msn.com blocks non-Microsoft browsers

[KeiFront]

Microsoft does it again.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20011025/tc/msn_com_shuts_out_non-microsoft_browsers_1.html

[The PIT]

Works here on different browsers. Well the uK msn does.

[Jorden]

Next page in the future will probably tell you that your Windows version is not up to MSN's standards and that you need to upgrade to XP...

[TnT]

Yeah, when I logout of hotmail and it loads MSN, it tells me I need to "upgrade" to IE 5.5.

Oh well, that page loads faster than the msn.com main page, so I'm fine with it.

[KeiFront]

I know it The PIT it also works when I tested msn.be and msn.nl with opera 5.12 and mozilla 9.5.

Until now it's only msn.com that doesn't work. But I think it will not take long before all www.msn.? are infected.


In the article they say:

All of our development work for the new MSN.com is...W3C standard

For browsers that we know don't support those standards or that we can't insure will get a great experience for the customer, we do serve up a page that suggests that they upgrade to an IE browser that does support the" standards.

LOL, I thought they were the ones that made browsers that weren't compatible (non-standard).

[Paulr]

Then it shows how much ya know! :-)
Microsoft's browser follows the 'standards' a lot closer than most other browsers available.

[Jorden]

Got news for you all. I just tried to go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base and I am stuck with a non working Mozilla window, saying something like the above.

unsupported.asp must be their newest window in use

Jord.

[JLP]

Page not standards compliant

If you check the page with HTML Validator it turns out that it isn't even coded right. See HERE. Mozilla/NS 6.1 is the most standards compliant browser and they discriminate it. If you change the string that browser returns to something of IE the MSN page works just fine.

[KeiFront]

Paulr: "Microsoft's browser follows the 'standards' a lot closer than most other browsers available"

If you check the page with HTML Validator it turns out that it isn't even coded right.

Thanks for defending me JLP.

[impact]

He was talking about the Microsoft "standards" (wink, wink).

[Paulr]

*Sigh*
No I wasn't talking about the Microsoft standards.
Funny thing is, if MS attempted to write their own 'browser' standards guess what - you wouldn't be able to see any web pages with that browser.
It is quite well known that IE follows the HTML standards pretty much to the letter.
Of course IE will also understand specific MS/non-standard tags but so will any browser, Netscape was the only browser that understood the 'blink' tag (which resulted in many sites putting an open 'blink' tag at the start of the web page and a closed one at the very end so the whole page would flash on & off to Netscape users).

[Greebe]

Here what I get when Mozilla was used...

Attention: Web Browser Upgrade Required to View MSN.com

If you are seeing this page, we have detected that the browser that you are using will not render MSN.com correctly. Additionally, you'll see the most advanced functionality of MSN.com only with the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer. If you wish to visit MSN.com, please select the appropriate download link below.

* Internet Explorer for Windows
* Internet Explorer for Macintosh
* MSN Explorer for Windows

©2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use Advertise TRUSTe Approved Privacy Statement GetNetWise

Now ain't that complete BS!

[Jon P. Inghram]

Wait a sec, you're complaining that you can't access MSN? I don't see the problem!

[Liquid Snake]

Yeah, who actually uses msn.com anyway?

[Greebe]

It's the principle that matters.

I sent MSN's marketing department a nice little jab over that BS!

You should tooo!