Customized Google vs Start.com
Scoble pointed to this article by Ben Askins comparing Google's customized homepage and Microsoft's Start.com. Unfortunately the comparison was overly complex and missed some critical criteria, so I thought I'd do my own. I'll be using a very simple set of criteria, one criterion in fact.
Does it work?
First up, Google. As the screen shot below shows, it works.
Now here's how Start.com looks:
A nice clean search engine interface, but unfortunately no customization options. It seems Microsoft forgot to do any testing using Safari. Oh well. How useful can a start page be if it doesn't work in all the browsers you want to use?
September 10th, 2005 at 10:17 pm
Hi Adrian,
You’re right, your test highlight’s one huge flaw of Microsoft’s approach. They really should make cross browser compatibility a priority from the outset. There are plenty of other AJAX apps that have no trouble with Safari. I don’t know why Microsoft can’t make an effort to support all browsers. I hope it’s just misplaced priorities, and not a “strategic” move.
cheers,
Ben