Oh no!.. It's Microsoft BOB, reincarnate!

Got an e-mail today on my personal Windows Live Hotmail account.  It was an invitation to the Windows Live Messenger Cafe. 

Oddly (and sadly, or even amusingly.. take your pick) enough, it actually didn't arrive in my inbox. 
It was in junk e-mail.  [ insert *Rim-Shot* sound effect here ]

It is a rather cute site, though.. promoting various social networking options you have under Windows Live.  That's cool.

But.. when you mouse-over the face of the woman at the counter... I dunno.  Her smile kinda creeps me out.  And the fake neon light seems to have a short.. it's flickering.

"What's Microsoft BOB? Did I miss an e-mail?"

No... it's not a new product.  And BOB is not an acronym for anything (at least not officially).  Those of you who have been computing for awhile may remember back in '95 our product called " Microsoft BOB ", which was an attempt to put a sort of friendly, easy navigation layer on top of Windows 95.  It was supposed to make it easy for my mother-in-law to use the computer.  But it was an idea WAY ahead of its time (my mother-in-law wouldn't have a computer for another 8 years), and it was a dismal failure.  Even more dismal than Windows ME.

This Windows Live Messenger Cafe page, with all the little items you can click on, was reminiscent of that interface.

...and I'm still shaking.

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Update:

Got an e-mail from another MS employee who informed me that BOB was originally written as a shell for Windows 3.1. 
I thought for sure it was 95.. but this guy would know.