Ms Ie6

[ihelpyou]

Does anyone here have the IE6 browser installed?

If so, I would like some feedback on it. What are available as far as links in the "smart tags"?

Any other info is appreciated. I do not want to load it... maybe never, but it does make a difference as to what my site and other sites look like with the tags.

[JuniorHarris]

Yes, I was curious too, but I have not installed it yet. I do have a workstation which I can install it on...but it already runs slow enough! I may get around to it, and will let you know. I'm also curious if the Google tool bar will work with IE6 also...

[analog]

I had IE6 installed a while back.. it is still buggy, so I got rid of it.

I don't know anything about the smart tags, sorry Doug. Nothing ever really came up about them as I used the app.

JH, I was able to use the Google toolbar with it! If I hadn't, that program wouldn't have lasted 1 day on my computer :)

[ihelpyou]

hmmm, I believe you have to actually activate the smart tag function in the browser. It will not come up in the default setting.

This whole situation smells though. I think that the lawsuit filed in Vermont will put a stop to it. I kinda think Microsoft will re-think everything before going to court as there is much public outrage.

[Blue]

...What is this "Google tool bar" that you are referencing in these posts?

Actually, I think I need to ask more specific questions, so....

What is it?, What does it do?, Should we all have it?, Is it free?, Where can we get it? Why do you guys have it?

Forgive me if these Q's are redundant...

Thanks,

[ihelpyou]

This should answer all your questions blue:

http://toolbar.google.com/

I use it all the time. One reason is I like the Google search engine. The bar can do many things like see how your competitor's "pagerank" is with Google.

[JuniorHarris]

I have the Google toolbar installed as well, and as Doug suggested it's great for checking rank on competitor pages. It also provides toolbar access to the cached snapshot as well as backward links. It also has a nice feature to highlight search items on resulting [competitor] pages.

[Blue]

...Thanks guys.

[ihelpyou]

Microsoft decided to drop them from the final version:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6399150.html?tag=mn_hd

[JuniorHarris]

Thank goodness!~ The article says the smart tags won't be ready, but you have to wonder how much of it has been the negative responses from the webmaster world.

[ihelpyou]

At this time we just don't believe it's going to be ready when (Windows XP) ships in October," Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan said late Wednesday. "External feedback" was one of the factors that led the company to remove the feature, although he indicated it could be resurrected in later versions.


I would say that "external feedback" played a HUGE role in their decision. :cool:

[Blue]

Sounds to me like they are doing a soft-shoe. Just dancing around the fact that it is still included in Office XP - and probably saving it for the SP1 version of the XP OS???

I think it must be an integral part of Gates' .NET philosophy, and he's just riding out the storm of consumer criticism....until the point in time when he thinks the public is ready for it.

Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[JuniorHarris]

No offense intended blue, but I think the wait and see attitude it what put us where we are today!~ ;)

What I don't understand, is why limit the smart tags only to the browser? Why not incorporate them entirely within the M$ operating system and M$ applications? They could appear whenever the system/application generates dialog with the user.

Maybe they will replace the blue screen of death, with a full screen ad suggesting you upgrade to the latest M$ version!~ ;)

[Blue]

..Being proactive rather than reactive is most usually the best course of action, and I must admit that I wasn't proactive in this situation meaning that I didn't voice my opinion to MS on how I felt about these "smart tags".

And I'm gonna go out on a limb here (a very thin one, probably) and open myself up to a good lambasting, and say that I actually admire Mr. Gates in a "respect for what he has accomplished" sort of way.

I mean, C'mon! Ya gotta admire ANYone who has made bazillions of dollars in the business world. The man's a certified brain. I can understand that he has a "vision" of what he is trying to accomplish, and I think that he really believes that his vision is one that will make things better for the general population. How he goes about it may not be fair to the companies hey buy's out or drives out, but hey! "All's fair in love & war" as they say.

To my way of thinking, these compettitors had the oportunity to pull off a "David v Goliath" type coup, and....well....they just dropped the ball and/or succumbed to the money dangling in front of their faces.

Anyway, no offence was taken. :)

And didja hafta put the reference to the blue screen of death in my namesake's color? LOL

:cheers:

[JuniorHarris]

Well, I too admire BG for what he has accomplished. I think the key has been his vision all along, starting with his earliest visions for MS-DOS. It's amazing to see what he has accomplished, establishing a market dominance which is probably envied by most companies today! So one must give credit where credit is due.

Oh, sorry for the BSOD reference with your color blue!~ :o:

:cheers:

[Mel]

HI All;

Well I guess its hard to argue with success, but when you know how he got started and some of the stunts he pulled on his peers you have to wonder if sleeping on those billions of dollars gets him a good nights sleep.

[Mel]

Hi JH

Not having my Nautical Almanac handy and being fresh out of charts with Lat and Long on them, where is N33.76 W84.40 anyway?

My guess is somewhere in Georgia or ???

[jimi_l]

xp O/S
god help us all
(my 2 cents)

[JuniorHarris]

Mel just noticed your post!~ You are correct in your guess....

jimi_l - You shouldn't use Bill's name in vain!~ ;)

[websnail]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this one but if you have IE6 installed and I have it on one of my test machines... you will find under the "Advanced Tab" in "Internet Options" a wonderful (??) tick box option for Smart Tags.. :mad:

Now given that this is the final version it looks like M$ blew so much smoke up people's backsides and quietly left it in there. :eek:

The Good news though is that it is not installed by default and only someone willing to delve into the advanced settings would be able to find and enable it... Needless to say I haven't!! :)

Martin

[Hope]

The Good news though is that it is not installed by default and only someone willing to delve into the advanced settings would be able to find and enable it... Needless to say I haven't!!

This scares me!!! :eek: The new version of Windows XP needs to be authenticated right? I seem to recall hearing about this. If this is still correct, I have something for you to think about.

You buy a new computer or install WinXP and like most of us "savvy users," you go online to register/activate/authenticate it (however you want to call it). When your computer is talking to MickeySoft, you get sent instructions to activate the Smart Tags. You didn't want them, but there they are!

Can this be done? I am 100% sure it can. Is this what is going to happen? I couldn't tell you. Am I paranoid?? HELL YES!:boil: With eZula and Surf+, I have become very paranoid. If I see something highlighted, I panic (omg do I have another scumware on my system)

[Blue]

:hi:

WOW! Are you telling us that the version you have is the FINAL version and that SmartTags ARE included (though not enabled)?

This is contrary to all the M$ articles I've read in which they stated that they would NOT include it in the initial release but were leaving their options open to add it in at a later date when they had "raised the publics awareness" of how advantageous it would be to all concerned parties.

[ihelpyou]

Yes. If this is the case..... oh my. Even if not enabled as the default, when the puters talk back and forth, there would be no reason that MS could not enable it anyway.

[websnail]

Originally posted by ihelpyou
Yes. If this is the case..... oh my. Even if not enabled as the default, when the puters talk back and forth, there would be no reason that MS could not enable it anyway.
Yeah.. I think the thing to remember now though is that M$ is probably seeing the outcry regarding the other similar products and hopefully they will decide it is not worth the negative publicity that enabling it again would entail...

At least, not until after the court ruling anyway...

Incidentally as a side note: I upgraded from the initial Beta version of IE6 (one that can't be uninstalled!! which is a pain) so if anyone who has a vanilla full install could check that it exists there as well it'd be useful. I'd like to be sure it's not just a holdover from the beta on my machine.

BTW... IE6 is a waste of time... stick with 5.5 or 5.1

[ihelpyou]

Good info websnail. Yea, I think I'll stick to 5.5 if not switch to Netscape now. :)