smart tags
With the release of XP, has anyone had to deal with smart tags f*ing up their web pages? I haven't the chance to mess around with XP so I don't know how they work. What's the best way to deal with M$'s taking over the internet tactics? TIA
On another note, I hate that I have to deal with this. My pages are done and I haven't needed to update them in a while. Now I've got to dig out the dreamweaver and bbedit and dust the pages off
I'm running a site for psychological treatment and I don't want M$ telling my clients where to go to read about depression. They don't know what they're talking about. I do. Too bad people will not be able to distinguish after a what's what after a while. Maybe I should redirect all IE requests to an error page with links to Opera and Netscape...
On another note, I hate that I have to deal with this. My pages are done and I haven't needed to update them in a while. Now I've got to dig out the dreamweaver and bbedit and dust the pages off
I'm running a site for psychological treatment and I don't want M$ telling my clients where to go to read about depression. They don't know what they're talking about. I do. Too bad people will not be able to distinguish after a what's what after a while. Maybe I should redirect all IE requests to an error page with links to Opera and Netscape...
Comments
1)The is a tag you can add to your webpages that will disable smart tags.
2)Microsoft dropped smart tags (for now at least) at the last minute from industry pressure...
Not sure though...
<strong>I think MS turned them off by default.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Smart Tags are not present in WindowsXP or Internet Explorer 6. There is indeed a meta tag to disable them from working on your webpage if you want. Smart Tags are an option you can install with Office XP, with additional smart tag features downloadable from the net. Once you've enabled smart tags with OfficeXP it can interopt with IE6 to display the tags there. I absolutely love smart tags personally. I'm pissed that so many people made a stink about a product they don't understand. If apple had introduced it you'd be singing it's praises.
<strong>
Smart Tags are not present in WindowsXP or Internet Explorer 6. There is indeed a meta tag to disable them from working on your webpage if you want. Smart Tags are an option you can install with Office XP, with additional smart tag features downloadable from the net. Once you've enabled smart tags with OfficeXP it can interopt with IE6 to display the tags there. I absolutely love smart tags personally. I'm pissed that so many people made a stink about a product they don't understand. If apple had introduced it you'd be singing it's praises.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The reason why people are making a stink about it is.. you shouldn't have to ADD html to turn them off. You should have to add to turn them on. Not only that they add things to your site that why may not want on there. Say a Linux page is writing a story about things that make XP suck. Microsoft uses smart tags to direct you to a page that talks about how Linux is un-american
It's basically MS changing your web page without your permission.
You should have to add something to your html to make it smart tags enabled. Not add something to your html so it wont work. Just like any other type of html tag.
[ 11-20-2001: Message edited by: Sinewave ]</p>
<a href="http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=3105"; target="_blank">http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=3105</a>;
<a href="http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=3150"; target="_blank">http://www.appleturns.com/scene/?id=3150</a>;
Why?
Well the two problems Jakob Nielsen sited come to mind.
"There is no doubt that "smart tags" are useful. There are just two problems with the implementation:
*\tUse of squiggly underlines as link anchors: in rich hypertext you don't want visible link anchors since they will clutter up the screen and reduce reading speed. When most things are linked, you don't need marks. Use a technique similar to HyperCards and display the anchors when the user holds down a modifier key.
*\tIf the link destinations are all Microsoft properties, then the feature obviously becomes an abuse of power. It is good for the browser to include hooks for implicit links, but users should subscribe to a variety of services for the destinations."
Here's another nay sayer...
<a href="http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20010607.html"; target="_blank">http://ptech.wsj.com/archive/ptech-20010607.html</a>;
<strong>
Smart Tags are not present in WindowsXP or Internet Explorer 6. There is indeed a meta tag to disable them from working on your webpage if you want. Smart Tags are an option you can install with Office XP, with additional smart tag features downloadable from the net. Once you've enabled smart tags with OfficeXP it can interopt with IE6 to display the tags there. I absolutely love smart tags personally. I'm pissed that so many people made a stink about a product they don't understand. If apple had introduced it you'd be singing it's praises.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Eskimo,
Regardless of whose technology it was, I'd still be upset. There's alot of useless, or worse, hurtful, information out on the web regarding psychological disorders and if people are coming to my site, where I'm using proven methods of treatment for some guidance, I don't want anyone mucking that up. Hell, it could be Aaron Beck himself, and I'd still be pissed. Otherwise, they could be useful, but it should be the designer of the website that decides that, as Sinewave said. I should choose to turn them on, not have to remember to turn them off.
<strong>I'm pissed that so many people made a stink about a product they don't understand.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh I understood them. I understood them to be a shameless ploy by Microsoft to edit other people's web pages to insert links to Microsoft's services.
[quote]Originally posted by Eskimo:
<strong>If apple had introduced it you'd be singing it's praises.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If Apple had done it it would have been to link to sites that the user would want. Not a shameless ploy to insert links to apple.com
<strong>
If Apple had done it it would have been to link to sites that the user would want. Not a shameless ploy to insert links to apple.com</strong><hr></blockquote>
Like the Sherlock banners right?
<strong>
Like the Sherlock banners right?
Well look at it. The banner will come from the search engine's site. It will not be an Apple banner IF the site has a banner to go there. If there is no banner from the site then Apple puts one in.
Also look at why the banner is there at all. Apple didn't want them there. But the search sites were worried about losing hits on the banners. So Apple put them in. So you see Apple did not include them for their own promotion but rather to appease other sites. Given a choice there would be no banners at all.
I doubt you can see the difference.
<strong>Sherlock is Apple's product, and it doesn't interfere with the results. Smart Tags modify websites. There's a difference.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Again.. I wasn't arguing that. You somehow think Apple does or wouldn't do anything sneaky or bad towards the consumer. When it has many times.
<strong>Stop posting so much or you'll be the new applenut.
Hey I am not whining and complaining am I?
<strong>Sherlock is Apple's product, and it doesn't interfere with the results. Smart Tags modify websites. There's a difference.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Smart Tags do not modify a website. The source HTML is not altered. You as an HTML author do NOT have say in how your site is interpreted. A browser is free to interpret your code as it wishes and display it to the user in the manner he/she wishes. You control the content of your website, not the context in which it is digested by the browsers.
Minute Maid makes an orange juice commercial with popeye and bluto in order to sell more OJ. Some people interpret the ad to think it is a gay/lesbian recruitment vehicle. Was that the intent of the author? Doubtful, but the audience is free to interpret a creative work however they wish even if it is contrary to the author's intent.
[quote]
I should choose to turn them on, not have to remember to turn them off.
<hr></blockquote>
They are off by default on the user's machines. If they have enabled them then that is their choice. All you have to do is paste a one line piece of html code into your source, it's not that rigorous.
[quote]
Oh I understood them. I understood them to be a shameless ploy by Microsoft to edit other people's web pages to insert links to Microsoft's services.
<hr></blockquote>
Then you do not in fact understand smart tags. It was an open medium by which any company can provide their own set of smart tags. You can choose which ones to install and uninstall on your computer. Personally I use ones from ESPN and the Wall Street Journal.
<strong>
Smart Tags do not modify a website. The source HTML is not altered. You as an HTML author do NOT have say in how your site is interpreted. A browser is free to interpret your code as it wishes and display it to the user in the manner he/she wishes. You control the content of your website, not the context in which it is digested by the browsers.<hr></blockquote></strong> They are adding content and links to your content that you didn't want there. No they don't have to right to do such a thing. As a matter of fact THAT is what made MS turn it off by default.. and THAT is the reason you don't hear MS pushing it anymore. What your saying is.. I browser and take a bunch of words in your html and change them during display.. and as long as the html is the same it's ok? I think not.
[quote]<strong>
Minute Maid makes an orange juice commercial with popeye and bluto in order to sell more OJ. Some people interpret the ad to think it is a gay/lesbian recruitment vehicle. Was that the intent of the author? Doubtful, but the audience is free to interpret a creative work however they wish even if it is contrary to the author's intent.
<hr></blockquote></strong>
[quote]<strong>
They are off by default on the user's machines. If they have enabled them then that is their choice. All you have to do is paste a one line piece of html code into your source, it's not that rigorous.
<hr></blockquote></strong>
The point is you shouldn't HAVE TO turn anything off just to get something not to work. It should be OFF by default. If a site wants smart tags then it should be able to ADD html code to make it work. Like any other HTML addon.. like Flash or QT or javascript. MS knows if they made it that way.. Smart Tags would never be used. There are web pages 100s of pages long. A web admin shouldn't have to modify ALL those page just to turn something off that shouldn't be there in the first place. MS wants ALL sites to have them. It's a real shitty thing to do . And MS got bitchslapped in the press cause of it. That is the reason it's turned off by default.
[quote][qt]
Then you do not in fact understand smart tags. It was an open medium by which any company can provide their own set of smart tags. You can choose which ones to install and uninstall on your computer. Personally I use ones from ESPN and the Wall Street Journal.
<hr></blockquote>[/qt]
And it you don't provide MS with any set.. guess what happens. Suddenly your favorite linux page has links to MS's web page about Linux being communist every time the word linux is displayed.
No thanks.
Stop being a MS apologist.
[ 11-22-2001: Message edited by: Sinewave ]</p>
I do like the Daily show, but it isn't fake news for the most part. They simply take real people/events and put a sarcastic/cynical/farsical spin on them. Those interviews are real with real people. Believe it or not there are some pretty weird people in the world. Of course they are probally editing all the questions they ask in post-production to make it sound even funnier.
[quote]Originally posted by Sinewave:
[QB][/qt]
[quote]And it you don't provide MS with any set.. guess what happens. <hr></blockquote>
Whoa, a novel idea. A company that releases a product will have it default to their webpage. You ever seen a Dell computer? Guess where it's default homepage is in IE, OMG it's dellnet! And netscape navigator? OMG it's netscape's netcenter thingie! The horror, imagine default settings leading you to sites that adequetly perform the 'smart' functions. It's a Microsoft product, they have every right to default to services they also happen to own. What are they expected to point to competitor's websites just because they are "evil" Microsoft and not Apple the company out to save the world? They do provide an easy path to download alternative packages for smart tags and even link to them off their own site.
[quote]
Stop being a MS apologist.
<hr></blockquote>
There is no need to apologize for Microsoft, since there is nothing wrong with Smart Tags. Stop being such an alarmist just because it's Microsoft.