Microsoft gains on the leading ISP with promotions, giveaways, and now a service-swapping kit.
In Microsoft"s ongoing efforts to unseat America Online as the 300-pound gorilla of online service providers, its MSN Internet Access division is rolling out an AOL defection tool on Tuesday.
With MSN"s Switching Tool, it takes three steps to migrate an AOL customer"s address book, calendar, and archived e-mail over to MSN. As part of the deal, Microsoft will cancel your AOL account and for 30 days will refer to your new address any e-mail sent to your AOL address.
MSN began its campaign to woo AOL users a year ago by introducing MSN Explorer, a simple browser with hooks to the MSN portal, along with a $50 million marketing campaign. Since then, just under 2 million AOL members have defected to MSN Internet Access, MSN representatives claim. Microsoft plans to spend an additional $10 million to continue the conversion campaign for another year.