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Underlined words on innocent Web pages might be fake links that lure you or your kids to any unsavory site. And get this: Microsoft DESIGNED it this way.
  technofile
Al Fasoldt's reviews and commentaries, continuously available online since 1983

Microsoft 'tags' create bogus hyperlinks
that porn sites could use to lure your kids


June 17, 2001


By Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, Al Fasoldt
Copyright © 2001, The Syracuse Newspapers

   Note: Under pressure from users, industry experts and the press, Microsoft is holding off on its plan to use "Smart Tags" as of the autumn of 2001. It could reinstate its plans at any time.
   Microsoft's new Windows XP and Office XP can insert unauthorized hyperlinks into Web pages, giving anyone running Windows XP or Office XP the impression that the links come from the original site.
   Microsoft's new Windows XP and Office XP can insert unauthorized hyperlinks into Web pages, giving anyone running Windows XP or Office XP the impression that the links come from the original site.
   The news that the two XP programs can do this broke a few weeks ago, but I refused to believe the story until I checked it myself. I was dismayed to discover that the accounts are true.
   Windows XP and Office XP can insert what Microsoft calls "Smart Tags" into any Web page you have on your screen. "Smart Tags" are hyperlinks -- underlined words or phrases you click on to open Web pages. They work just like ordinary hyperlinks with one huge exception: They're totally bogus.
   "Smart Tags" are not part of the Web page you're reading and weren't put there by the author of that page. Windows XP and Office XP put them there without the permission or knowledge of the Web site's creator. The unauthorized links lead to Web sites chosen by Microsoft and its cooperating companies.
   Smart Tags are not limited to unauthorized links in Web pages. Microsoft's Office XP programs can insert Smart Tags in Microsoft Word documents, Access databases, Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations. These can be passed along to other users if the files are sent in e-mail.
   The idea that a company found guilty of running an illegal monopoly in computer software would do something like this is hard to understand. Microsoft obviously has no business putting bogus hyperlinks into anyone else's Web pages. But this is not obvious to Microsoft.
   As a journalist who writes about computers and software, I find Microsoft's "Smart Tags" an extraordinarily dumb idea. But as a Web-site author and designer, I consider these bogus tags insulting.
   But this does not tell you how I actually feel. I am outraged, angry beyond words, knowing that someone I don't know and hardly trust could fill my carefully crafted Web pages with bogus hyperlinks. No doubt many Web designers whose sites have a lot of advertising would be just as upset, since "Smart Tags" could create unwanted links that seem to be part of the ads.
   What's worse, regular sites could end up with bogus links that lead to child porn sites, and anyone smart enough to create a Windows virus could also create "Smart Tags" that entice innocent Windows users to click on a virus in the guise of an official-looking link on any Web site that did not ban Smart Tags.
   Microsoft says it will come up with code that Web designers can place on every page they don't want tagged. For those with large sites like mine, editing every page among hundreds on the site would take a lot of time and effort. I plan to bill Microsoft for my time when I do this massive editing project, and I suggest others do the same.
   Microsoft's documentation for its "Smart Tags" ignores these dangers, concentrating on how helpful these links could be for someone who wants to add information to a business contact's name in a Microsoft Word document, for example. The "Smart Tag" could provide a quick way to call up extra data.
   This ignorance of the potential effects of "Smart Tags" makes me shudder. Will someone please knock a little harder on Microsoft's door? No one seems to be home.