Comments on: Not Possible to Use IE’s Web Slice Icon In Other Browsers

By: Remedies

Remedies — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 13:29:07 +0000

Gmbles wrote- Yea I don’t like wasting time reading invalid articles, editors should visit the links they’re posting before regurgitating it on their on syndicate.

I cant agree more, within my herbal business I can waste time messing about.

By: whyisjasontaken

whyisjasontaken — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 15:57:37 +0000

So, to backtrack a little: What’s so special about it anyway? It’s just a fancy name for screen scraping… something people have been doing for ages.

By: Brad Neuberg

Brad Neuberg — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 10:06:25 +0000

@JaneKim: Thanks for the clarification! I updated the blog post with your comment.

Best,
Brad

By: gimbles

gimbles — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 07:33:52 +0000

Yea I don’t like wasting time reading invalid articles, editors should visit the links they’re posting before regurgitating it on their on syndicate

By: ThomasHansen

ThomasHansen — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:38:56 +0000

Is the RSS icon using a viral license like e.g. GPL?
If so I assume the WebSlice Icon could be argued a derivation due to the obvious similarities ;)

By: JaneKim

JaneKim — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:25:18 +0000

Hey folks, we created the guidelines with this scenario in mind – we definitely want to support applications using the icon to indicate Web Slice content.

We will update the documentation to make this clearer. Thanks!
- Jane Kim [MSFT]

By: pmontrasio

pmontrasio — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:12:22 +0000

The other browsers should agree on using another icon, similar to the MS one but different. It’s not different from IE users identifying the Internet with the blue e on the desktop, Firefox users identifying it with a red fox icon, etc. People tend to use only one browser so a different icon wouldn’t do much harm. Websites can put the two icons together to invite users to subscribe to webslices.

By: tlrobinson

tlrobinson — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:09:52 +0000

It’s a pretty ugly icon anyway, IMO.

By: Brad Neuberg

Brad Neuberg — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:33:54 +0000

@NickH and fineartdavid: IAMNAL, so if the license doesn’t forbid other browsers from using the icon in their software to indicate when a portion of a page is using the WebSlice standard then things should be fine. However, I respect Daniel Glazman, and assume that he is interpreting their license correctly. As someone who is trying to implement the spec in another browser, if he is misinterpreting it Microsoft should either contact him to tell him it ok or update the license to make it clearer.

@AndiSkater: The WebSlice idea and standard are good ones. Microsoft has come up with all sorts of good web ideas that are worth supporting (such as Ajax itself). We shouldn’t just throw it out.

Brad

By: NickH

NickH — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:50:26 +0000

As fineartdavid says, it looks like it’s simply stopping it being used for anything that isn’t WebSlice. If another browser implemented it or had a plugin, it ought to be okay to use the icon there. It doesn’t look like Daniel Glazman actually got told not to use the icon.

By: AndiSkater

AndiSkater — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 18:15:09 +0000

There is a very simple solution to this problem: Simply don’t support Microsoft’s pseudo open webslice junk. They should start with supporting opacity, canvas etc. in IE8 before inventing new features on their own.

By: Phunky

Phunky — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:58:55 +0000

The RSS feed icon is used as a FAVICON when viewing a RSS file via your browser, i’m guessing this would not be possible when viewing a webslice page?

By: fineartdavid

fineartdavid — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:28:40 +0000

Am I missing something obvious? I really don’t see what the complaint is.

There is nothing to stop you using the icon to indicate Web Slice content on a page or using it as a button on your software.

You can’t use it to represent your website, application or product. You can’t use it to say your product is Microsoft approved.

Sounds fair to me.