I've been reading a book on web standards and it says that a few years ago Microsoft, Netscape and Opera got together to help move web standards forward. Microsoft wrote a bunch of test pages to help measure how compliant a browser is, and gave it to the W3C. Today all three browsers are much more standards compliant.

Why would Microsoft do this when the focus used to be to be as non-standard as they can get away with? I think they've realized that a large chunk of web developers weren't happy and were starting to move more and more to alternative browsers. Really, the only reason most people use these other browsers (on Windows at least) is because they find it more secure and standards compliant. If Microsoft can work with the competitors and make their own browser secure and standards compliant, then there will be no good reason for the average person to even consider using an alternative browser. It will be only geeks who use these other browsers. IE is already getting much better with built in popup blocking, security features to disallow ActiveX programs from running unless you specifically allow, etc...

I started using the web back in 1994 with Spry Mosaic 1.0. Later that year I saw advertisements to come see a Halloween site Microsoft had made, but you needed to upgrade to their 2.0 or 3.0 browser to see it. I did, and that was the first time I saw background images, background music, and all kinds of cool stuff. I was blown away and switched to IE. Later I discovered Netscape 3 when I site I wanted to see had frames. Again I was blown away then switched to Netscape. I used it until version 4 I think? 4 was the worst version they ever released and I used it for quite a while but then decided to use IE. There was no spy ware (I think) and it wasn't that bad. I used IE until Netscape 6 came out and then I switched back to Netscape. I found I needed to still use IE for some sites because browser wars were in full swing by then. I heard about the Mozilla project then switched to that (which is Netscape) and have been using it ever since. I wonder if the trend will continue and I'll find myself switching back to IE for a period of time? I have no good reason to do so now but who knows what's coming.