I read a very interesting article yesterday that ranked the usability between Apple's website and Microsoft's website. Granted, I am a little biased toward Apple, but I do feel that the author did a great job in their comparison. *spoiler: Apple won. To add to the critique the Microsoft website does something that is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.
If a company claims to be in the "web" business then they need to create websites that look the same in all browsers. Microsoft has a HORRIBLE reputation on releasing browsers that are not standards compliant, but are constantly giving non-IE users who visit their websites a second rate experience. Case in point...their own website. If you go their website with anything other than Internet Explorer, the visitor is presented with this ANNOYING alert in the upper left hand corner that is asks if you want to "Upgrade your Internet experience". After few seconds it does minimize, but if you don't click the "Don't show me this EVER again link" the next page you navigate to will show it. The fact is that I do want to upgrade my internet experience, but not by installing Silverlight, or IE7 or IE8 for that matter. All of the before mentioned pieces of software are horrible, lack innovation, and do nothing but dumb down the web. I want to upgrade my internet experience by not being harassed by Microsoft.