The new MSN homepage debuts tonight and you would be completely correct in thinking the recipe Microsoft has cooked up to inform its design ethos–white, clean and hiply modern–has definite echoes of a certain longtime tech rival.

That would be Apple, of course, with a big dollop of Twitter and Facebook tossed in, and finished off with a generous sprinkling of Microsoft’s new Bing search service.

For those who care: The MSN butterfly logo remains, although it appears to have lost a lot of weight.

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Well, well, well, that financial imp at Microsoft–CFO Chris Liddell–pulled a fast one on Wall Street and turned in first-quarter earnings that blew away all estimates and even whisper numbers.

BoomTown liveblogged the morning conference call, which took place at 7:30 am PT–thanks for the Kiwi-laced wake-up call, Chris!

While revenue and net income in Q1 were down significantly from the same period a year ago, they were not as bad as investors expected.

Which apparently passes for terrific these days!

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What’s in a name?

Well, a lot, actually, and BoomTown supposes it would be just like those Pacific Northwest types at Microsoft to name the new version of its search service “Bing,” presumably after the cherry that is a big product in the company’s home state.

That moniker is one of many being bandied about in a group the software giant could be considering for the big relaunch of its search service, which it has been prepping.

But Microsoft should forget the fruity metaphor, also rename its MSN online service “Bada” and use this motto: “Bada Bing, Bada Boom, Notta Bada Algorithm!”

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Satish Dharmaraj–the founder of open-source email start-up Zimbra, which has been at the heart of significant new changes to Yahoo’s key communications services–will be leaving the company.

Yahoo paid $350 million for Zimbra in the fall of 2007.

And even though he had stepped back from leadership in the communications arena at Yahoo, the departure of an innovative entrepreneur like Dharmaraj–although typical when big companies buy start-ups–is never a good thing, given that it’s more important than ever to keep innovative leaders at Yahoo.

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BoomTown loves a good memo and here’s one that two of Microsoft’s top online execs, Yusuf Mehdi and Satya Nadella, sent out about the deal the tech giant signed with Dell and Verizon to distribute its search and other products.

Microsoft is opening its fat wallet to do such deal and try to best archrival Google.

Here’s the memo.

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Here’s part of an internal memo BoomTown obtained about some small, but interesting, changes at Microsoft’s MSN unit, sent out by the GM of its Global Media Group, Greg Nelson, which is under the leadership of–well, frankly–a confusing panoply of people.

That’s why I have been haranguing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer for a little digital clarity, especially around its consumer digital businesses and brands.

Ballmer has been searching for an overall head of that business, and it will fall to the person he ultimately selects as digital head to figure out what to do next.

Until then, let’s rearrange some chairs!

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