Corruptful

Microsoft has learned some very serious lessons when it comes to complying with Web standards after taking heavy criticism from the industry and, more importantly, a beating in the browser market share.

In a video interview with ZDNet Australia last month, Microsoft blogger and group manager of technical community, Frank Arrigo, explained how important it is for the Redmond giant to follow Web standards.

“Standards are important,” said Arrigo, who admitted that Microsoft had been guilty of ignoring them in the past. “If you look at IE6, we didn’t quite follow all the standards but standards are important … IE7 as an example is trying to address that.”

In July 2003, IE owned more than 90 percent of the browser market and very few companies even bothered testing their Web applications against anything other than Microsoft’s (non-standards compliant) browser.

In that position of power, Microsoft announced that IE would no longer be released as a standalone browser and instead would only be available as part of the next desktop operating system–at that time known only by the codename Longhorn, but since released as Windows Vista.

In response to the announcement, analysts such as Gartner’s Michael Silver warned that Microsoft’s decision was likely to create opportunities for alternative browsers.

“People will think, ‘are the applications I’m writing for the browser-agnostic, or are they IE applications–which makes them Windows applications?’ If I want an application to run on a Linux desktop or Macintosh desktop, maybe the way to do that is to ensure it runs on Mozilla, Safari and the other main browsers,” Silver said.

This was also the view of James Governor, an analyst at RedMonk. Governor said: “The bottom line is that consumer-facing Web sites have been remiss in supporting the latest standards, and unresponsive to the needs of many users. It’s time to reassess that approach, and Microsoft’s decision is a good spur to doing just that.”

Four years on, Microsoft still has the dominant browser, but its last year market share has plummeted. Firefox and Opera, which are standards compliant, have made amazing progress and Apple is also hoping to have an impact with it Windows-based Safari offering.

Microsoft is now facing a new challenge–in the world of Web 2.0, the company’s Expression Web design tools, which along with Silverlight, have been touted by some as potential “Adobe Flash Killers”.

However, this time around Microsoft is preaching the use of standards.

At Remix, Microsoft’s Arrigo said: “Expression Web is about being a standards-compliant tool because we want to make sure our tools are used by people that are embracing the standards”.

When asked if it could be a “Flash killer”, he said: “At the end of the day, the customers are going to decide. People who are making applications are going to make a decision. At least we have got something in this genre now”.

It seems that Microsoft has learned a very big lesson and this time, it will be the quality of the software rather than an attempted abuse of market power that will decide the winner.

British teenager who bought a Sony Playstation 2 on eBay for £95 ($194) got more than he bargained for when he opened the package. Instead of a shiny, happy gaming console, there was a whole heap of euros - €65,400 ($90,000) to be precise—stacked neatly inside. A spokesman for eBay said that the parcel’s contents were “somewhat unusual,” but that they would help the police in any way they could. When the parcel arrived, on March 20, the boy’s parents contacted the Norfolk Constabulary, who are now holding the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act. If the owner does not come forward by September 22, then the family can apply to have the cash returned to them—unless the police apply to hold onto the money for a longer period.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With cots, pillows and pleas for change, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate began a rare around-the-clock session on Tuesday to push President George W. Bush and fellow Republicans to end the Iraq war.

Yet Republicans seemed to have the votes to erect a procedural roadblock to stop a Democratic plan that is backed by a majority of the Senate to withdraw U.S. combat troops by the end of April 2008.

A showdown vote on the plan was expected shortly before noon EDT( 1600 GMT) on Wednesday by weary and sharply divided lawmakers.

“Republicans will need to choose whether they want to protect the president or protect our troops,” said Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

Democrats repeatedly noted that more than 3,600 U.S. soldiers have died in the increasingly violent Iraq war, now in its fifth year, while Republicans warned a troop pullout would embolden terrorists and increase the risk of attack on the United States.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky fired back: “The Democrats, unfortunately, are trying to undermine the efforts of our troops and restrict the ability of our generals to carry out their mission.”

Republicans denounced the all-night debate as a stunt by Democrats who have drawn fire from voters for failing to deliver on a 2006 campaign vow to withdraw troops.

Outside the Capitol, a couple dozen protesters chanted, “Lead us out of Iraq now, Nancy,” to House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, after the California Democrat held a news conference on an unrelated topic.

In preparation for the all-night session, portable beds were set up in a room near the Senate. Pillows, snacks and toothbrushes were also brought in.  Continued…

Gmail’s huge success owes itself in large part to the wide range of applications, browser add-ons, styles, scripts and bookmarklets that work with it. From the get-go Google’s stayed out of developers’ way and turned a blind eye to unofficial Gmail add-ons, even ones that may very well violate its terms of service. Smart move: Google’s high tolerance for third-party apps have only helped Gmail win the hearts of power users and tweakers everywhere. To celebrate, today we’ve got our top 10 list of unauthorized and unofficial but hella-useful apps that make Gmail that much better. More here.