Salt in the Wound: More Talk About Version Targeting
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008(this is reprinted from my workplace blog here where it was originally posted.)
Like the kid that just won’t start poking the wasp’s nest, A List Apart has decided to push the angry topic button of the web development community by posting not one, but TWO new articles this week about the already infamous decision by Microsoft to incorporate a version targeting meta tag in Internet Explorer 8.
I’ve already poked my toe into the swimming pool of controversy in my post Loud Noises!, where I tentatively agree with the whole idea. After all, Netscape did essentially the same thing when they introduced the DOCTYPE tag as a way to control standards mode, and nobody got together a group of vassal warriors, went to their hall and burned it while standing at the door with swords. But Microsoft, being the two ton gorilla it is with a standards compliance history that is spotty to say the least, apparently hasn’t earned the right to try to follow suit and keep the Internet from breaking on their newest browser when it is released.
In his article They Shoot Browsers, Don’t They?, Jeremy Keith essentially says “Hey, we shouldn’t add a single meta tag just because one browser needs it.” Well, I hate to break Mr. Keith’s bubble of fantasy, but the fact is that for now, the vast majority of people on the Internet are using Internet Explorer. Heck, IE6, which is eons old and about as standards compliant as a clown on a unicycle (no, I don’t know what that metaphor means either), has a larger market share than FireFox and Safari combined. Add in IE7, and their share is so large it hurts.
