Microsoft adCenter is an interesting example of Microsoft’s attempt to adopt Web 2.0 aesthetics. It clearly is very different from traditional Microsoft design and if you look in the source HTML - it is amazingly clean and semantic, especially for Microsoft. Apparently it was not done in Frontpage :)

Alas, it’s one thing trying and another - doing. The Sign Up button on the home-page has all the right stuff - big font, gradient color… but, boy, it is UGLY! Especially next to the green gradient thingie.

And what happened to the three orphaned paragraphs in the bottom? Why in the world do you need to write “sign up” in such an ugly manner, repeatedly if you have a huge sign-up button in a visible place? All of it just reminds a lot the infamous iPod/MS packaging video.