MSN (short for Microsoft Network) dropped in 1995 as Microsoft’s big play to compete with AOL—part internet provider, part content portal. At launch, it came bundled with Windows 95 and gave users access to email, news, weather, chat rooms, and even early web surfing before Internet Explorer fully took over. By the early 2000s, MSN shifted gears from being an ISP to focusing more on content—news, entertainment, sports—basically trying to be your homepage. Remember MSN Messenger? That thing launched in 1999 and became the way to chat after school before AIM took over. Over time, MSN rebranded a few times (MSN Explorer in 2001, Windows Live in 2005), but the core idea stayed: a one-stop spot for whatever was trending online.