I missed the exciting browser Wars. Every few months, both Microsoft and Netscape released new versions of their browsers with new and sometimes interesting features. Unfortunately, innovation has almost stopped with the death of Netscape, and the web browser has turned into what marketers call a “stable platform.”

By the time this article hits print, the Microsoft Windows XP operating system should be on sale and millions of users will be able to try Internet Explorer 6 - the first major IE upgrade over the past two and a half years. It is curious that the most interesting thing about this upgrade is not new features that have been added, but those features that have disappeared.

Java

Since Netscape has ceased to be a real threat, Microsoft received an opportunity for innovative development and was able to remove all unnecessary cross-platform support. The java was quickly swept away by a broom from IE6. In itself, this is not surprising and is not something disturbing. Microsoft’s Java support has always been lethargic. In the old days, Sun and other companies supplied plug-ins for IE, with which Java worked properly in Internet Explorer. Even without Microsoft endorsement, users could continue using them. Unfortunately, Microsoft also stops supporting plugins.

All existing plugins should be rewritten under Microsoft ActiveX. The developers with whom I discussed this topic explain that it will be possible to rewrite them with ActiveX elements and provide the same functionality as in old plugins, but they all expressed doubt that this situation will continue in the future.
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Java in the browser is dead, but Java itself remains pretty strong. Java on the browser side attracted too much attention, but it was never supported as well as Java on the server side. Most Java programs written today work outside of the browser and continue to work normally on Windows XP.

Smart tags

Smart tags are an innovative feature that appeared in the early beta of IE6 and in the final release of Office XP. They solve the problem that Microsoft formulates as "lack of links to sites." IE6 can insert its own hyperlinks for keywords that appear in the text of any web page.

For example, the word “Microsoft” will generate a hyperlink to the official Microsoft website, any mention of Windows XP may be accompanied by a link to the online order form, and the stock exchange ticker can automatically refer to quotes from the Microsoft financial site. Smart tags also allow Microsoft to sell keywords to advertisers in the same way search engines do. The potential Microsoft revenues here are truly enormous. What do you think, how much will Sony pay for each phrase “DVD Player” in the entire Web to turn into a hyperlink to their online store?

Smart tags immediately sparked protests among webmasters and content creators, who are still carrying strange thoughts that they themselves, and not Microsoft, should monitor content and advertising on the sites they create. In July, Microsoft announced that smart tags would still be removed from the final release of IE6.

However, smart tags will not disappear anywhere and will not be forgotten. They were turned off in IE6, but they are still present in the code and are still part of Office XP. Microsoft representatives made it clear that they would return this feature in a “more enjoyable” form.

Secure cookies

As soon as I heard about safe cookies, which are just a security option, they immediately seemed to me a good idea. I'm already tired of companies like DoubleClick, which track my movements on the web by setting cookies from sites of other companies. By default, early versions of IE6 allow cookies only from the site itself, and cookies from third parties, such as DoubleClick, are blocked.

If you correctly implement the function of secure cookies, these tracking companies can be thrown out of business in a matter of months, and I would not regret it, because their business methods always seemed to me somewhat obtrusive. However, it seems strange that Microsoft, having such an extensive history of introducing privacy to its users, attended to a relatively minor problem with third-party cookies.

Everything cleared up after some testing of the browser. It turned out that neither Microsoft nor its subsidiaries are among the “third party firms”. That is, according to Redmond standards, the installation of DoubleClick cookies is intrusive and must be blocked, and the installation of the same Microsoft Banner Network cookies is acceptable and will be allowed.

Secure cookies were also excluded from the final release of the browser due to the threat from the antitrust authorities, but they will definitely return as soon as Microsoft considers this possible.

Myth of user power

I found that most articles on new software are trying to explain new software features in terms of their importance to users. I think this approach is superficial and not appropriate in this case. At this stage, we are only taken into account as passive consumers of Microsoft products. In the perverted logic of market laws, the new Microsoft monopoly browser features are designed to increase sales of non-monopoly products, and features that are removed from the browser are removed under the influence of users.

The browser war has ended, and Microsoft won this war. Now the occupation begins.

Published October 25, 2001