Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Monitor had a little problem accessing a Microsoft Web site today and decided to jump to some conclusions:
I found that I could easily get to the Website using Internet Explorer on Windows. This morning, I tried to access the Website using Mozilla’z Firefox and ended up at the same error page. Apparently, Microsoft’s Small Business Center Website is for people using its software, and I think that’s a mistake.
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This wouldn’t be the first time a Microsoft Website locked out other Web browsers. And I can understand why Microsoft wants to hook SMBs as tightly as possible into its technologies.
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The news media loves to rap Microsoft whenever it pulls these kind of proprietary stunts, particularly around Internet Explorer. I know plenty of editors who were reporters during the browser wars or Microsoft’s U.S. antitrust trial; they love to rehash that chapter of Microsoft history. I think Microsoft would serve itself better by making sure its Websites conform to World Wide Web consortium standards rather than assuming everyone uses Internet Explorer. I don’t really believe Microsoft Website developers are trying to lock out other Web browsers, so much as they don’t take them seriously. That’s a mistake.
OK, I use Firefox 1.0 here. I just tried to visit the Web site Joe wrote about. And guess what? It opened right up. So whatever the problem was, it didn’t seem to have anything to do with Microsoft trying to “lock out” other browsers.
Last August, Ed Foster was griping about Microsoft locking out other browsers from its online Knowledge Base. Guess what? That turned out to be a temporary issue also. I checked at the time and had no problem accessing the Knowledge Base search page with Firefox. Almost certainly unrelated to any deliberate decision to lock anyone out.
But it’s much more fun to write stories that say how evil Microsoft is. Even when they’re not true.
Ed Bott 