The Giant Plays the Underdog

By Anita Hamilton

Everyone hates Microsoft, of course. But you have to love it too. Sure the boys from Redmond, Wash., play the heavy in every market they dominate, from PC operating systems to desktop software. But when they're the underdogs, as they are in video games and handheld PCs, they have proved to be scrappy fighters and real innovators. And that translates into better products and choices for consumers.

Now Microsoft is about to release a new version of its online software, in a market dominated by America Online, a division of the company that publishes TIME. And in the process it has done something not even Ted Turner could do: awaken AOL from its slumber and force it to offer its most inspired revision in years. I like MSN 8 better because it's smarter and cheaper. But the new AOL is also pretty cool. There's a lot of fluff in AOL 8--like 1,000 buddy icons, sounds and patterned backgrounds for instant messages--but there are enough real improvements to keep longtime members from jumping ship.

The best new feature in MSN 8 is the Dashboard, a narrow, vertical window that snaps to the right-hand side of your screen and gives you at-a-glance views of the things you most want to see, like stock prices, weather reports and which of your buddies are online. All the content on the Dashboard is customizable; you can even add a personal photo and your own Web links. AOL 8 has something similar called AOL Companion, but because of its awkward design and the way it floats on top of the page, it just gets in the way.

The new MSN has added parental controls, like those AOL has offered for years, but MSN's are better. In addition to choosing from three preset levels for access to Web browsing, e-mail and instant messaging, parents can customize which sites their kids can and cannot visit. When children try to go to a restricted site, they have the option of e-mailing their parents for permission. And at the end of the week, parents get an activity log detailing exactly which sites their kids visited and how much time they spent there. AOL promises a similar feature--AOL Guardian--by year-end. In the meantime, it has added an online timer to restrict the hours kids can go online.

When it comes to e-mail, MSN's biggest flaws used to be speed and spam. In the new version, e-mail downloads much more quickly from the company's Hotmail server, although there is still a slight lag. When I tested MSN 8, I was pleasantly surprised that less than a third of the spam I received landed in my In box; the rest was automatically funneled to the junk mailbox. MSN 8 also provides automated virus checking and full-text search for messages in your In box. AOL 8's mail, on the other hand, is mostly playing catch-up; the program only now auto-completes addresses after you type in the first few letters (something MSN has done for years).

AOL 8 does, however, have some clever touches. You can search chat rooms by words being used in live discussions, not just by the name of the chat room. I like the idea but had mixed results with the searches I tried. A new MusicShare feature lets you send your buddies links to song clips right through the instant-message window. And if your dial-up connection gets dropped, a handy new Auto-Reconnect feature gets you back online in seconds.

With 35 million subscribers worldwide (vs. 9 million for MSN), AOL will continue to have the edge, if only from subscriber inertia. But that may not last long. Microsoft's $21.95-a-month charge is $1.95 less than AOL's, and its broadband access ranges from $40 to $50 a month, vs. $55 for AOL. MSN subscribers also get free versions of Microsoft's encyclopedia and bill-paying and photo-editing software.

If I were a new online subscriber, I would choose MSN over AOL. Its interface is just as easy for newbies to learn and use, and you can always keep in touch with AOL buddies through the free AOL Instant Messenger program. But for those who enjoy AOL members-only chat rooms and message boards, the new features are reason enough to stick around. At least until MSN 9 comes out.

You can e-mail Anita your questions at [email protected]