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A little historical back drop for you: Back in 1947, Ronald Reagan, President of the Screen Actors Guild was called to give testimony to the House Un-American Activities Committee on communist activities within SAG. A quote from Reagan is important to be reminded of today regarding Microsoft Vista/IE 7(stay with me)....
In opposing those people (communists), the best thing to do is make democracy work. In the Screen Actors Guild we make it work by insuring everyone a vote and by keeping everyone informed. I believe that, as Thomas  Jefferson put it, if all the American people know all of the facts they will never make a mistake. Whether the party should be outlawed, that is a matter for the government to decide. As a citizen, I would hesitate to see any political party outlawed on the basis of its political ideology. However, if it is proven that an organization is an agent of foreign power, or in any way not a legitimate political party -- and I think the government is capable of proving that -- then that is another matter.
Back to the present keeping in mind that phishers=communists and Microsoft=HUAC. According to the article in the December 19th edition of the WSJ called Software to Spot Phishers Irks Small Concerns Microsoft seems to start a new Green Scare. In this case Microsoft is trying to be the judge, jury, and executioner of what is a legitimate site or not without the whole picture (opposite of Reagan's quote - "if people  know all the facts, they will never make a mistake".) Unfortunately, according to Microsoft they won't know all the facts. What that means is that if you don't have a green bar you could be avoided. How do you get a green bar? I don't know, ask Microsoft but if you are a small business and not an LLC, partnership, or S/C corp you will not be in the green zone for a while (according to the video link found on the article, maybe 6 months). And, when you couple this with phishing filter you could end up worse off with a yellow bar.
Sure Microsoft says this is all in the name of protecting consumers from terrible phish sites, but how about the legitimate small business trying to make a buck on the internet? What happens to them? Don't they get to participate in the Long Tail? This certainly puts a burden on small business, but boosts big e-Commerce sites like eBay and Amazon.
Seriously. What do you think? Is it fair to hammer small business in the name of protecting you from phishing? How about Microsoft setting themselves up as the final arbiter of what is a legitimate site without complete information. I think I can guess what Reagan would have said on this issue...
PardonMyFrench,
Eric
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Comments
Eric,
Thanks for the heads up. I wish the government and Microsoft would just leave us alone. Give us the information, offer us tools, and get out of the way.
Posted by: Lewis Green | 12.27.06
Agh! I can't read the full article without a subscription!
I agree with what you're saying in principle, but I'd need to read more about how the program works to render full judgment. As you say and as Reagan said, we need all the facts.
On the other hand, alternative browsers are freely available, so perhaps if unfair discrimination is going on, people will become informed of their options through old and new media. I stopped using IE as my default browser some time ago. I gave IE7 a shot but was relatively unimpressed.
Posted by: Cam Beck | 12.27.06
Yes - I've been using Firefox for almost a year now and continue to use it. I only pop on IE when the site requires it (Atlas DMT and Microsoft AdCenter).
Cam, if you want the WSJ send me an email and I'll forward it to you.
Eric
Posted by: Eric Frenchman | 12.27.06
Let's take a silver lining approach to the news.
One thing this might do is encourage the formation of S-Corps when Sole Proprietorship would be the better option. If I were a conspiracy theorist, I would say it looks like a scheme cooked up by lawyers who would profit from the increased incorporation requests. I'm not, but although this does appear to make things more difficult for small business owners, this doesn't quite send shivers up my spine just yet for a couple of reasons.
First, we're assuming a lot about the average technical know-how of users. It will be awhile before the technology is made mainstream. Perhaps by the time they figure out just what the heck that bar is, the consortium that created the guidelines will have figured out how to create a more inclusive list of business owners.
Second, small business start-ups already have difficulty engendering mainstream trust. It's not a given for a reason, and that is because humans have been robbing from other humans since the dawn of man. Although it's more difficult than I would like, if this system actually does work, then this gives the business owners the means to help establish it.
I also suspect that those who are looking to serve a smaller community are more likely to build their relationships, and hence trust, in ways that differ from those seeking to search larger audiences, and thus wouldn't be held to the same standards as larger companies.
I can certainly see how small business owners have cause for concern, but in the end, this direction, if not the initial execution, might be better for us all, IMO.
Posted by: Cam Beck | 12.28.06