Continuing this debate on browsers, following Jack's post below, in response to my original post... is the standards compliance, or otherwise, of the browser built into AOL's software really something that's going to attract - or lose - users? I'd doubt it. Consumers only begin to really care about standards when we get locked out of sites because we're using the "wrong" browser, computer or operating system, as this vintage piece on the Web Standards Project explains. What the analyst was not seeing is the strategic importance of making your own software. The battle between MSN and AOL, if it is to be one, will be won not on technical standards (for the reasons above), but on issues like marketing, pricing and content. But by "owning" the browser, AOL can come up with its own non standard, proprietary innovations and services within its "walled garden" of subscriber-only services, and ensure they are supported by the browser. That's the kind of thing that wins customers, and boosts revenues.