Now the portal war is really on in New Zealand. With the contract between Xtra and Microsoft ending back in February, XtraMSN is dead and dusted. On March 1, Xtra took the covers off their shiny new partnership with Yahoo! and showed us all the new portal, Yahoo!Xtra.

But are things any better now that XtraMSN has been put to rest? After all, XtraMSN was the most visited website in New Zealand. In part because the majority of internet users in New Zealand use Xtra as an ISP, but also in part because it was a portal that did concentrate on more than just news.

As a result of this deal ending, we now have two new portals to chose from. Well, you do. I hadn’t visited XtraMSN in I don’t know how long, and aside from the little post I will have up over the weekend, don’t intend to spend any time on the two new portals. But before I finish this other post I’m working on I’d really like to hear your thoughts and reactions to these new portals.

So folks, my questions to you are really simple. What do you think of the new MSN.co.nz and the new Yahoo!Xtra portals? How do they both compare with XtraMSN? Will you continue to use MSN or will you follow Xtra and make the jump to Yahoo!?

I should point out, whatever your response is will not affect my post I’m going to put up over the weekend. I am curious to know your thoughts on this matter now, while the old portal is still fresh in your minds. :-)

I’ve even changed commenting so anyone can comment, even if they don’t have a Blogger account. :-)