A perfect example of why Microsoft doesn't get it

I was browsing the news sites today when I saw a headline article about President Bush on MSNBC. I clicked on the article and saw that there was an accompanying video clip. Never wanting to pass up the opportunity to see President Bush speak, I clicked on the link.

Now, mind you: I'm doing this on my Mac.

Clicking on the video link brought up this message: "MSN Video does not support your computer's operating system." Let me repeat that: this news site's video functionality is not available on an entire class of computers. Hmm.

Just for fun, I opened Internet Explorer and tried it there- just to see if, even though I was still using the Mac, Microsoft would let me get away with viewing the video if I did it through their browser.

Nope.

Okay. That sucked (but was I really surprised?). I still wanted to see the video, so I went over to my PC, fired up FireFox, and went to MSNBC. I clicked on the link for the video... and this time was told that "To use MSN Video, you need to install some free software." I was then instructed to download Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Windows Media Player (even though I've got both on my system).

So, even if you're on Windows, you can't view MSN videos unless you're using Microsoft software all the way. To summarize: if you're on a Mac, no dice- go to Windows. If you're on Windows but use anything other than Internet Explorer, no dice either.

Finally, since I really wanted to see the video, I opened Internet Explorer and went to the article. I clicked on the video link, and... the resulting window froze with a "Detecting Internet connection speed" message on the screen. The final piece of the puzzle- the 100% Microsoft solution- was broken. Wow.

It's funny- I decided to write this little blurb before actually trying to view the video in Internet Explorer, so my ultimate failure to actually see any video at all was NOT a part of what me want to write this in the first place. And I'm going to keep that little fact out of things for now. That's for another column.

Assuming I had been able to actually view the video, what Microsoft is doing with MSNBC is forcing everyone who wants to experience video on the site to use strictly Microsoft software all the way. It's the old lock-in trick at its most blatant.

Unfortunately (or fortunately), I don't think that's the way the digital world works anymore- the future is not all Microsoft, all the time- especially not when people feel so taken advantage of.

Interoperability is key. Especially for a "traditional" news media web site- they should be going out of their way to make it easy for people to consume their news, since there's so much competition out there from both traditional and non-traditional forms of media.

Computers and computer-driven devices are evolving to the point where they need to just work. If something doesn't work, it shouldn't be because of politics (widget y doesn't want to talk to widget x because widget y is made by company z, and company z controls certain technical aspects... ah, fuck you, I don't have time for this, I'm just going to go somewhere else where things just work).

I'm not talking up an Apple-centric, or a Linux-centric, or an anything-centric future. I'm talking about a USER-centric future, and it seems like most companies are catching on to this pretty nicely. And certain companies are having a hard time with it.

I think the moral of the story is this: When I had to open up Internet Explorer on my Windows machine to view this video, I actually felt pretty condescending toward Microsoft- "Oh, okay guys, I'll make you feel like you're winning this battle this time." It was like I had to trick them into thinking I didn't care about anyone else before they'd give me what I wanted.

The attempt to force me to use Internet Explorer on Windows didn't make me feel threatened. I didn't even get that frustrated (until it didn't even work, that is). I did, however, feel like I was witnessing something very telling.

It's very clear to me that this type of attitude shows that some parts of Microsoft still just don't get it.