Microsoft and Webmasters
 by: Jeff Wyrick

Does Microsoft care for Webmasters

It’s always been a problem with websites appearing exactly the same on different platforms. As a web developer / webmaster it is extremely difficult to make user experiences rich by having the site look the same in any OS / Browser. The biggest problems they have with there famous Internet Explorer browser is security issues and W3C Standards compliance issues.

Does Microsoft have a vision of having the world’s most popular browser still? Yes but currently IE is dropping it’s rate pretty fast as Mozilla and Firefox support CSS2 and PNG Transparent Alpha where’s IE does not support. What’s really interesting is IE 5 for Mac supports both CSS2 and PNG Transparent Alpha but IE for Mac development has been discontinued. Makes me think Microsoft likes Apple more then there own Flagship Product “Windows”.

So why is it important for Internet Explorer to follow the W3C Standards?

• Makes it easier on a developers end to produce 1 website that looks great on other browsers besides just IE

• Provides developers with more choices for design formats a.k.a. PNG24 with Transparency, CSS2, etc. that want to develop for Internet Explorer.

• Make IE continue to be the worlds #1 web browser

A look into Microsoft’s next generation Longhorn with IE

I am sure you have heard of the next big OS that is a few years away from the final release. As IE is only up to version 6.05 there’s not much difference besides the new Longhorn look. I see one day Microsoft will have a fully supported W3C Standards browser. Most people’s wishes on the next version of IE are basically Standards support.

The main issue with IE as far back as IE 5 on a Windows platform has been rendering CSS2 and Transparent PNG24 images. IE does not support Transparent PNG24 files as it will display a grey background with the image.

My list of things Microsoft needs to support/fix

• W3C Standards Support

• Security

• Full HTML 4.01 / XHTML / XML / XSLT support

People may think I am crazy for not being Anti-Microsoft but even though they ether have tons of flaws or don’t support something like W3C Standards in there products I still love Microsoft and there products and always will until the day Microsoft falls or I die.

What happens if Microsoft does not support W3C Standards in there next version of IE?

Well there are ways to fix the compliance problems they have with the W3C Standards. Tonight I thought of a possible development of a plug-in that allows IE users to render content currently supported by other browsers but not IE. As for previous versions of IE that don’t render content the plug-in would be basically be compatible with IE 5.x to the latest in Longhorn as people may not have money to buy a new high-end computer for just Longhorn. I am sure there are other ways besides a plug-in to make IE render correctly but a plug-in is the only thing I could think of.