Smart Tags
from Good Experience
- Microsoft's Smart Tags Threaten the User Experience -
(from Thursday, June 21, 2001)
Microsoft's upcoming release of Windows XP contains a feature that
attempts to suck all meaningful experience out of every page on the
Web. The feature, called Smart Tags, has brought about a loud
discussion on many websites -- Web developers everywhere screaming
for Microsoft to stop, and Microsoft arrogantly defending itself.
This is an important enough issue that I wanted to make sure
everyone on Good Experience knows about it.
Walt Mossberg, technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal,
broke the Smart Tags story in his June 7 column. Here's what he
wrote:
- [Smart Tags] allow Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser --
included in Windows XP -- to turn any word on any Web site into a
link to Microsoft's own Web sites and services, or to any other
sites Microsoft favors.
- In effect, Microsoft will be able, through the browser, to
re-edit anybody's site, without the owner's knowledge or
permission, in a way that tempts users to leave and go to a
Microsoft-chosen site -- whether or not that site offers better
information.
Soon after, Dave Winer wrote a column (among others) about Smart
Tags. Then Dan Gillmor, at San Jose Mercury News, wrote a column in
his weblog. Then Connie Guglielmo wrote a clever, and searing,
column in Interactive Week. Several weblogs got into it. Everyone
agreed: Microsoft was in the wrong.
- Walt Mossberg opposes Smart Tags:
http://public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB991862595554629527.html
- Dave Winer opposes Smart Tags:
http://davenet.userland.com/2001/06/13/microsoftfreeFridays
- Dan Gillmor opposes Smart Tags:
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/opinion/dgillmor/dg061501.htm
- Connie Guglielmo opposes Smart Tags:
http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2776985,00.html
- One of several weblogs opposing Smart Tags:
http://buzz.weblogs.com/2001/06/08
Dave Winer has continued monitoring the discussion and recently
posted a defense of Smart Tags sent in by a Microsoft employee:
- To suggest that the author knows best how to write effectively to
each individual reader is silly:
http://scriptingnews.userland.com/stories/storyReader$1254
...implying, of course, that *Microsoft* knows better than authors
how to communicate to their readers. Dave then quoted another
reader, who wrote in:
- Did Lincoln need Smart Tags in Gettysburg, to speak effectively
to each individual reader? Will Microsoft be Smart Tagging the
Bible? "In the beginning was the Word (http://www.microsoft.com/office/word/default.htm)
and the Word (http://www.microsoft.com/office/xprebate.htm) was
with God, and the Word (http://www.microsoft.com/office/evaluation/reviews.htm)
was God."
http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2001/06/21
This could happen, you know. If Microsoft gains monopoly over the
Web, everything -- including John 1:1 -- could be sponsored by
Microsoft. And that will be the end of the Web as the last major
medium not owned by major corporations.
John 1:1:
http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?passage=JOHN+1:1
To me, this underscores the problem we're beginning to face as
Microsoft attempts to extend its self-serving, user-hostile monopoly
to the Web. Smart Tags are likely just the first in a series of much
bigger threats Microsoft makes to the online user experience. We
must try to protect the Web by remaining vigilant to Microsoft's
moves. (If you're lucky enough to have a choice, don't use Microsoft
software.)
Related link: Bill Gates comic (August 8, 2000)
http://www.goodexperience.com/images/comic-bg080800.gif
- Smart Tags Launch -
(from Tuesday, June 26, 2001)
According to DaveNet...
http://davenet.userland.com/2001/06/25/theMomentWhenTheWebCrossedIntoMicrosoftOwnership
... Microsoft apparently has decided to *include* Smart Tags in its
new product launches. So Microsoft pushes on to serve its own needs,
with no regard for the Web or its users, despite vociferous
opposition from columnists at the Wall Street Journal, San Jose
Mercury News, Interactive Week, and too many weblogs to list here.
Ironically, Microsoft probably won't gain much from Smart Tags. A
quick look at Microsoft's own marketing happytalk...
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/preview/smarttags/default.asp
...shows that Smart Tags will only clutter the user experience.
(Imagine all the annoying Microsoft Word squigglies invading every
page on the Web.) Users will learn to ignore Microsoft's noise,
leaving Microsoft no gain; but in the process the overall user
experience will suffer, and Web developers will have one big
Microsoft mess to clean up. It's a classic lose-lose-lose
proposition that only Microsoft could pull off. Oh well.
(To begin the cleanup, The Register shows how developers can disable
Smart Tags: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/19943.html.
Be prepared to modify every page on your site.)
One might ask why everyone is making such a fuss, if this will just
amount to a one-time disaster - perhaps like an oil spill - that
will have to be cleaned up. The answer is that Microsoft could cause
another disaster, maybe even worse than Smart Tags, at any time.
Smart Tags may well be just the beginning of Microsoft's strangling
of this new medium.
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