I think you may have read that sentence a wee too literally. In the mind of the consumer, MSN means Microsoft… whether it’s search or their content or whatever, the point is, MSN doesn’t stand for anything else in the universe besides the Microsoft product — however it’s being defined or used at the moment. The point is that Microsoft does a thorough job branding and the letters M-S-N are synonymous with Microsoft.

The reason I used AOL and MSN as examples of exceptions to the rule is because they have enormous marketing budgets, and while they DO have the resources to brand those acronyms, the vast vast vast majority of businesses do not have that luxury.