REDMOND, Wash., Dec. 7, 1998 — Consumers clamoring for holiday help are turning to the Internet, so the MSN
™
online service rings in the holiday season with a new suite of sites, services and resources dedicated to helping people with their many shopping needs during one of the busiest times of year.
The new MSN Holiday Helper Web site, created specifically for the holiday season, is already the most popular site on MSN.com. Specialized MSN holiday gift guides and new promotions wrap up everything consumers need for a simpler holiday season in one package. Providing consumers with more than gift ideas, MSN has created the ultimate holiday survival guide with seasonal editorial content, spending tips, buying guides and product reviews.
MSN Holiday Helper – Helpful Guides on Every Topic Under the Tree
The new MSN Holiday Helper helps consumers save time and money with one of the most complete sets of specialized holiday guides on the Web. From ideas for the perfect gift – for the savvy traveler, control freak or the person who has everything – to expert advice on how to spend wisely this season or how to find affordable last-minute holiday air fare, MSN Holiday Helper helps provide a stress-free holiday spree. Finding the right gift faster, shopping smarter and getting more done are easy with these useful MSN Holiday Guides:
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MSN Shopping Toy Gift Guide. The Toy Gift Guide offers the hottest gifts for kids this season, from Teletubbies to Barbie. The guide features toys from five new merchants just in time for the holiday season: eToys Inc., Holt Educational Outlet, Toys
“R”
Us, The Learning Co. and Smarter Kids.
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MSN Expedia and MSNBC Holiday Travel Guides. Give travel as a gift with exciting trips at great prices from the MSN Expedia
™
travel service. With just a few clicks of the mouse, users can compare air fare prices easily. Visit MSNBC’s top 10 list of high-tech gifts for the frequent traveler, and get ideas for the jet-setter who has everything.
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MSN Shopping Holiday Gift Finder. A special Holiday Gift Finder lets shoppers select criteria and receive a list of appropriate gift suggestions. And last-minute shoppers need not worry – they can order, gift-wrap and ship gifts with selected MSN Shopping merchants until Dec. 23 for delivery by Dec. 25. MSN provides links to each merchant’s Web site, where full details can be obtained.
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MSN MoneyCentral Holiday Spending Guide. Ease the stress of overspending with advice from the editorial team and personal finance experts at the MSN MoneyCentral
™
personal finance online service. Learn how to avoid holiday credit card hangovers and refrain from silly holiday spending with the help of financial experts.
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MSN Sidewalk Holiday Gift Guides. The Gift Guides from the MSN Sidewalk® online guide will help shoppers find the perfect present, even for the most hard-to-buy-for people on their lists – gadget junkies, sports fans, gardeners, cooks, newlyweds and even control freaks. Shop smarter with the new MSN Sidewalk Buyers Guides that feature product information and reviews.
Once the shopping is out of the way, families will have more time to get into the holiday spirit with MSN Holiday Helper’s fun and games. Kids of every age will enjoy the following features:
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Reading Santa’s diary and e-mailing him their wish lists
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Sending free and festive season’s greetings electronically (connect-time charges may apply)
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Researching and making charitable donations online
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Trying out delicious recipes and clever craft ideas
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Finding out about the season’s film offerings with the MSNBC holiday movie guide
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Playing games in the MSN Gaming Zone
MSN Shopping Holiday Rewards and Incentives
Earn holiday season travel miles automatically with qualified purchases during December with MSN Shopping ClickRewards. Customers will earn double miles from participating merchants (while supplies last), redeemable one-to-one for frequent flyer miles with most major airlines.
With the purchase of any airline ticket through MSN Expedia this year, consumers will receive full credit card guarantees on all other online purchases. With the MSN Expedia credit card guarantee, consumers are protected from liability for unauthorized charges – up to $50 (U.S.) – on any purchases made on or off the Internet within the 12 months following a purchase through MSN Expedia.
In addition, First USA guarantees its credit card holders’ online purchases on MSN Shopping this holiday season. First USA credit card holders also will receive 5 percent discount when they use their cards to make purchases at MSN Shopping.
MSN Holiday Sweepstakes
The MSN Holiday Sweepstakes, sponsored by Philips Electronics North America Corp., offers the chance to win a sleighful of electronic goodies. Simply click links on the sweepstakes page to visit participating MSN services, including the MSN CarPoint
™
online automotive service, MSN Expedia, MSN Sidewalk, MSNBC, the MSN HomeAdvisor
™
online real estate service and MoneyCentral. Visitors can enter as many times as they’d like, but to win high-tech prizes from Philips – including an Isis cellular phone, Velo 500 handheld PC and a 32-inch Super VGA television – they must limit their entries to one per day.
About MSN
MSN is the network of Internet services from Microsoft that helps people better organize the Web around what’s important to them. The network of MSN services, located on
the Web at MSN.com ( http://MSN.com/ ), helps people easily stay in touch with friends and colleagues, make smart and secure purchasing decisions, and get more done. MSN offers award-winning e-mail functionality; personal communications services; customizable access to news; popular sites for travel, investing, automotive services, shopping and more; an online community; a Web search engine and directories; and top-rated Internet access.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
Microsoft, MSN, Expedia, MoneyCentral, Sidewalk, CarPoint and HomeAdvisor are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.
