What's cooler: Socks, tie or Vista?

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 10 Dec 2007 at 14:17

In what might be regarded as a hostage to fortune, Microsoft has launched its Christmas Cool Wall, in a bid to solve last-minute shopping dilemmas.

The idea - in no way stolen from the BBC's Top Gear - is that you create a graphical league table of potential gifts, rating potential purchases from Seriously Uncool to Sub Zero.

Using Microsoft's Live Search, users can add their own gift idea photos to the wall, although the company handily provides three to get you going: a tie, a pair of socks and a copy of Vista. Thankfully, there's plenty of space in the Seriously Uncool section.

Microsoft is using the Cool Wall to showcase its Silverlight technology. "This is the first joint venture between Live Search and Silverlight in the UK, and we're delighted that we can offer our users the chance to use our new technology in a fun way this festive season," says Cynthia Crossley, UK director of search at Microsoft.

"We hope the Cool Wall will help friends and family in their never-ending quest to buy those perfect gifts this Christmas."

Let's just hope those family and friends are running Firefox instead of Internet Explorer: it seems Microsoft's browser deems the Cool Wall as a "suspicious website" (Click image to enlarge). Quite right, too.