Where do you start your Internet day?

So where do you start?

When you first jump online, what’s your ‘leaping off’ point? For many of us, it’s the usual suspects: Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Wikipedia. Oftentimes, it’s the default that came pre-loaded with our operating system.

A forgotten portal (home page) that may be making a comeback is MSN. Microsoft’s recently made some noise in the interactive space with its Bing search engine. Since Bing’s US launch in June of last year, Microsoft has increased its US search engine market share. According to Wikipedia, Bing increased its ‘search share’ from 8 percent to 11.3 percent in the last 6 months of 2009.

Microsoft first got into the search game in 1998, but was quickly dwarfed by Google and its meteoric rise. I am an avid Google user for searching, but I’d really like to see someone push the mighty company to make the search behemoth even more competitive. Maybe Microsoft’s Bing is that answer. 

I’ve ‘tested’ other home pages over the years (iGoogle, My Yahoo), but I’ve stayed true to MSN.com. The others have certainly presented more appealing offerings from a usability, look and feel, and content standpoint, but MSN became familiar – and I’ve stuck with it.

I noticed something different during a recent visit to MSN.com. It was like someone moved my remote control – something just wasn’t right. A large ‘The new MSN is coming’ banner screamed at the top of the page: ‘CLICK ME’. I couldn’t resist.

So before I give my breakdown of this bright and shiny MSN.com, do me a favor and tell me 2 things:
1.    Where do you start your Internet day? Why?
2.    Check out the new (Preview) MSN and let me know what you think.

Stay tuned for next time when I’ll review the new and improved MSN.com.

Until next time,
Dan Naden