By Ben King, 26 October 2001 12:00
NEWS Anyone who has tried to visit the MSN.com portal in the past week with a non-Microsoft browser may have found themselves shut out of the portal. Instead of the colourful MSN front page, visitors using Netscape, Opera, or AOL's Mozilla browsers see the following message on a white screen: "If you are seeing this page, we have detected that the browser that you are using will not render MSN.com correctly. Additionally, you'll see the most advanced functionality of MSN.com only with the latest version of Microsoft Internet Explorer or MSN Explorer. If you wish to visit MSN.com, please select the appropriate download link below." The links are, naturally, to download sites for Microsoft browsers. MSN's portals for Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the UK were not affected, though Microsoft's Japanese and Canadian portals were not accessible with an Opera browser. Microsoft launched an upgrade to the MSN portal to coincide with the launch of the new version of its operating system, Windows XP. Though promising faster downloading and a more features to Internet Explorer users, the upgrade has left users of other software out in the cold. Microsoft has since issued a statement saying it will support MSN for other browsers, though the user experience will not be as good on non-Microsoft browsers. The move will add to concerns about Microsoft's plans to dominate the internet. The company is already using its ownership of operating system, browser, messaging, portal and software businesses to channel users away from competing platforms. The situation will become worse as Microsoft rolls out its .Net strategy for deploying software over the internet on a subscription basis.
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