Microsoft To Put Service On Internet

Just three months after Microsoft started its Microsoft Network online service, the company plans to put the subscription service on the Internet and give much of its content away for free.

The decision marks a radical change for Microsoft and indicates the software giant is still trying to sort out how it will capitalize on the explosive growth of the Internet and products being developed for the global computer network.

Bill Miller, MSN’s director of marketing, said Microsoft is not abandoning all the effort it put into the network, but that the concept of private online services “doesn’t make sense any more.

“The Internet is just so much bigger,” Miller said in an interview published Wednesday by The Seattle Times. Microsoft founder Bill Gates and other executives are to brief reporters and industry analysts today on the company’s Internet plans.