Microsoft has a new startup for startups. Not to be confused with its small business center, which is actually a very robust resource that I highly recommend.

Startup Center, as its called, is a joint effort with MasterCard, FedEx and Bank of America. In other words, the site is brought to you by a lot of people who want you to succeed in business so they can do business with you,

I got sneak access to the site over the past few days, before today's launch. For what it's worth, here's one woman's view:'

I like the layout. It's like an online workbook for starting a new business. The navigation tabs flow in a step by step chronology of what to do.

Cindy Bates, GM of Microsoft's small business division was doing the pre-launch back-to-back interviews with press last week (I was 11am on Thursday). What I got out of my 20 minutes was primarily two words: comprehensive and actionable. I like the site, but I'm not sure it fully delivers on either.

Startup Center, for now, is primarily harvesting its content through a deal with Startup Nation. It begs the question for me, why not just go to Startup Nation in the first place? Startup Nation is actually a more robust site and even has an active community of entrepreneurs cross pollinating with each other on the site's message boards, for example.

As for the word "actionable"; yes, Startup Center does lay out content in the one-two punch of articles with links to tools to actually get things done. Again, the strength of the site is that it's laid out in really simple easy to follow steps - a kind of decision tree format.

But, I have to get this off my chest. It would be a better site, if this were a few years ago. Startup Center is very Web 1.0.

I just can't help shaking my head at what's not a part of the site. Where's the social networking aspect? Why isn't this a Facebook for entrepreneurs? You can get nuts and bolts how-to information about starting a business from a million places (including this site). I see a missed opportunity here; an opportunity to help fledgling businesses network with each other, find mentors, angel investors and VC types. Where's the web- based collaborative tools? Where's the widgets? Where's the blogging community? Where's the personalization tools to create a Pageflakes-like dashboard for my startup?

I also see limitations with the corporate partners. Do I really want MasterCard's help picking out a corporate card? It's not likely they're going to recommend a low interest offer from Discover, now is it?

Like everything else web-based, I advise taking the buffet approach. Pick and choose the tasty bits and leave the rest. There are some tasty bits at Startup Center. There's also a lot more, however, better left to incubate further under the heat lamps.