MSN 8: One month to launch and counting
eWeek | at | by Mike
Microsoft is inching closer to its expected October launch of its MSN 8 Internet service, as documented by testers who recently obtained the newest beta release and posted some of the screen shots to the Web. Microsoft delivered Beta 2 of MSN 8 on Sept. 17, company officials confirmed. Beta 2 went to a "limited" number of internal Microsoft testers and "key" MSN reviewers, a company spokeswoman said.
Microsoft officials have said the company plans to launch MSN 8 in October, the same month that Time Warner/America Online is slated to launch AOL 8. Some of the Windows enthusiast sites have cited October 24 as the rumored launch date. Publicly, Microsoft is holding fast to its "this fall" MSN 8 launch date. In addition to including more e-mail and IM tracking and filtering, MSN 8 also is expected to include a shared-browsing capability that will go beyond the shared whiteboarding provided via the Windows Messenger component of Windows XP.