Microsoft to drop smart tags from new Windows

NEW YORK: Microsoft Corp. on Thursday confirmed it would drop its

controversial Smart Tag technology, which directs users to Microsoft Web pages

from other Internet sites, from the next version of its Windows operating

system.

Smart Tags work by enabling Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser to turn

any word on a Web site into a link that will take the user to a Microsoft Web

page. The feature was slated to be included in the next version of Microsoft's

flagship Windows operating system, Windows XP, which is due for release in

October.

But late on Wednesday Microsoft announced the feature would be excluded from

the software. "We have gotten feedback in the beta process and there are

some legitimate concerns that we need to address before this technology is ready

to deliver on our vision of the Web for consumers," Microsoft spokesman Jim

Cullinan told Reuters.

"Because of the short amount of time before XP ships, we don't believe

we have the appropriate amount of time to incorporate this feedback and make the

changes by Oct. 25," Cullinan said. The concerns center around the fact

that Smart Tag links appear on companies' Web sites without those firms giving

permission for them to be there. Moreover, the links encourage users to leave

the sites and move to ones offering Microsoft services instead.

Although Cullinan stressed the Smart Tags have to be "switched on"

if users wanted to access the feature, he did concede that concerns from content

providers and Web sites were the reason Microsoft decided to delay including the

tags in Windows XP.

Cullinan added that Microsoft intends to continue to develop Smart Tags and

that it was likely a version would be included in a future release of the

operating system, although he declined to give any specific timeframe. Microsoft

already has a version of its Smart Tags in its new suite of business

applications, called Office XP, which went on sale in May.

He said that version of the technology differed from the tags for Windows XP

because they were only included in documents and not inside Web pages.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.