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| Talk,
Graham Bower,
16 January 1999 | |
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Whatever your personal opinion on the Microsofties in Redmond, you can’t deny that they are a clever bunch. If only they lavished as much good thinking on their products as they do on their strategic corporate plotting, Windows would run without a glitch, and we wouldn’t have to endure low res, jaggedy logos on system start up.
You see, as we witness the dying days of Microsoft, it strikes me that Microsoft’s true gift to the world is not personality laden paperclips dispensing homespun advice, but in teaching us all a thing or two about hypocrisy and corporate hubris.
Take Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for example (you haven’t got much option if you want to browse a web page, after all.) Internet Explorer happens to be the world’s most popular web browser. Its success is largely due to Microsoft’s use of standards developed and set by an organisation called The World Wide Web Consortium. These standards dictate the way in which Web pages should be written. It is because of these standards that Microsoft was able to come along and take such a huge share of a market previously dominated by Netscape. By following standards, Microsoft was able to produce software that did exactly the same thing as Netscape’s popular browser.
So, while it suited them, Microsoft were keen advocates and implementers of standards. But now, the shoe is on the other foot, and it seems Microsoft are very happy to kick with it.
Last month, Microsoft released two different version of their Web Browser. The first, "Internet Explorer 5.0 Macintosh Edition," is the most standards compliant browser on the market, or so Microsoft proudly claimed. Indeed, the esteemed "Web Standards Project" commended Microsoft for its standards based approach. The second, "Internet Explorer 5.5" for Windows PCs is very far from the standards set by The World Wide Web Consortium. Indeed, the Web Standards Project, who earlier in the month had been singing Microsoft’s praises were highly critical of IE 5.5’s partial implementation of web standards.
So what are Microsoft playing at this time? What’s their evil Mr Burnsesque plan? Well, in true Bill Gates style, it’s the old "World Domination" card again. Here’s how
By using their monopoly, Microsoft has made Internet Explorer for PC by far the most popular browser. They don’t need to follow standards any more, because Internet Explorer IS the standard. Who cares that Internet Explorer Macintosh Edition is standards compliant when every Web developer is writing their Web pages for Internet Explorer 5.5 for PC? In fact, the irony is that by making the Mac version of their browser "standards" compliant rather than Internet Explorer 5.5 for PC compliant they ensured most web pages would not display correctly on it.
Standards are important because they ensure that a web page will look the same and function correctly regardless of what computer, browser or interactive TV they are viewed on. And this is where Microsoft’s plan for world domination kicks in. By making their PC browser different to everyone else’s, they make it as difficult as possible for anyone else to get a share of the market, - even their own Macintosh division!
Now that is cunning – what a shame the big M won’t be around for much longer to entertain us with their devilish plans!
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