MSN vs. AOL: Internet provider heavyweights rumble
By Edward C. Baig
USA Today
| • | AOL 8.0
*** 1/2 out of five, $23.90 a month, $54.95 broadband, www.aol.com Pro: Lets you segregate mail from people you know. Lets you search for an immediate chat on topics of interest. Lets you customize your desktop, e-mails and IMs. New stock, weather and other alerts. Parental controls. Con: E-mail still not up to snuff. Expensive. MSN 8 ****, $21.95 a month, $39.95-$49.95 a month broadband, www.msn.com Pro: Strong parental controls. Junk e-mail filters. Versions of Microsoft Money (including online bill paying), Encarta and other programs. Cooperative Web browsing with a chat partner. Con: Intrusive authentication process. Cluttered home screen. |
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"This is the first release across the board that is better than AOL," boasts Yusuf Mehdi, the exec in charge of MSN.
Is that true or just hype? Let's see how the combatants stack up in a few key areas.
Look and feel
Advantage: It's a tie.
Online services are as much about appearance and style as content. AOL now lets you pick among six themed choices, each view emphasizing varying interests. AOL 8.0 also introduces a small resizable window called AOL Companion that you can choose to leave on the screen (or not) even when you are working in another program. Companion is a quick snapshot to the number of e-mail and IM messages awaiting you, plus stock quotes, headlines, weather, horoscopes, etc.
If you are bumped off AOL, you'll be returned to the screen where you left off when you reconnect. On the AOL Broadband offering (through Time Warner Cable and DSL providers), each screen name under your account, up to seven, can be signed on at the same time.
Microsoft's answer to AOL's audio "welcome" is a more personal female voice uttering "Good afternoon, Edward" (or whomever). MSN's main screen sports translucent drop-down menus and quick access to not-quite-full versions of such Microsoft programs as the "Encarta" encyclopedia and "Microsoft Money," complete with online bill pay.
A vertical bar on the right of the screen called Dashboard has much the same purpose as AOL Companion, with room for pictures, tracking stocks, weather, etc. It, too, can be displayed while you work in other programs. Microsoft also is readying a My MSN home page that will let you choose among 150 news and other content options.
Advantage: Microsoft.
AOL has incorporated welcome changes. Incoming mail now falls into one of three groups: mail from people you know, based on your buddy list and address book; mail from bulk senders; and mail from senders who may be strangers. It means you can more easily identify messages you want to see, while segregating those likely to be spam. They did not include a junk-mail filter.
AOL has made it simpler to block unwanted messages and to notify the company of problem senders. Now, your inbox is automatically updated as new messages turn up; previously you had to click on ''new mail" to check the latest arrivals. Still, AOL mail remains clumsy. When you reply to a message, the original is not copied into the reply unless you define the text before hitting the reply button. You still can't easily save a draft of a message. Creating and managing mail folders is far more complicated than in MSN.
Indeed, MSN's more robust e-mail borrows from its corporate kin, Hotmail and Outlook Express. A preview pane allows you to read e-mail without opening it. You also can search messages by sender, recipient, subject or key words; AOL's searches are more limiting. Creating new folders and moving mail into them is a cinch on MSN.
Microsoft (like AOL) is targeting spam behind the scenes. But you can actively turn on a junk-mail filter that slips suspect messages into a separate folder. Microsoft claims this feature gets more intuitive over time by discovering the types of mail that you consider spam.
Parental controls
Advantage: Microsoft.
AOL has had parental controls in place since 1994; version 8.0 tries to make them more accessible. A parental-control icon now appears on the toolbar. And Mom and Dad can consult a neat graphic permitting the parents to set, view and alter settings for each child — between full, limited or no access to chat rooms, the Web, IM and e-mail. Parents can set online time limits and even modify settings remotely via AOL.com.
In December, AOL plans to launch a useful Web report card to parents called AOL Guardian detailing where junior goes on the Web (or tries to go), how long he was online and with whom he communicated via IM and e-mail.
MSN 8 lets parents choose among four generic age-restriction settings. However, Microsoft gets the jump on its rival with a weekly history report for parents sporting the same type of information that AOL is promising via the Guardian. Parents can also block Web sites or areas within them.
Kids might appreciate what might be called the "mommy-may-I?" feature. When your youngster is blocked, he or she can type out an appeal that is e-mailed to you. Before granting permission, you can peek at the site in question. MSN can also automatically filter search results displaying only age-appropriate listings.
Communication and sharing
Advantage: AOL.
AOL has beefed up its stronghold: instant messaging. You can dress up IMs with colorful wallpaper and animated "buddy icons."
Ever wonder if the person with whom you were exchanging messages was ignoring you? A new "typing indicator" clues you in that the recipient is preparing a response. (MSN does this, too.)
Another new feature: At the click of a button, you can send music and video links in an IM, letting a buddy hear tunes as you comment on them.
Through an IM, e-mail or text message to a wireless phone or pager, AOL can send sports scores, stock prices and other alerts to you. And you can broadcast group reminders to up to 50 users, notifying them, say, of a venue change for the kid's soccer game.
A MatchChat feature keeps you informed when members who share interests listed in your member profile are online.
Microsoft's MSN Messenger introduces a promising new feature of its own, called shared browsing. You and a single messaging pal can surf the Web together from different computers in real time.
