How smart is that?
Aug. 27th, 2001 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
azuriteI used to bless Microsoft and their teams in all their ingenuity. My uncles fondly tell me one day I'll topple Bill Gates. Guys at the youth leadership conference I just came back from poke fun at his "overseas name" of with Bill Gates. "Name is Bill Door/Doorknob/Doorhinge." Laugh riot.
And though I will no doubt remain a Mac-hater for the rest of my life (^^;;) (Present Tense Note: oh, the irony...) I think Microsoft's latest "idea" or "spark of ingenuity" should have Ol' Billy flushed down a sewer drain.
Enter Smart Tags. How many of you here are webpage masters or designers? Huh? *peers around* That many, huh? Wow. Okay, if you haven't already heard the buzz, then listen: In the beta of Microsoft XP, the "Wonderful" peeps introduced Smart Tags, which allows users of MS's products, such as IE (Internet Explorer) to have "purple squigglies" under key words.
Example: You have a diary. You talk about the horrors of schools, the rudeness and sweetness of guys, the disgusting-ness of public bathrooms. It's 1st Amendment power in all its glory... and yet Smart Tags add squigglies under key words-- words like "school" with links to school supply stores, or "guys" to stores like "Macy's Men". Essentially, Microsoft compiles a bunch of sites with "relevant" info related to key words or phrases-- without your permission. See, their feature is "opt in" where your site is automatically spidered and squiggled. That is, unless you add a special meta tag.
MS had such a bad review about this latest idea that they removed it from IE and XP. But they are bent on keeping it; positive it will be put to good use, somehow, someway. But not for you, the hard-working, sweatin', creative genius behind your anti-animal cruelty page. Or your anti-slave labor page. Companies (third party) would pay MS to have specific keywords linked to their sites. So MS profits, and visitors dumb enough to link *off* your site to wherever lose money when they buy from X Inc. You-- just lost another visitor. Oh joy. And think about businesses that have this done to them. Their "keyword" was taken; or MS charges too much for third-party companies to be included. So when someone using and MS product surfs across that site, purple squiggles linking to their COMPETITION appear! Great Jehoshaphat! Talk about thoughtless. Imagine you, ordering a book, and then, before you got it, someone opened it up, read it page for page, wrinkled the pages, added their own notes here and there... what would you do? Return the book, that's for sure! That's exactly what MS wants to do with these Smart --er, I mean DUMB tags.
Not only that, but they plan to offer the ability to download (or steal, as the case may be) stuff without right clicking or File>Save As. Now, while I support "Free the Images" and despise "Right Click Scripts" I think you should always ask and/or link back to someone's page if you took something. Never offer someone else's hard-earned work on your page as YOUR own... when you know it isn't. Microsoft is becoming the monopoly it got sued for... and soon, there won't be much juice left in the maker for other "smart" products.
Enter Smart Tags. How many of you here are webpage masters or designers? Huh? *peers around* That many, huh? Wow. Okay, if you haven't already heard the buzz, then listen: In the beta of Microsoft XP, the "Wonderful" peeps introduced Smart Tags, which allows users of MS's products, such as IE (Internet Explorer) to have "purple squigglies" under key words.
Example: You have a diary. You talk about the horrors of schools, the rudeness and sweetness of guys, the disgusting-ness of public bathrooms. It's 1st Amendment power in all its glory... and yet Smart Tags add squigglies under key words-- words like "school" with links to school supply stores, or "guys" to stores like "Macy's Men". Essentially, Microsoft compiles a bunch of sites with "relevant" info related to key words or phrases-- without your permission. See, their feature is "opt in" where your site is automatically spidered and squiggled. That is, unless you add a special meta tag.
MS had such a bad review about this latest idea that they removed it from IE and XP. But they are bent on keeping it; positive it will be put to good use, somehow, someway. But not for you, the hard-working, sweatin', creative genius behind your anti-animal cruelty page. Or your anti-slave labor page. Companies (third party) would pay MS to have specific keywords linked to their sites. So MS profits, and visitors dumb enough to link *off* your site to wherever lose money when they buy from X Inc. You-- just lost another visitor. Oh joy. And think about businesses that have this done to them. Their "keyword" was taken; or MS charges too much for third-party companies to be included. So when someone using and MS product surfs across that site, purple squiggles linking to their COMPETITION appear! Great Jehoshaphat! Talk about thoughtless. Imagine you, ordering a book, and then, before you got it, someone opened it up, read it page for page, wrinkled the pages, added their own notes here and there... what would you do? Return the book, that's for sure! That's exactly what MS wants to do with these Smart --er, I mean DUMB tags.
Not only that, but they plan to offer the ability to download (or steal, as the case may be) stuff without right clicking or File>Save As. Now, while I support "Free the Images" and despise "Right Click Scripts" I think you should always ask and/or link back to someone's page if you took something. Never offer someone else's hard-earned work on your page as YOUR own... when you know it isn't. Microsoft is becoming the monopoly it got sued for... and soon, there won't be much juice left in the maker for other "smart" products.
