Took a quick look at Microsoft Soapbox which seems to be a me-too version of YouTube.

The first thing I noticed was the absence of any content I wanted to view, whereas YouTube is really dangerous if you want to avoid distraction. That will change if the service is popular; but I’m not clear why someone would use Microsoft’s service instead of YouTube which gets the traffic.

The second thing I noticed is that Microsoft is using Flash for these videos, as does YouTube. I gave it a cross-platform test, and was able to use the site on the Mac with Safari and on Linux with FireFox, so kudos to Microsoft for that. I’m puzzled though, because the system requirements state Windows Media Player 9 as well as Flash 8, and Windows Media Player 9 isn’t available for Linux. Nevertheless, it works.

That said, I’m surprised that Microsoft isn’t using SoapBox to show off WPF/E. I appreciate that this is still in beta, but then so is Soapbox. Does Microsoft not intend to use its cross-platform, video-capable solution for its own site? Or will it transition in future?