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.
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.
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.