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Smart Tags
Microsoft Smart Tags
Smart Tags (SmartTags) de Microsoft Windows XP
Smart Tags est un Scumware au même titre que plusieurs autres parasites de même nature.
Smart tags = liens intelligents. Cette technologie a été découverte lors des tests des versions béta de Windows XP. Elle devait être incorporée dans Windows XP, Office XP et Internet Explorer 6. Sous la pression des internautes et des associations de défense des consommateurs, et probablement sous la pression des annonceurs publicitaires qui font la pluie et le beau temps sur le Net puisqu'il possède le nerf de la guerre, l'argent de l'Internet, Microsoft a renoncé à l'incorporer dans les versions initiales de Windows XP et dans la version 6 de Internet Explorer. Toutefois Microsoft n'a jamais dit abandonner cette technologie. De quoi s'agit-il ?
Les "Smart Tags" sont une technologie, au demeurant simple, permettant à Microsoft Internet Explorer et à Windows XP de transformer n'importe quel mot ou groupe de mots sur une page Web en un hyperlien vers un site ou un service propriété de Microsoft ou choisi par Microsoft. La technologie analyse à la volée et ré-écrit à la volée n'importe quel page de n'importe quel site en comparant tout les mots, un par un, avec une base de données, ceci sans que l'utilisateur en ai connaissance et sans son consentement et, bien entendu, sans le consentement du Webmaster du site piraté par Microsoft. Tout ceci dans le but de conduire l'utilisateur à quitter le site visité pour se diriger vers un site choisi par Microsoft, le maître de la toile !
Bien entendu la publicité intrusive ainsi fabriquée est rémunérée ainsi que les ventes réalisées sur les sites "amis".
Ceci est identique aux techniques de publicités intrusives décrites et semble correspondre avec la fin de la vieille relation entre Microsoft et Alexa avec son spyware et sa ToolBar, Microsoft tirant désormais toute la couverture à lui.
Ces agissements violent notre navigation, poluent nos écrans et violent toutes les législations car on est en pleine concurrence déloyale. En outre, c'est assimilable, également, à du piratage.
Pour l'instant mis en sommeil par Microsoft devant le tollé général mais il convient de rester vigilants. La technologie est simplement mise en sommeil dans la version actuelle de Windows XP et d'Internet Explorer 6, elle n'est pas retirée de Windows XP et Internet Explorer.
Il semble que le fait de mettre le tag suivant, n'importe où entre les balises <head> et </head> de chaque page d'un site internet inhibe le comportement de SmartTags. On ne sait si la technologie SmartTags sera ré-activée un jour, si elle est partiellement active et sert à du tracking actuellement, ni si ce tag continura à être reconnu si SmartTags est ré-activé.
<meta name="MSSmartTagsPreventParsing" content="TRUE">
Recherches à propos de ce tag sur Google - peut conduire à d'autres astuces
("smart tags" OR smarttags) tag <head> </head>
Lectures pour en savoir plus :
Microsoft clips Windows XP Smart Tags
Microsoft's Smart Tags Threaten the User Experience sur goodexperience.com
Smart Tags sur la FAQ de Agility Systems, Inc.
"Smart Tags" in Windows XP Steals Visitors sur Website 101
New Windows XP Feature Can Re-Edit Others' Sites Ce dernier article est recopié ici car la page d'origine a disparu et il ne reste qu'une copie dans le cache de Google.
By WALTER S. MOSSBERG
MICROSOFT'S WINDOWS XP operating system, due to be released Oct. 25, is designed to be easier and more reliable than previous home versions of Windows. But Microsoft has another agenda for Windows XP: The program is also designed to be a platform from which the company can seamlessly offer users an array of new subscription services via the Internet.
One key test of Windows XP will be whether its features do more to benefit consumers or Microsoft's business plan. Another will be whether the operating system favors Microsoft services over those of other companies. The company has said its software won't discriminate against others selling Web-based services.
But even though Windows XP is still in development, I've already encountered one proposed feature, in a "beta," or test, version, that shows Microsoft may well flunk both these tests. The feature, which hasn't yet been made public, allows Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser -- included in Windows XP -- to turn any word on any Web site into a link to Microsoft's own Web sites and services, or to any other sites Microsoft favors.
In effect, Microsoft will be able, through the browser, to re-edit anybody's site, without the owner's knowledge or permission, in a way that tempts users to leave and go to a Microsoft-chosen site -- whether or not that site offers better information.
THE FEATURE, called Internet Explorer Smart Tags, wasn't in the widely distributed second public beta of Windows XP issued in March. And it isn't easy to find, even in later "builds" that have had much more limited distribution.
In response to my questions, Microsoft officials stressed that the feature may still undergo modifications to make it more palatable. But they defended it as a useful tool.
"Smart Tags represent another step in personalizing the Web and helping bring it to life for individuals by allowing them to get the information they want in the way they want it," says Chris Jones, vice president for Windows XP development.
Here's how the Internet Explorer Smart Tags work: On a PC with Windows XP, when you open any Web page, squiggly purple lines instantly appear under certain types of words. In the version I tested, these browser-generated underlines appear beneath the names of companies, sports teams and colleges. But other types of terms could be highlighted in future versions.
If you place your cursor on the underlined word, an icon appears, and if you click on the icon, a small window opens to display links to sites offering more information. For instance, in the new browser, a Washington Post Web article on Japanese baseball players was littered with eight Microsoft-generated links that the Post editors never placed on their site.
In the beta version I tested, most of these links weren't functional yet, but Microsoft officials confirm that they will send users to Microsoft Web properties or to other properties blessed by Microsoft. One of the links did work: It launched Microsoft's mediocre search engine, which is packed with plugs for other Microsoft services.
ONE MICROSOFT OFFICIAL says the feature will spare users from "under-linked" sites. But who decides if a site is "under-linked?" It's up to a site's creators to decide how many, and which, terms to turn into links, where those links appear, and where they send users. It's part of the editorial process. In the case of the Washington Post article, the editors included plenty of links but chose to list them at the bottom of the article and in a box to the side of the text. Microsoft decided otherwise.
Microsoft says the Internet Explorer Smart Tags feature, which is similar to a Smart Tag feature in the new Office XP, will be turned off by default in the final release, and that users will have to consciously choose to enable it by activating a setting buried in the browser's menus. In addition, Microsoft says, it will provide a free bit of programming code, called a "meta tag," that site owners could use to bar any Smart Tags from appearing on their sites.
But if the feature is so benign, why is Microsoft hiding it and offering sites a way to block it?
Microsoft also says that other companies, besides itself, will be able to create and distribute add-ons for the browser that will launch their own Smart Tags all over the Web, directing users to their sites. But these tags will be far harder to obtain than Microsoft's. And they will merely allow more companies to invasively re-edit others' sites. Ford would be able to impose its own links on Chevrolet's site, and Republicans could insert links on Democrats' sites. Once the hate groups, the spammers and the junk marketers on the Web get their hands on these Smart Tags, they'll be plastering their links on everything.
There have been some excellent third-party programs, like GuruNet (now Atomica), that let users click on words within Web pages to get more information. But these don't place new links on pages, and they aren't built into the browser that more than 80% of Web visitors use.
Microsoft's Internet Explorer Smart Tags are something new and dangerous. They mean that the company that controls the Web browser is using that power to actually alter others' Web sites to its own advantage. Microsoft has a perfect right to sell services. But by using its dominant software to do so, it will be tilting the playing field and threatening editorial integrity.
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Contre-mesure
Voir anti-smart tags.
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