Is The New MSN.com Really That Bad?

Four months ago we were given an opportunity to preview the new design of MSN.com. I personally gave it the thumbs up because it was my opinion that the new design was modernized in all the right ways. The old design was very "Web 1.0" and I considered it good that it was ditched for something more streamlined and useful.

The new MSN.com design has now been deployed, and here are some of the comments from the linked article above (these are all PCMech readers):

This new MSN.com SUCKS!!!! How do I get the old back? I will never use this.. I will switch and never come back… get me back to the original version….

This new home page was thrust on me without my consent. I am trying to get a new email address so I don’t have to look at this ugly home page

This looks too much like it’s trying to be yahoo. and i have to go to new tabs and pages to see what i could of seen just on one page. i don’t think it’s a matter of people not being able to deal with change. i think it’s a matter of how convenient the old page was, everything i wanted to know was there on one page, most of the time i didn’t even have to scroll down.

With these absolutely horrendous changes I will be going elsewhere. Give me back the blue background where all the important headlines were right there for me to see.

Basically put, everybody hates it.

What are MSN.com’s two biggest mistakes with the new design?

There is no option to get the site to revert back to how it used to look.
There are no options to move things where you want them to be.

Yahoo.com for example does have the ability to "go retro". Without any requirement to sign in, on the top right of that site you can click Page Options and then Switch to compact view. In the same menu, you can click Move News on Top.

If the new MSN.com design had similar user options, I don’t think people would be nearly as vocal in their disapproval.

The only way to get an MSN.com looking the way you want now is to go to my.msn.com, login with a Hotmail account and then you get the options that matter. Boxes can be moved anywhere you want, content can be customized easily and it works out quite nicely.

I’m still of the opinion the new design of MSN.com is better than the old.

My question now is this:

Is there anyone out there that thinks the new design of MSN.com doesn’t suck (or is MSN.com now really that bad)?

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30 thoughts on “Is The New MSN.com Really That Bad?”

mark king says:

January 4, 2024 at 11:31 pm

the “new/improved” MSN format sucks! the screen moves almost every time i try to click on and look at something, and i end up being shown something i wasn’t trying to go to. the entire set-up screams “click-bait” for utter trash that no one wants to see. no other website i have EVER been on moves & does this. and it has ads that cover content that cannot be removed once it pops up. WTF?

Al says:

January 21, 2023 at 3:18 pm

I too hate the new MSN mobile format. I can’t even believe someone could miss it this badly.

X says:

November 26, 2022 at 1:20 am

Can’t comment on anything with MS they delete it yet I see hundreds of reaction comments all the time! Are they paid? I’m suspecting something nefarious going on here and it’s known the elites have deep pockets.

bob ko says:

January 26, 2022 at 2:41 pm

broken links everyday, they suck so bad. So disappointed.

LB says:

January 10, 2022 at 7:50 am

The headlines and stories do not match; it’s a constant bait and switch of interesting headlines and unrelated garbage stories. I will be looking for an alternate homepage that will hopefully do a better job of posting stories that actually match the headline.

Paul says:

October 18, 2021 at 7:15 am

Well that’s the end of me using msn.com. This new webpage sucks bad. At least give your users an option to change it back to the way they want see it and use it. I wont be coming back after this one.

yomarce says:

December 9, 2021 at 10:31 am

I don’t know how it was one decade back, but MSN News suks so bad. I was making a list of its bad features, but I just decided to not use it anymore

Douglas says:

October 17, 2021 at 11:29 pm

I can’t believe how bad this is, I have always used msn as my home page, this sucks so bad I’m leaving it goodby msn.

LIAM KEMING YONG says:

February 20, 2020 at 6:13 am

Shame on you Microsoft for letting your customers know you suck !
(former Microsoft admirer)

bruce says:

September 5, 2021 at 8:12 pm

they seem to want to add advertising to such an astronomical level that attempting to find out about Destruction paths of Massive destruction AND adding viewing area of 2 inches to read articles there is 7 inches of advertising that has to be there or endured by reader ALMOST LIKE Yeah were evacuating the city and adding an relocation tax or we bump u and have your car towed Basically start walking now or just comply and be quick

mila says:

October 18, 2021 at 4:07 am

New page is really bad!

chris says:

December 1, 2017 at 1:34 pm

problem with msn news feed .can no longer make comments …how pathetic msn.com is .I believe they get tired of hearing all the negative comments for being so left leaning ,Thing is they are suppose to be nonbiased but yet every article on president trump (anyone with a 401k loves him just for that lol) is 99% negative . just say’in

dan says:

September 15, 2017 at 7:18 pm

yea i’ve had MSN for over 15 years now!! but apparently since I cannot comment on a ONE SIDED issue, MSN can now go!!

Kathy says:

December 1, 2016 at 9:49 pm

My e-mail goes down every single day. The browser drops sites every single day. Msn wants me to renew. I say not. How do I migrate my address book to google or yahoo?

Mike says:

September 26, 2016 at 3:00 pm

If Steve Jobs were alive, today, I think he would have popped a blood vessel while totally lambasting this new Hotmail format. Microsoft completely went in the wrong direction with their new email layout. The way it’s set up, only users with an engineers education and logic can understand and use it, not the common user. I can only imagine the problems and frustrations that this new format is having among the older generation of users. Microsoft should have taken the classic Steve Jobs approach and simplified the format as much as possible to make it more user friendly, not make it more complicated. They should have streamlined it to the logic and simplicity that the average user can understand and relate to. Instead, it’s now looks like the end result of what some Microsoft engineers, with nothing else better to do, decided to tinker with in order to justify their existence and to show off to their peers.

This is a classic case of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” I would have thought Microsoft would have learned from their Windows 8 debacle by now. I guess not.

Tom says:

June 6, 2016 at 3:16 am

Yes the new MSN.com sucks. No longer able to post comments on news stories. When I try to log in to post it just keeps cycling between a blank Facebook popup and the news story site. This has been a recurring problem.

Carl LaFong says:

October 22, 2015 at 12:31 pm

The ‘new’ MSN home page was bad but not unbearable until the last few weeks. I liked thumbing through the photo/stories. Now, that displays for a few seconds and then the top ad banner drops down so I have to scroll down to see the photo/stories section. Who in the world things this is a good idea? Oh yeah, this is Microsoft, where building crap is job 1.

Libra_Man says:

December 15, 2014 at 12:59 pm

New MSN home page is BAD. Why do they have to give so much space for the add at the top and bottom? Outlook, Office, One note etc. can be squeezed close to the Bing bar and the “add bar” at the bottom can be reduced so that there is more room for viewing web pages in the middle. I will stop using MSN from today until they fix this stupid mistake.

Tom says:

December 4, 2014 at 12:19 am

Yup new msn site is so terrible I had to google it just so I could leave a comment on how bad it was and how I’m now changing my homepage. Good luck getting me back

Tiger says:

November 22, 2014 at 10:11 pm

How many HATE IT messages do you need before you get the idea that your change was crappy? You do not need to change every few months. When you have something people like, it is OK to stay with it.

gary says:

October 26, 2014 at 7:14 am

i have used msn for years, not any more…..new site is worse than horrible!

Reese says:

October 18, 2014 at 11:23 pm

It’s horrible!! I have my msn email forwarded now so I don’t have to deal with it.

John Akerberg says:

October 17, 2014 at 2:10 pm

it never was that great was too much attention on “celebs” or non news which i never cared about i dont give a *^$% whos wearing what at which stupid event that most of the drones care about. Would like to find a news channel with not fluff news, or i would just watch good morning america. and watch them come out of the closet sooo proud. Americans are fed this stuff till we have to like it cuz there isnothing better to report

Bently says:

October 16, 2014 at 3:19 pm

I don’t like the fact that you can’t customize it like you could the old page.
To see what I used to see at one glance I now have to click a link to see it separately.

I got here because I’m looking for a new homepage to use.

Debi says:

October 14, 2014 at 4:55 pm

I could not hate this change more , so congrats to the idiot who came up with this . I am changing my home page. Anything has to be a better choice. This blows

Tim says:

October 12, 2014 at 7:16 pm

New MSN page sucks. On my IPad 1 everything is running down the center of the page. I have to scroll down the usless page to find what i want to see. If i want the weather i have to go to a different page to see it. Sports highlites on a different page etc. i am looking for a different home page. I will not ust this one.

Felix R Simonet says:

October 12, 2014 at 12:48 am

It really sucks, will be canceling my MSN account ( if I can ever find where to do it on the new screwed up site ) and switch to another ISP.

Roger says:

October 9, 2014 at 12:56 pm

The new home page not only sucks! But now I get too pay for pop-up’s add’s , What a deal how damn much money does Bill Gates have to make to give away to other nations ? I’m never going to renew it again once this months expires I’m done I gave My Xbox away last yr as it was fee fee fee .. and a PITA to keep up with changes and update went PSP4 and my next Laptop is going to be a Mac. I’m so sick or M/S and all it has to offer..

Greg says:

October 7, 2014 at 8:04 pm

Change isn’t better for all age groups. need options for the old page. we are all not in our “30’s”.

floridadreams says:

October 5, 2014 at 7:34 pm

SUCKS!!!!

Charles Mask says:

October 4, 2014 at 6:22 pm

I hate this new MSN homepage. It makes no rhyme or reason. It is way too big to fit on my PC 22 inch screen. I’m 83 years old and have had the old MSN for long as I can remember. Give me a choice!

Rich Moore says:

October 3, 2014 at 7:39 am

The new MSM home page SUCKS. I’am done with it . I liked the old home page , sometimes change is not better!!!!

Rusty says:

October 3, 2014 at 12:05 am

I hate this new MSN, the old MSN had everything, I could want on one page. If they keep this like it is I will look elsewhere.
Let me be clear I am not against change but this is some techs idea that does not work for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!