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Microsoft's Smart Tags
What are Microsoft's Smart tags, and why should we care?
By: David K. Every
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2001-09-10 03:55:51
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 icrosoft is adding a new feature called "smart tags" to WindowsXP (their next version of Windows), and it has quite a few people up in arms.
The basics are that Microsoft wants to add in what they call "smart tags" -- so they can add (or override) tags on any page you are viewing. What this means is that Microsoft can pick any word, on any web page, and make it a link to anywhere they want it to go. If there is already a link for that word, that's alright, Microsoft will still take over and send you to where they think you want to go -- not to where the site designer orginally wanted you to go. Smart tags are smart, in that if Microsoft gets away with it, then they own everyone's website viewing experience, and can tell you what you get to view and where you get to go. This is a huge win for Microsoft -- but a huge loss for users, website designers and the entire web itself.
Imagine Microsoft being able to sell to Dell the rights so that everytime you see the words "computer" or even "Compaq" it actually takes you to the Dell website, or to a site explaining why Dell is better than Compaq? Imagine Microsoft being able to "improve" Apple or others websites so that when you click on the link for all the "Job Opportunities" it redirects you to Microsoft's website or to some approved vendor of jobs -- which they pay Microsoft handsomely for.
I don't think Microsoft should be the approved editor / censor for all the information available on the web. And I certainly don't like the implications and potential for graft and abuse that Microsofts "Smart links" would give them. How would you feel knowing that if your competitors bribed Microsoft enough that they redesign your website to send your customers to them?
People sometimes ask why Microsoft is the most hated company in the computer industry -- and this is another example of why. Microsoft often tries to pull things like this and bully everyone else into submission. They seldom get away with it -- and I doubt they will this time as well -- but the audacity to try to control the entire web, and the sincere fear that they might get away with it, is enough to cause long resentments. And Microsoft has gotten away with stuff like this in the past -- and that is why they are in like their third lawsuit with the government for monopoly practices.
Long term Microsoft is unlikely to get away with this -- but short term they could, and it would take years to stop them. How many companies could they break in those few years?
Microsoft is backing down in their use of smart links, and claims they won't use them for "bad". But their initial releases showed scary enough possibilities, and their abuses of the past are enough that people are not feeling very confident. This is just another one of those things that people who are following the computer industry should remember for years to come as a very scary prospect.
-- (Relevant Wall Street Journal Link at: http://public.wsj.com/sn/y/SB991862595554629527.html)
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