Micro$oft has begrudgingly removed blocks from non-IE browsers viewing its MSN portal.
The blocks had been there because alternative browsers (such as Opera) did not “support the latest XHTML standard,” in M$’s words. Now they will allow the other browsers in, rather than blocking them and suggesting their owners download IE instead. Graciously, M$ notes, “The experience may be slightly degraded simply because they don’t support the standards we support closely, as far as the HTML standard in those browsers.”
This despite MSN’s non-adherence to XHTML standards itself, of course.
Also of course, ultimately, the “standard” is what everyone uses. If everyone has to use IE, then its idiosyncratic implementation of XHTML, etc., becomes the de facto standard. You don’t think that’s what they have in mind, do you?