
Microsoft has CUSTOM home pages, has anybody noticed? - vlad
http://www.microsoft.com/en/us/default.aspx
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SwellJoe
That's actually a good looking site. I guess I shouldn't be surprised...MS has
plenty of money to hire the best (how to explain their software, though?).

But I'm most impressed that they've figured out that if apps aren't being
developed for Windows, they will die a slow death. Front and center they're
offering free software development tools, and a great vision of what those
tools could do for you (turn you into the next Bill Gates). It's a lie, of
course, but still, it's a hell of a good image. (It's a lie because Microsoft
will not tolerate the existence of another Bill Gates within their eco-
system...you can only ever be a servant to MS when building for MS.)

Anyway, I'm impressed. Really clean design with clear pathways to do things on
the site.

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vlad
Wait a second... when I saw it, it had Bill Gates' photo in the big box with a
link to Visual Studio, and an ad for Visual Studio on the right.

The Google cache shows the Microsoft site with an X-Box in the big box, and a
game ad, DirectX, Templates, Clipart, and Microsoft Office links.

It must know from cookies in advertising it shows all over the web to know if
your IP has seen a lot of XBox ads on XBox sites, or if your IP has seen a lot
of Visual Studio ads on Slashdot (even if you don't click) it shows the Visual
Studio home page.

Even if you don't click a Microsoft ad, it seems to know which site to show
you, probably by collecting IP addresses from different web sites where they
show ads.

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andreyf
On top of "Popular Downloads" is: "Windows Server code name 'Longhorn' Beta
3". I doubt they show this to all visitors, too...

