Comments On Microsoft's Smart Tags

Our purpose with this series is to use real life examples of deception, fraud and other evil to show how you can better protect yourself. The examples cited in these articles are intended to demonstrate best practices and recommendations.

I received numerous comments on my article "Real Life Internet Evil- Microsoft's Smart Tags". 

The most entertaining response came from a guy named Steve, who obviously didn't take his Midol. 

First, I wanted to thank you. I've been going through my newsletters and unsubscribing from all of the ones I could do without. Until I read this last issue, I was really on the fence about this particular one.

Before you wrote this article, did you bother actually trying to use the feature? Did you even dl the IE6 beta? Key word here: BETA! The only reason the smart tags that were in the beta directed to M$ sites was because the feature was... say it with me... B E T A. If you researched this beyond the uneducated propaganda you regurgitated here you would know that individual webmasters could implement their own smart tags to direct users to where ever. Also, you could insert a very simple tag to disable the tags from appearing on your site all together.

Anyway, thanks again.

Steve, thanks for the flame. Excellent use of sarcasm. Made my day. Oh yes, a quick riddle - what do you, the lion in the Wizard of Oz and an Ostrich have in common? 

Just to clarify, I have used the feature and I thoroughly understand that this was a beta release (thanks for spelling it Steve, I needed the reminder of how stupid sarcasm makes some people look). Features in beta releases (for those who don't know a beta release is a test copy sent to a limited number of people so the product can be made more reliable) tend to become permanent unless they are protested. The way Microsoft was talking about this feature during the beta, it was very, very likely that Smart Tags would have been implemented in exactly this manner - except a large number of us in the public didn't have our heads in the sand and can recognize a bad and evil idea.