Opera makes MSN look like a load of muppets

NEWS Opera Software has released a new version of its Opera 7 web browser with just one tweak - it turns Microsoft's MSN web site into gibberish inspired by the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. The "Bork Edition" of Opera 7 isn't designed so much to win over new users as to make a point about how browsers and websites should work together. It is Opera's response to what it alleges are dishonest tactics by Microsoft to make Opera look like it is displaying pages improperly when users view MSN. The Swedish Chef's dialogue was famously incoherent, and included the phrase "Bork, bork, bork!" Mary Lambert, desktop product line manager at Opera, said: "This is a joke. However, we are trying to make an important point. The success of the web depends on software and website developers behaving well and rising above corporate rivalry." Earlier this month, Opera said Microsoft was sending its browser a faulty style sheet, which determines the presentation of graphics and text in a browser window. When people using Opera 7 browser software visit MSN.com, published by Microsoft, some of the site content is obscured, Opera chief technology officer Hakon Lie wrote in a posting to the company's web site. "Opera 7 receives a style sheet which is very different from (that used by) the Microsoft and Netscape browsers," Lie wrote in his explanation. "Opera 7 is explicitly instructed to move content off the side of its container, thus creating the impression that there is something wrong with Opera 7." Not only does the code not work in Opera 7, it doesn't work in Microsoft's own Internet Explorer 6 either, it has been confirmed. After an initial denial, Microsoft on Wednesday said it did send different style sheets to different browsers, and defended the practice. "We have different style sheets and different code for various browsers," said Bob Visse, director of marketing for MSN. "That's something we do to try optimise the experience for our users." The browser-breaking charges come more than a year after Microsoft fell under fire for blocking Opera and other non-IE browsers from access to its MSN site. In the resulting outcry, the tech giant opted to let the other browsers back into MSN. However, it also took the opportunity to disparage the browsers' adherence to industry standards. Microsoft warned: "The experience may be slightly degraded, simply because [those browsers] don't support the standards we support closely, as far as the HTML standard in those browsers" is concerned. Opera is now accusing its rival of making sure that the MSN experience is degraded for Opera users. Opera said that the page and style sheet served to IE 6 renders properly not only in that browser, but also in Opera 7. In addition, the code served to Opera has serious rendering problems in both. "We are working hard to make sure the Opera browser works well on all web pages, even those that do not follow the Web's standards to the letter," said Lie, in a statement. "But it becomes impossible when we are targeted and fed distorted pages that don't work in any browser." CNET News.com's Paul Festa contributed to this report.