Word: msn
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Plans for MSN Messenger were originally announced a year ago, with beta testing to begin August 1998. In the intervening months AOL's Instant Messenger user base has bulked up to about 25 million, more than the number of subscribers who pay to use AOL's main services. Still, as with all free Internet services, the numbers of active user accounts are undoubtedly inflated by the ease of registering. And despite these large audiences, no one has figured out how to make any money on the free chat service, except to note that the client program commands an outsized amount...
Microsoft announced Thursday that it had reverse engineered one of America Online's prize programs, the AOL Instant Messenger, and included the ability to exchange real-time messages with AOL users in its new MSN Messenger. The free MSN service can even monitor whether AOL users are logged in, mimicking AOL's wildly popular Buddy List service...
...Excel) has done particularly well: Sales of so-called productivity applications in general poured $2.9 billion into Microsoft's coffers, more than half its total income. Maffei also cited sales of Windows, improved sales in Asia (worth $570 million) and better performance from Microsoft's web ventures, such as MSN. Maffei also confirmed that Microsoft was considering creating a "tracking" stock for its Internet properties. MORE...
...Even Microsoft, famed for its stock-option millionaires, is losing talent to Internet easy money. Yesterday the Seattle Times reported that the company's head of MSN Access, John Ludwig, is taking an extended leave of absence. It's not clear that he's headed for a Net newcomer, but that's exactly what others before him have done. Last summer Peter Neupert, one of Microsoft's biggest new media advocates, left to run Drugstore.com, a site now backed by Amazon. MORE...
WEAKNESSES MSN, RIP. Still waiting for that next-generation portal, guys NEXT MOVE Loses in antitrust court, wins on appeal, goes on Web shopping spree...