“The Web Standards Project (WSP) today called on Microsoft to
fully support key Web standards in its next release of Internet
Explorer — and presented Microsoft with a petition signed by more
than 1,000 Web developers from Fortune 500 companies and major
educational and government institutions.”
” ‘The current fight between AOL and Microsoft over instant
messaging shows how the public loses when companies produce similar
but incompatible products,’ Olsen said. ‘The same ridiculous
situation exists for browsing the Web because browser makers have
failed to implement the common set of standards. If Microsoft
wants to argue that common standards are needed for instant
messaging, they should be prepared to implement existing Web
standards in their browser.’
To stress how eager Web professionals are for standards support,
WSP presented Microsoft with a Web standards petition signed by
more than 1,000 Web developers from Fortune 500 companies and major
educational and government institutions.
The petition drive took place at two recent Web development
conferences: Web Design ’99 in Atlanta and Web Design World ’99 in
Seattle… ‘Our attendees are sick and tired of jumping through
compatibility hoops,’ said Conference Chair Jim Heid, who helped
spearhead the drive. ‘They want to know when browser vendors are
going to support standards.’ “