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Microsoft's new celeb site makes splash ... running on Adobe Flash
BermanBraun Interactive and Microsoft's MSN today unveiled Wonderwall, a new celebrity site meant to feel like "flipping through a favorite magazine" -- with "a bold and inventive new design featuring a wall of photos and graphics."
Must be a great showcase for Microsoft's Silverlight technology, right? Nope, turns out it's running on Adobe Flash.
That was no doubt the subject of some intense behind-the-scenes discussions at the Redmond company, which has been doing its best to position Silverlight as the next big thing in online interactivity. BermanBraun created the site, according to various reports, which may have something to do with the choice of technology.
An MSN representative says Silverlight will be used on the site to some extent. Currently, for example, the "Pretty in Ink" feature on the Wonderwall home page links to a Silverlight-based feature on the MSN Movies site.
In any event, Wonderwall is getting a good reception today, most notably from Kara Swisher of AllthingsD.com: "Using an unusual horizontal design with a scrolling “wall,” a plethora of pictures and a deeply visual sensibility, it’s definitely a laudable risk for Microsoft as the company seeks to continue to push itself into the online content business, despite a lackluster record," she writes.
BermanBraun is led by former Yahoo media chief Lloyd Braun and former Paramount Pictures executive Gail Berman. Both Microsoft and BermanBraun are selling ads for the new site, which is jumping into a highly competitive market for celebrity news and gossip.
More details on the BermanBraun-Microsoft relationship in this post by Staci Kramer of PaidContent.org.
About Todd Bishop
Todd Bishop is co-founder and managing editor of TechFlash. He has covered Microsoft and the technology industry for more than five years, most recently as a daily newspaper reporter and blogger based in Seattle.
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