More Microsoft Sites (Part 2)

Conrad — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 00:47:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I talked about the trend from Microsoft to create distinct sites (e.g. URL’s) that are outside of the standard Microsoft.com brand. Since then, I have found some more sites (not including the Event Websites).

.NET Framework 3.0: http://www.netfx3.com/default.aspx
Robot Invaders (MSN/Live Messenger Contents): http://www.robotinvaders.com/main/Default.aspx
PlaysForSure (Windows Media Devices): http://www.playsforsure.com/
Code Master Challenge (Vista application contest): http://www.codemasterchallenge.com
IE 7 Add-ons: http://www.ieaddons.com/
Live Gadgets: http://microsoftgadgets.com/
Architecture Journal: http://www.architecturejournal.net/
Secure IT Alliance: http://secureitalliance.org/
MSN TV: http://www.msntv.com/
MSN Direct: http://www.msndirect.com/default.htm
Microsoft DirectBand (Wide-area wireless datacast network): http://www.directband.com/
Technet Port 25: http://port25.technet.com/
Origami Project (Ultra Mobile PC’s): http://www.origamiproject.com/
Microsoft Incentives (Rebates and Discounts): https://www.microsoftincentives.com/
Microsoft and SAP partnership: http://www.microsoft-sap.com/
Microsoft Partner Readiness: http://www.msreadiness.com/
Microsoft Partner Blogs: http://ts2blogs.com/
Microsoft Partner T2 Team: http://www.ts2seminars.com/index.htm

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/ - Now I don’t know what this site is all about, but it has looks just like the Microsoft home page (no surprise what their motive is). The following link takes you to the IE page for this site: http://thesource.ofallevil.com/windows/ie/default.mspx. Now I’m not saying this is a “Good Site” or even sponsored by Microsoft, but it is interesting.
http://www.longhornblogs.com/ This isn’t hosted by Microsoft either (I think), but it does hold some very interesting blogs from people using Windows Longhorn Server and Vista

And finally, here are the more “standard” non Microsoft.com sites:

There may be more, but I think this is a pretty good list of all of the various MS sites that are hanging out on the net. Perhaps the MS team can put an MS Web Directory to help showcase all of these various sites. I’m wondering why they decided to move more content outside of their main content group and standard web properties (Microsoft.com). Perhaps this makes the product groups (the typical owners of all these sites) more responsive as they own the delivery of the content. I’m sure there will be an exec that will come around and bring everything back into one of the major the web properties (Technet, MSDN, MS.com).

What's also interesting is that the majority of these sites run Community Server or are "Hosted by Telligent". Seems Telligent is doing a great job of staying close to the Microsoft product teams and delivering some cool sites!

Got anything else to share?

Crossposted from Conrad's Blog at http://agramont.net/blogs/conrad/default.aspx

Launched Agramont.net

Conrad — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 02:55:00 GMT

Today is the first day that Agramont.net (http://agramont.net) is available on the Internet! I've had the domain for quite some time, but never really had the time to get it together. With thanks to the Community Server team (for their product), I now have the site up and running.

About the site:

ASP.NET 2.0
Community Server 2.0 for ASP.NET 2.0 (Express for now)
Used website template (only pieces) purchased on TemplateMonster.com
Ads are driven by Google Adsense
Added the site to Google Via Google Sitemaps
Traffic reporting is done via Google Analytics
Shared hosting site via ASPnix (IIS6/SQL Server 2005 64-bit)

I plan to produce a fair amount of content for this site, but mostly through my blog. My blog is still currently posted on weblogs.asp.net, but I plan to use this site to most the majority of my blogs and do crossposting over to the weblogs.asp.net site.

From time to time, I write a bunch of protoype applications and tools and they just sit on my home development machine wasting away. So I plan to share a bunch of that on this site.

I have a few ideas on some other websites, so this is just a start at running my own public websites and content.

With that said, I'm still working with Service Provider/Hosters customers around the globe while working for Planet Technologies (http://www.go-planet.com/). With so much coming down the road from Microsoft (IIS 7, Exchange 12, Office Servers), I have a lot to learn and share with all of you.

Conrad Agramont's WebLog : Community Server

More Microsoft Sites (Part 2)

Launched Agramont.net