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MSN Testers Receive New 'Butterfly'

By David Worthington | Published May 21, 2004, 1:18 PM

MSN testers will soon find out whether it's better with the butterfly. "Butterfly," code-name for the MSN 9.1 beta program, is now available for download at BetaPlace.

Some of the perks MSN is offering testers are four free months of MSN and free dial-up access as needed. Testers are asked to fill out a short pre-installation survey prior to downloading the software.

Although few specific details are available at the present time, MSN is busy readying its own music store and advanced search technologies.

MSN will launch Newsbot -- a search tool that aggregates news from over 4000 sources worldwide -- and Blogbot -- a tool that produces relevant search results from blogs -- by the end of this year. Answerbot, which will feature a natural language interface for displaying search results, will arrive in the next wave following Newsbot and Blogbot.

In addition, Microsoft is investing heavily in a new algorithmic search engine, currently being developed by Microsoft Research.

Redmond has also promised to deliver its music store sometime this year, having recently completed a new digital rights management technology dubbed "Janus"; making a subscription-based pricing model a possibility.

Synchronization is another piece of the online music puzzle. Microsoft Portable Media Center devices currently utilize a modified version of Windows Media Player 9 with "Smart Sync" synchronization technology.

Microsoft's beta announcement has come during a week when arch rival America Online has dominated the headlines by letting loose a refresh of AOL 9 Optimized, and revealing two new initiatives: Strauss, a light version of AOL and Fanfare, an alternative to the classic AOL client software.

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guillaumeb
May 22, 2004 - 1:44 PM

This release really is minor compared to AOL .
This is mainly a bug fix version. Next to the pop up blocker button you now find another one that launches the search highlighter (already implemented in the MSN Toolbar)
Also some people seem to experience faster browsing - well it's not my case and one certainly cannot speak about DSL accelerator...
Also a website will be launched to manage subaccounts directly online. That is you can create and delete subaccount anywhere (you won't need to be at home), in this sense, this kind of webbased management is similar to the one of Yahoo Plus.

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annmariet30
May 23, 2004 - 12:16 AM

lucky you...i went to betapalce because i had tested the beta products before. i don't even see the update or new beta stuff. how did you get it?

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guillaumeb
May 23, 2004 - 6:52 AM

When logged in Beta Place, click on the Butterfly logo, then in the upper right column click on "MSN Beta Butterfly program" you will need to fill in the introduction survey before getting the installer. For more infos: g-b myway (dot) com

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