Ok, I maybe violating a rule here, but I gotta say it (in fact this post is directed at a particular somebody at MS who has caused me to ponder Google's role in my life).
Tonight I'm trying to pull up 1 simple thing. I want to download the VS 2008 beta 2 on my computer "at work" (which I am remoted into)... manually copying over the VPN will take entirely too long.
I did a quick search from my home page on my box at work... the home page at work is msn.com... I guess you can see how much I've customized it. I am using Live.com as a feed reader, so that's my home page on most of my boxes...
Anyway, VS 2008 beta 2 just released last week and I'm wanting to get it installed as we are planning on using multi-targeting with our existing ASP.NET 2.0 app (but enough of that).
I typed in "VS 2008 beta2 downloads" hit enter and up appear several 1 month old posts predicting when beta 2 will be available for download. I add "Orcas" to that... mostly it's the same old posts. I've tried a number of combinations... everything ends up nowhere.
So I go to the Evil Anti-Privacy empire (google.com), type in "VS 2008 beta2 download." And guess what the first link is? You guessed it... the direct page on MSDN for the downloads of the VS 2008 betas 2 bits.
I'm not one to bite the hand that (sort of) feeds me, but come on!!?? The best search engine for MS' properties should be an MS Search Engine!!