While all the big guns in the Web business have been sweating it out, perfecting their portal sites, the newest, biggest gun just rolled quietly onto the battlefield. As Microsoft enters the fray, wielding the advantages of its own diverse content and recently acquired companies like Hotmail, it has more the look of an army.
The beta, or "sneak preview" version of Microsoft's Internet Start page was launched Monday, without much fanfare. It rolls together customizable search capabilities, a familiar, standard bundle of news services, and much of the Microsoft Network of journalism and services.
The design itself is simple, pleasantly functional, with a few techie finishes like pop-up dialogue boxes and links that change color when they're rolled over. There were some technical problems during use. But, of course, this is a preview.
Along with most portal services, Microsoft's Internet Start reflects a balance between offering the most content and remaining navigable. If Internet Start feels a little like it was made on an assembly line, that's a problem it shares with nearly every other portal, including Excite, Yahoo, and Netscape.
Like a whiteboard listing most of the services the company offers, the frontdoor poses the question, "Where does Microsoft want to go today?" to both users and employees alike. Internet Start is a useful place for customers to test drive new services or for a Microsoft employee to start a day of acquisition planning and strategy.
Wherever it decides to go, it's clear that Microsoft would like the vehicle to be fully integrated into your browser, your desktop, your life. (And your wallet too, no doubt. Nestled next to the latest breaking news and your free email, you might be served up enticing articles about Expedia's travel discounts.)
There's no getting around the inherent scariness, the corporate logo overload, of using a Microsoft browser, running on Microsoft Windows, to read Microsoft content. There hasn't been this much branding since the last great cattle drive. It's like being promised the world and on delivery finding it's been wrapped by some corporate Christo.
The one question no one seems to be asking is why users need a start page at all when they've got bookmarks on their browser. Other than catching lazy souls who don't want to change their browser's default homepage, the portals only seem to be stuffing themselves with features, hoping that a killer app will sooner or later justify their existence.
A plus for Microsoft is that it doesn't have all its portal plans resting in one site. The company is currently running several simultaneous portals, in addition to the Microsoft Network. Letting each of its sites compete with one another and evolve is a nice plan, one that will perhaps breed a little more variety. It would be nice to see a site that did something other than just leapfrogging the competitors.
