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Microsoft recently went public with a little song and dance about how standards compliant their new Internet Explorer 10 web browser is. The main reason for this is that the good folks in Redmond feel we are walking into another IE6 situation, where one browser is so common that web sites are designed for it, rather being built according to the real standard.

I honestly never thought the day would come when Microsoft themselves start warning us about a non-free web as a result of one web browser being dominant. Almost an irony overload, right there. Then again, since IE7 they have been doing more and more to get rid of the old zombie browser from the past that stubbornly refuses to die. Forced updates and better tools aside, it was still around, is still around.

Sharing the stage of most popular web browsers is Firefox, Internet Explorer and a whole slew of WebKit-based browsers, like Apple's Safari and Google's Chrome. It's the latter of all these that Microsoft is worried about, since WebKit is the base for pretty much all web browsers in the mobile space, smartphones and tablets, which Microsoft currently has a very limited presence in.

All complaints and concerns about any major industry not adhering to a standard is very important to listen to and we shouldn't scoff off Microsoft's comments too quickly. If all web pages are indeed catering more specifically to the particular quirks of WebKit, rather than the W3C specification, we will, once again, be running into a non-free web scenario. Main difference is that it's not tied to any particular platform, vendor or class of device. In that light, comparing it to the horrific dominance of IE6 for all those years, it at least seems like a better bad scenario than the one we more or less just got out of.

One fairly important thing to point out is that the WebKit base is open source, in contrast to the technology behind Internet Explorer 10 which is very much a black box for anyone outside of Microsoft.

It could be that Microsoft, now finding themselves in the underdog position, are worried about web developers aiming for that which is the far more common out there, today; WebKit. If all sites are designed for WebKit in mind, and IE10 isn't based on WebKit, it will make the sites look different and possibly worse. Since so much is tied to the web these days, having a sub-par browsing experience would definitely not be a positive thing for anyone who is trying to get back in the game seriously. Like Microsoft is doing with Windows Phone 8.

But regardless, we shouldn't let any single browser dominate like IE6 did. We all know how "fun" and "great" of an experience that was!

Robert Falck

Robert is a freelance tech writer from Sweden. You can follow his posts here on the British Tech Network, listen to him yap away on the British Tech iOS Show and read even more of his stuff on his site streakmachine.com or you can even follow him on twitter @streakmachine. (But you won't find him on Facebook!)

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Robert Falck

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