‘Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL’ NYT Mini Crossword clue answer and hints

Today’s “Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL” clue on the NYT Mini Crossword puzzle challenges you to find a word related to these websites. With so many different websites to choose from, this can be a pretty tough hint to solve.

If you’re struggling to resolve the “Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL” clue on the Sept. 27 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle, you may be seeking some help to get through it. Here are some hints to help you uncover the solution and the official answer so you can progress through the puzzle.

‘Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL’ NYT Sept. 27 Mini Crossword hints

• Hint 1: It ends with the letter “N.”
• Hint 2: You’re looking for the name of a website that’s like Yahoo! and AOL.
• Hint 3: It has a butterfly logo.
• Hint 4: It’s owned by Microsoft.

If you’re not ready to learn the answer yet, stop here because I’m about to reveal the official solution for this clue.

‘Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL’ NYT Mini answer

The solution for the “Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL” clue on the Sept. 27 NYT Mini Crossword puzzle is “MSN.” This is a web portal with access to a wide variety of functions, such as news, shopping, and entertainment. It’s owned by Microsoft and functions similarly to Yahoo! and AOL.

‘Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL’ clue difficulty rating

I’ve heard of “MSN,” but it’s not a site I’m super familiar with, which made the “Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL” clue pretty tricky to solve. This feels like a hint that’s fairly doable if you’re familiar with “the “MSN” but quite tough to solve if you aren’t.

I don’t think this clue is one of the absolute hardest ones to solve, but it does require a very specific piece of knowledge that not everyone has. Because of this, I’m giving this clue a four out of five difficulty rating.

All NYT Mini Crossword Sept. 27 clues and answers

Across

• 1A Aptly named brand of road and mountain bikes — TREK
• 5A “CD” — SEEDY
• 6A “XL” — EXCEL
• 7A Make amends — ATONE
• 8A Alternative to Yahoo! or AOL — MSN

Down

• 1D Much political campaign outreach these days — TEXTS
• 2D Mission for a scout, for short — RECON
• 3D Garden with forbidden fruit — EDEN
• 4D Friend of Kenny, Stan, and Cartman on “South Park” — KYLE
• 5D Feature that some undergarments claim not to have (but it’s often just less noticeable) — SEAM

Games like the NYT Mini Crossword

Your daily word game fun doesn’t have to end when you finish today’s NYT Mini Crossword. There are lots of other puzzles worth trying out if you’re eager to tackle some additional brain teasers.

For more crossword fun, consider trying the LA Times and the Washington Post. The overall format and gameplay for these are nearly identical to the NYT Mini, so you’re sure to enjoy having more hints to solve on a daily basis.

If you’re looking for something different instead, you may enjoy Strands or Spelling Bee. Although these two aren’t crosswords, they’re still word-based games with fun twists. Strands tasks you with finding hidden words to reveal the secret daily theme, while Spelling Bee challenges you to see how many words you can spell with just seven letters.