Should Microsoft Complain of Interface Theft by Sina?

Written by Tangos on September 2, 2006
Tags:,

I just read a post in Techcrunch which cited a blog post by Garry Wiseman, who criticize Sina, a China’s portal site, to “steal design and graphics” of Microsoft Live Expo. To quote some of his words:

[Sina.com] had not only lifted our previous user interface’s look & feel, but also directly copied some of our graphics (note the cool pushpin graphic that our designer Becky created).

The accused Sina’s classified site is here. And you can find the screenshot of “original design” by Expo here. So you can compare the two site and made your own judgement.

I acknowledge that there are many copycats of foreign sites in China. However, after comparing the above two sites, I don’t think I can say Sina.com copied Ms Expo. Yes, the pushpins are very similar or the same? They should not do so if they did use it directly. But the layout, spacing, the position of images are totally different, it is ridiculous to say Sina.com copied Expo’s “interface’s look & feel”. How about your opinion?

BTW, Sina is one of the largest Chinese portal site. Though Sina has a search engine called iAsk, we usually don’t think Sina.com as a search engine in China, not to mention “one of China’s largest search engine”.

(Update: Maybe the title should change to “Should Garry Complain of Interface Theft by Sina”.

3 Responses to “Should Microsoft Complain of Interface Theft by Sina?”

  1. raenoll on September 2nd, 2006 7:05 am

    We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

  2. Lupang on September 4th, 2006 12:40 am

    It’s non-sense for the accuse..

  3. Philippe on September 10th, 2006 1:07 pm

    Make sure to compare the Sina website to the old Expo version (Click my website above for the link).

    Garry is right to complain abt it.

    Just imagine he wants to introduce Live Expo on the chinese market. People would think that Microsoft copied SINA !

    You should also know that GArry is busy working on that project at the moment the chinese version of Live Expo will soon be made available.

    Next to that you should know that google is considering buying SINA. I see there another reason for Microsoft not to be fooled.

    In today’s America, Microsoft has just the right to shut up because it’s Microsoft. It’s really ridiculous.

    Google and other software/internet companies aren’t any better. And who else than Bill Gates offered USD500.000.000 to help kids and/or people suffering from all sorts of illnesses?

    Be fair and protect legal rights. No matter the name of the victim.

Post a comment