Microsoft Bing Launch Musings

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

The recent bing launch has been fun to watch. Not only is Microsoft getting slammed by fans of good design for the bing logo design (also see here), but as they apparently ripped a design for their microsite from another company (quote from Daryl from postmodem’s blog post which can be found here):

The rebranding car wreck doesn’t end there though. Not happy with just creating a shockingly bad logo for bing the designers of this launch micro-site (which I assume is being used to herald the new dawn of Bing to the world) have blatantly ripped an idea from this site: dragoninteractive.com. Of course, it goes without saying that the Dragon Interactive site is far superior in many ways – but why have Microsoft so obviously not invested time in the design of these sites let alone the bing logo?

Also Microsoft apparently ripped off Kayak.com for their travel search features. You would think a company with the resources of Microsoft would be able to create unique and better designs. Also, they have this creative company that does some ads for them just in case they need some help, they are pretty well known. Maybe you’ve heard of them? (Hint: their name rhymes with Crispin Porter + Bogusky)

The bing search engine itself actually isn’t that bad, but that matters little when their competition is google. Microsoft would likely win more converts if they didn’t piss everyone off by using bad or stolen creative.

Tangent thought…but every time I think of “Microsoft design” I can’t help but think of the great: “If Microsoft designed the ipod packaging” video which is embedded below. Enjoy

My ‘Time’ Wishlist

Sunday, April 19th, 2009

Do you have any geeky / creative things you’d do if only had the time and the money time?

The idea for this post came about when I was setting up this blog.  For once, I had the time and the need to build a WordPress site (we’ll be migrating our Spoken Whirred blog to WordPress and I needed a site to test with).

 Cross one of the ole geek checklist.

1. Setup a wordpress site

What’s left on my geek checklist? Let’s see (off the top of my head):

2. Build a web site / application in Ruby on Rails
3. Build a facebook application
4. Use Objective C or Cocoa (for a Mac app or iPhone) – (This one is totally unrealistic, because I’ll never have this much time)
5. Use more jQuery / AJAX
6. Help bring about the destruction of IE6.

Another wish list I have applies to more creative tasks:

1. Take a photography class
2. Learn how to use Illustrator better
3. Actually use tags on my stock photo library so I can easily refer to them.
4. Learn another movie making software (besides iMovie)
5. Actually have the time to make some movies of Gabe.

What’s on your wish list?  Would any of these apply?  Should I store this list on 37things so I can keep track of these?