According to Opera, Microsoft's MSN portal has targeted Opera
users in the past two weeks, by sending them intentionally
distorted style sheets. These sheets determine the way text and
graphics are presented in browser windows.
"When trying to access MSN.com using the Opera 7 browser", the
company said, "there are two visible problems. First, for the user
it looks like Opera 7 has a serious flaw so that many lines are
partially hidden. Second, the page shows less content than users of
Microsoft's Internet Explorer see."
Opera Chief Executive Technology Officer Hakon Wium Lie claims
that MSN was sending different style sheets to Internet Explorer
and Opera 7 browsers, despite the fact that the Opera browser would
have rendered the MSN site correctly, if it received the same
sheet.
So Opera created a special version of its browser. The new
browser is almost identical to Opera 7, except when users visit the
MSN site.
In this case, the browser's users view the text displayed on the
site in a language mimicking that of the Muppet Show's Swedish
Chef. The company called its new browser the "Børk Edition", after
the "Børk, Børk, Børk" sound made by the popular TV chef.
"Hergee berger snooger børk", said Mary Lambert, product line
manager desktop for Opera. "This is a joke. However, we are trying
to make an important point... The Bork edition illustrates how
browsers could also distort content, as the Børk edition does. The
real point here is that the success of the web depends on software
and web site developers behaving well and rising above corporate
rivalry", she added.
According to Opera, MSN now allows access to users of Opera 7,
but is still sending broken pages to users of earlier versions of
the company's browser.
Microsoft controls around 95% of the browser market, according
to December 2002 figures from OneStat.com.
Reports suggest that the company admits sending different style
sheets to different browsers, but justifies this to "optimise the
experience of our users" – as opposed to sabotaging the
competition.
In October 2001, Microsoft was subjected to criticism after it
blocked access to several non-MSN browsers. Following several
complaints, the company decided to support again the Opera and
Mozilla browsers.
It warned, however, that the "experience may be slightly
degraded simply because they don't support the standards we support
closely, as far as the HTML standard in those browsers."
The company maintained that any problems with access were due to
the fact that it wanted to encourage people to use
standard-compliant browsers.
Opera has published a technical analysis to support its
allegations, at:
my.opera.com/dev/discussion/openweb/20030206/
