Top Notch!!! Watch out AOL!!
Written: Nov 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Features, Integration, Ease of Use, Crisp Design
Cons: Would like a little more personalization (shrinking buttons, adding account name icons, etc.)
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| bnpositive's Full Review: MSN Explorer |
Sorry for the duplicate review, but I just realized I put this under the wrong section. Got to get the word out, this is GREAT!!!!!!
Last night I just downloaded and upgraded to the NEW MSN Explorer browser/package. Let's just say I am extremely impressed.
For background's sake, I have been an AOL user for the last 6 years at least and always kept it around because I was overall happy with it. I went to a cable modem with @Home about 4 years ago in Nashville, TN and still kept AOL with the BYOA plan. I was hooked on the chat rooms and like that feature and the instant messaging. I moved to Indianapolis and didn't have cable access anymore =( SOB! CRY! WHINE!, and decided to try a free internet provider. I tried the majority of them and fell in love with Freewwweb. Well, many of you know what happened to them and Juno's not picking up the slack. (I've been using Juno for e-mail for about 6 years as well.)
Well, in all this time I'm on the same computer and it's time for a new one. There's not many bad things you can say when you know you're going to be paying for internet access and can buy 667Mhz, 20G, 64M, CD-RW, internet camera computer for about $200 after rebates. $400 of which came from MSN. Sure, I'll sign up!!! If I'm dissatisfied, I'll cancel and just pay the rebate back that wasn't used.
Since signing up, I've had a couple of concerns about connection time and taking awhile to dial-up, but since downloading MSN Explorer I've had no problems yet. The download was quick too, only took about 15 minutes on a 56K dial-up.
The interface is great!!! Their definitely going to start taking some business from AOL. Easy to use, great, smooth graphics, great features and awesome personalization.
Let's jump into the features:
E-mail
I like the idea of getting rid of the second program, Outlook Express, to access my e-mail. Now I can access it from any computer, which I knew you could before, but now you don't have to worry about not having a copy on your local computer if you access while away from home. The instant visible notification of new messages and how many unread messages is nice. And I know it's not much, but the spinning envelope letting you know you're receiving or sending mail is right out of "The Saint" and "Mission: Impossible". I'm all into nifty ideas! Another fabulous feature of their e-mail client is their address book. When looking at it you can tell if the MSN users are online and decide whether to just IM them or send them the e-mail. The other great feature of the address book is when you put your cursor in one of the address fields, your address books slides out from the right and let's you choose who you're sending the message too. As soon as you put your cursor in the subject or body, it slides back out of sight. OUT OF SIGHT!!!!!! FABULOUS! Your Outlook address book can also be easily imported into their system.
MSN Messenger Integration
Very nice to now integrate the instant messaging component directly in the browser. I'm addicted to this. I'm on AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and MSN Messenger. Can't wait till they agree to all share access. Automatic notification of when people sign on in your browser is also nice. Seems to have started producing the features that Yahoo! was getting to with their portal, which I still use and love.
Chat Rooms
I know you have had the ability to have chat rooms on the web for awhile now. But the great thing about AOL was the way you didn't have to connect to a website to chat. I know MSN's isn't quite the same, but they make it so easy, it seems that way. Another great feature. Another great feature of MSN chat community is what they call "Chat Radio". Listening to music through your computer while chatting is great. I know you can pop in a CD or run through some MP3's with WinAmp (which I also use), but it's a nice feature and further integration.
Media Integration
I've fallen in love with MediaPlayer 7 for awhile now. If you don't believe me read my review on it. The integration of Media Player directly in the browser is very nice and needed. Like I said before the "nifty" things impress me, when you play a video in your browser, the window rises up from the bottom of the control panel just like Jay Leno's TV.
Personalization
Features!! Features!! Features!!! Let's list them 1.)Money, 2.) Shopping, with personalized searching and preferences(very nice!!!), 3.)Music, 4.)Stocks, with instant alerts, 5.)News, 6.)Weather, 7.)Events, and creating your own webpage!! Now, I consider myself a pretty advanced webdesigner, I have my own business, but I know a vast majority of people don't want a website with all the bells and whistles, they just want their little place on the web to share their thoughts, interests, and photos. MSN Explorer makes it very easy!!! I like their integrating page building capabilities much more than anything I've seen through AOL, Tripod, GeoCities, AngelFire, etc.
Multiple Users
You can add 9 people to the same connection and have all of this personalization separate for each one!! I know this is pretty standard nowadays, but you can also sign off as one user and on as another without disconnecting from the connection to the web. Great!!! One feature I wish they would add and it will probably come is to be able to import your own image to represent your account instead of having to choose from one of their 12 pre-selected (I think it's 12). MSN Explorer's Member Center makes getting help and making adjustments a snap too. Also, like AOL you can access all your preferences and information by signing in as a "Guest" at someone else computer and account.
Well, I've rambled on and on now, but I hope this has given you a good overview of the product. One enhancement I'd like to see changed is the ability to shrink the size of the top interfact icons as well as be able to slide the left-hand navigation out of the way if desired. I know you can achieve this by opening another browser window, but the integration would be nice. I also realize you can open a standard browser window (MSIE, Netscape, Opera, etc.) using the same connection.
Now all I need to get MSN to do is let me upgrade to their DSL service without giving me headaches about the $400 rebate they've already given me for the dial-up.
Try it, I'll bet you'll like it.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
bnpositive
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Location: Indianapolis, IN
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 6 members
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