Re: Newsgroup

Gavin Nicol ([email protected])
Wed, 19 Apr 1995 11:32:04 -0400


>Ok, take off your purist design hat, put on my marketing power tie.
>Now look at what Netscape did. Now look at their results. I
>certainly want to learn from that!! They bypassed all the lengthy
>standards rigormarole (sp?) threw in some nifty little improvements,
>and became #1 browser provider. (OK - I don't know this for a fact,
>but they're darn popular!)

I hope you don't take a lesson in marketing from them. It shows
a remarkable "knee jerk"attitude, and almost no foresight.

>There's a fundamental conflict between design standards and
>marketing.

Bzzt.

>The goal of design standards is to ensure uniformity. One if the goals of
>marketing is to differentiate. When one of those goals pays the bills and
>funds the winter home in Aspen, guess which one will prevail?

The uniform browser. Look at the *data*. Netscape makes some money
from browsers, sure, but... (and if you can't figure the rest out,
don't even bother responding).

>No matter what standards are proposed here, it's been shown that one
>way to make a browser more popular is to add functionality beyond the
>standard. If those extra functions are well received by the
>customers, >whammo< you've got a new 'standard' just waiting to be
>one-upped by another supplier.

This is naive. What is a standard? What is a browser? What do you make
from the former? The latter? The extrapolation thereof?

>Sorry, here's your design hat back. Gimme back my tie.

Bye bye. See you in the employment queue.