On Microsoft taking over the web

Quite a bit has happend on the web since my last post. Among them in a nutshell,IE8 beta 1, Firefo3 beta 4, SXSW, MIX, AOL buys Bebo, The MPAA, RIAA and all other associated AAs are still crazy and self destructive, Apple finally release an SDK to the delight of many apple yuppies everywhere, I bit the twitter bug, Microsoft can't seem to give away enough software and oh yeah, let's not forget Microsoft wants Yahoo really bad.

But all that being said, I'm going to focus on only a couple of items that interest me.

To follow up on my last post, IE8 finally gets released as a beta a couple of weeks ago at MIX, microsoft's conference for all things web - designers and developers alike. In response to the outcry from the web development world, they decided to let IE8 default to rendering in standards compliant mode and instead forcing people who have coded their websites around IE8's eccentricities to do the work of updating their websites if they don't want them to break. For the most part, I'm happy about the move. Ask me in a year when the software goes RTM and I have to spend hours updating the templates on my older sites.

So far in testing, the browser seems to be a lot better with rendering to standards, although it's still got some work to do. I hesitate to criticize beta software as it is just that, a beta, so I'll leave it at that. Not much has changed as far as the interface is concerned. I'll post a more comprehensive overview when it's closer to release.

Staying on Microsoft, I'll say this much, when they decide to do things well, they do things well. Pundits and critics alike tend to like the MIX conference. I particularly like the fact that the presentations in audio and video formats are all available on the web right now for anyone to go and watch and or listen to. It's not quite the same as being there for the party itself, but you can still benefit from the content. Of particular note is the increased emphasis on designing and creating user experiences and not just producing software. I'll post more on that later.

Also, regarding Microsoft, the company has expressed a sincere determined interest in buying Yahoo. And they are not taking no for an answer. All signs point to this deal going down one way or the other as Yahoo hasn't exactly being doing very well recently. The stock is down and can't get up. With Microsoft offering to scoop up the company in an all cash 44 billion transaction, the stock holders are chomping at the bit to get this to happen.

I'm not sure I'm going to like this merger. I like Yahoo as a company. It's style, it's outlook and the way it relates to it's customers. Microsoft is in many ways an overbearing behemoth that can't let go of what it used to be - an old style software company. Granted, Microsoft is working very hard to change that and to their credit, they are doing a lot better. 'Open source' or more accurately "Less restrictive source", which used to be the enemy is now very much a present part of Microsoft's recent offerings.

Still, there is the very large possiblity of Yahoo suffocating under this Merger, especially with all the current management and talent vowing to flee if the merger happens. Yahoo, for the most part is all about open. In terms of services and software. As a developer, I love that. In simple terms, Microsoft despite its may efforts is still not. Might Yahoo be the arbiter of change at Microsoft? It's possible, but me thinks, unlikely.

J.T