SystemError
Broken In
SOURCE
*seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20051219/icon.gif
Microsoft will use Firefox's icon for online feeds.
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Granted, it's not exactly the Dayton Peace Accords. But Microsoft's Internet Explorer group and the rival Firefox browser team surprised the technology world last week with a small token of cooperation.
To be precise, it was a tiny orange icon. Microsoft worked out an arrangement to use the same symbol that Firefox does to alert people when a Web page makes extra streams of information available for subscription.
photo
Microsoft will use Firefox's icon for online feeds.
The industry has seen bigger deals, to put it mildly. In fact, describing it as a deal might be a stretch. It was an informal agreement, with no money changing hands, said Sean Lyndersay, lead program manager on Microsoft's Internet Explorer team.
But the mere idea that the two camps were talking caused a stir -- with some analysts wondering whether they might be capable of reaching consensus on more weighty matters, such as standards for the way Web pages are made and displayed.
Microsoft doesn't rule out the possibility of further cooperation. Nor does Mozilla Corp., which distributes the open-source Firefox browser. But to a certain extent, the surprise over the arrangement reflects a misperception about the browser market, Lyndersay said.
"As much as people like to think that this is some sort of war, it's not really," he said. Working out an arrangement with Mozilla to use the Firefox icon for online feeds "drives that point home very clearly," he said.
Given the history, the tech community might be excused for being surprised. Microsoft's tactics in its rivalry with Netscape, Firefox's forerunner, were a central issue in the Redmond company's federal antitrust case.
The story of the icon began a few months ago, after Microsoft decided to add support for online streams of news and information, known as RSS feeds, to Internet Explorer 7, the upcoming version of its widely used Web browser. RSS lets people subscribe to various streams of information and view them in a central program, reducing the need to visit sites individually.
In a post on Microsoft's RSS Team blog, program manager Jane Kim showed five icons that Microsoft was thinking about using to indicate, in the Web browser's frame, that a particular Web site offered an RSS feed.
advertising
Microsoft had also been thinking it might be good to adopt an existing icon from another browser, Lyndersay said. And in the comments to Kim's post, several people suggested the company talk to Mozilla about using Firefox's icon for RSS feeds, or "Live Bookmarks," as Mozilla calls them.
So on a November trip to Silicon Valley, Kim and Amar Gandhi, an Internet Explorer group program manager, arranged to stop by Mozilla's Mountain View, Calif., headquarters to meet with John Lilly, Mozilla's vice president of business development, and Chris Beard, Mozilla's vice president of marketing.
Lilly said Microsoft's proposal made sense because it encouraged a degree of consistency. Having multiple icons representing the same thing in different browsers can foster confusion.
"I think it's in everybody's interest for people to understand what feeds are and where they exist," Lilly said last week. "It was a pretty easy call to say, 'This is better for users.' "
The orange icon with concentric white lines is one of Firefox's more recognizable visual touches, appearing in the browser frame or address bar when an RSS feed is available on a page. However, Lilly said Mozilla isn't concerned about losing such a small element of differentiation.
"It doesn't seem like we're going to win or lose users based on whether we have an RSS icon or a feed icon that's superdistinctive," Lilly said. "For these emerging features, it's more important that users know what's happening."
He pointed out that the commonality may actually benefit Firefox in some ways. People using the future version of Internet Explorer might feel more comfortable if they try Firefox, seeing that familiar orange icon indicating the presence of RSS feeds.
After surging in popularity, Firefox has seen its growth rate slow in recent months. As it seeks to move the browser more into the mainstream, Mozilla may need to take some measured risks along the lines of letting its Live Bookmarks icon become standardized, said Geoff Johnston, analyst at WebSideStory, a firm that tracks browser market share.
"It's probably a good calculated bet for them," he said.
For Microsoft, announcing a collaboration with Mozilla was also "a good PR move," whether the company intended it that way or not, said Joe Wilcox, a Jupiter Research analyst. The unexpected alliance led to a wave of online stories and posts about the news last week.
But Microsoft's Lyndersay pointed out that the company has also talked with browser vendors about other issues, such as uniform ways for signaling when Web sites meet a stringent certification standard.
"This isn't the first time, and it probably won't be the last," Lyndersay said. "If it makes sense for us to be consistent about the way that we do things, then we will definitely talk to them."
*seattlepi.nwsource.com/dayart/20051219/icon.gif
Microsoft will use Firefox's icon for online feeds.
spoil sport 