When it rains… Sina, another of China’s heavyweight web properties (they are the #1 portal, specializing in news and blogs), announced Silverlight plans and showed a kick ass music search/playback/browsing experience that took inspiration from the "deepzoom" catalog concept seen elsewhere (such as HardRock site) but took it to the next level with awesome interactions, dynamic results that come in from general web search, and integrated media playback.  What was particularly interesting was how quickly they build the app, with their product unit manager claiming that once the visual designs were done, they build the working prototype (with real web service integration) over the weekend!  Extra points for integrating his powerpoint slides into the app itself, as a series of DeepZoom objects in the collection–got a big laugh/"ahh" from the audience at the press event.

Can’t wait to see the app live, expected within a month.  Here’s a video recording of the demo, without audio unfortunately (lots of Chinese pop music playing!)

http://silverlight.services.live.com/invoke/9261/Sina_MusicMap_Demo/iframe.html