Microsoft Revives MSN in Edge After 3 Years of Rebranding to Start
Microsoft has made the decision to revive the legendary MSN brand by reintroducing it within its news-related services, effectively replacing the modern ‘Microsoft Start’ that was launched a few years back.
This transformation signifies that the web homepage and applications previously identified as Microsoft Start will now revert to the MSN brand, featuring an updated version of the classic butterfly logo for today’s audience.
Recently, users observed a new MSN emblem cropping up in Microsoft Edge, prompting speculation about the return of the old MSN. Additionally, articles from the Microsoft Start platform began redirecting to MSN.com, indicating that a rebranding of Microsoft’s content services to the MSN name was underway.
The resurgence of MSN isn’t particularly shocking. Microsoft had never fully discontinued the MSN brand, as the MSN.com homepage remained active even after many of its services transitioned to the Microsoft Start identity in 2021. Nonetheless, this shift back to MSN represents a total reversal of Microsoft’s earlier strategy, moving its content services away from the Microsoft Start branding.
There is uncertainty regarding whether the Microsoft Start applications on iOS and Android will also be renamed to MSN, but it is likely that the content delivered in those applications will adopt the MSN brand.
Microsoft launched Microsoft Start—originally known as Microsoft News—in 2019. By 2021, Microsoft transformed it into a comprehensive platform offering various types of content, such as news, games, and video, with aspirations of creating a “super app”capable of managing all media types.
The original MSN debuted in 1995 and became synonymous with internet access for many users. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, MSN was integral to numerous consumer internet offerings by Microsoft, including MSN Messenger (which evolved into Windows Live Messenger), MSN Hotmail (which later became known as Windows Live Hotmail and now Outlook.com), and MSN Search (which was rebranded as Live Search, Windows Live Search, and eventually Bing).
In its current form, MSN serves as a news aggregator site and a collection of MSN-branded applications covering topics like weather, finance, sports, and more. The MSN.com homepage remains the default interface in Microsoft’s Edge browser, and users can conveniently access MSN services directly from the Taskbar on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.
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