---
title: "Squawkbox: Corporate Use of MSN Spaces-- check out CNBC. Rant alert"
date: 2005-07-01T01:36:00Z
modified: 2005-07-01T01:36:00Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/squawkbox-corporate-use-of-msn-spaces-check-out-cnbc-rant-alert/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 278
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2005-07-01T01:36:00Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

Who’d a thunk it – a corporate blog on MSN Spaces.

Check [this out](http://www.spaces.msn.com/members/squawkblog/).

Big problems a gwan though. The CNBC site does a horrible job of supporting Firefox. No pictures and so on. No buttons.

Please stop the madness. I evidently had not been thinking through the implications of Microsoft’s "extensions" in Spaces clearly enough in the past. I tried to give Dare and the folks at MSN the benefit of the doubt, but this is just bad. [Fie on you and your toolkits](http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/default.aspx?date=2005-06-30)! AJAX is about small pieces loosely joined, that’s where richness comes from – Flexibility. Did you notice flickr migrate from Flash to DHTML? No. There is a reason for that. "[User interface problems](http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9eed2afa-8c35-4ba0-9e93-c7b5155f9edd)" – yeah my heart bleeds.

 [Give with one hand](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/000799.html) and take with the other.

A new IE lock in on corporate web communications. That’s just what we all need. The squawkbox is actually a reasonable enough web site in IE, but the browser lock is bad bad bad. I have said some positive things about Spaces in the past. My line had been somewhat like [Allistair](http://www.bloggerme.co.uk/the_uk_web_log_forum/2005/06/coffee_with_hel.html)‘s.

> "MSN Spaces is a great product within the context of the MSN package"

I hereby recant. Feel free to burn me now.

I am also a bit surprised that the Spaces license suits CNBC, but that’s another story.

I wish Microsoft would stop "[extending the power"](http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/default.aspx?date=2005-06-30) of simple powerful things. I want to call the firm a good citizen. I really do. Its like Gurdeep telling me [Communicator will support Firefox](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/000777.html), which i am beginning to doubt.

Repeat after me: Small pieces, loosely joined, small pieces, loosely joined…. or maybe not.

Just once it would be nice to see a change in the modus operandi. [Play nicely with others like Yahoo](http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-media/message/414). I wasn’t sure i followed [Sam’s post today](http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2005/06/29/Undecipherable-Specification-Error), but the whole extensions thing is such a drag.

Is there a role for integrated innovation – sure. Check out the Scoblephone on the Orange network. But this Spaces thing is [integrated aggravation](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/000660.html). I guess we need more [Firefox Only](http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/000524.html) sites to even the balance…

CNBC has shut itself off from at least 10% of the market, many of whom are influencers of stature. Shrewd. Definitely [lame site](http://redcouch.typepad.com/) of the week.

Please include me as an agitator for [Open Media Standards](http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/2005/06/30/Open-Media-Standards). That is a club i will happily join.

It seems Steve Rubel [got there first](http://www.micropersuasion.com/2005/05/cnbc_launches_m.html) and its interesting to see the defence from MG:

> "And although some may say Spaces is for kids…its the largest Blogosphere out there…and I am sure other shows will follow our lead. "

Blogospheres as walled gardens. I hope not.

Squawk. End of Rant.