The good folks at lemurzone.com are up in arms over the lack of standards between browsers, the lack of W3C standards compliance within browsers, and the number of new proprietary tags introduced in IE 5.5 (PC). All this, they say, without Microsoft even fixing the mess left behind by previous browser versions.

They've a right to be peeved, say I.

However, they're going to lose (right along with the entire Web Standards Project), and I'll tell you why:

People don't like to think about quality, or standards, or doing things The Right Way. If they did, we'd all have Betamax home video players at home, we'd have professional stoves and copper pots rather than microwaves and tupperware, and goodness knows we'd save hundreds of millions of dollars a year NOT buying every get-thin-lose-weight-in-four-days scheme known to man.

People like convenience, easy and not having to think too much about how a thing works in order to use it - cars being an excellent example. I want to get in, drive, and not worry about the inner workings or how to change gears - I want the technology to do that for me. Sure, lots of people know how the car works (the "techies" of the auto industry) but I don't have to, in order to use it.

The ONLY way you're going to force Microsoft, Netscape/AOL or any other major market holder of browserspace in the future to sit up, smarten up, and fix their mistakes is with global, everyday Joe support of the movement. Which this movement - and any other grassroots movement like it - cannot do.

Face it, we're stuck with crappy browsers for a loooooong time to come.

from the history file: amazon.com celebrates five years on the web. Am I the only one scared ro realize that I remember that old logo (I may still even *have* a copy or two somewhere since Pathway was an Amazon affiliate as early as 96)?

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