a range of new topic categories on the left, lead stories in the center, search on top, and also participate in e-mail & chat:

But the most exciting part of the story happened in February 2000 when the butterfly emerged as MSN’s logo for the very first time.

An internal email from December 1999 explains that the butterfly was chosen because a butterfly was a clean, vivid, colorful representation of the changes that were happening at MSN. The MSN butterfly represented the “everyday Web” that MSN was striving to deliver, and the butterfly was seen as an everyday creature that created a sense of friendliness and magic. The butterfly was grounded in the everyday, yet added a bit of amazement through connotations of transformation, freedom and flight.

Over time, the butterfly has proven to be widely recognized around the world; it’s right up there with Mickey Mouse and Coke in consumer surveys.

In January 2001, the page became more colorful, and we added seasonal components to the logo:

And in 2004, the homepage had another new look as George Bush cinched the presidency for a second term. The bulk of the page was defined by colorful modules, and people could get the latest news at the top corner of the page:

By the time the next U.S. presidential election came around in 2008, the homepage offered a visually enticing way to break news in real time and more effectively tell the presidential story to our customers. For example, the homepage editorial team used the red/blue map to show which candidate was gaining votes throughout the night. As results came in, the team used a blowout module that spanned the entire width of the page to reveal the winner. Inline video played in the blowout module, and the red breaking news banner detailed the results.

And because MSN has a joint venture with MSNBC, the two editorial teams worked in tandem throughout election night 2008 to deliver the election results first on the Web, beating the competition by as much as 8 minutes. Here’s a look at the page at 8 p.m. PST/ 11 p.m. EST when Barack Obama won the election:

It’s been fun to take a look back, but we’re even more excited to move ahead. Stay tuned for the next transformation of the butterfly …

Strolling down memory lane,

Stephen Cvengros
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, U.S. HOMEPAGE