Microsoft doesn't support Firefox?
Darren Barefoot notes "I guess Microsoft doesn't want my money." — This pisses me off. — If I were Bill Gates I'd issue a memo that said "any team that ships without Firefox support automatically gets 3.0s for all members." — "Huh?"
Context & Ripple Effects
The complaint arrives as Microsoft expands its web and advertising services: adCenter launched in the United States a day earlier, while March coverage had already reported that Firefox users could be excluded from adCenter tracking. That makes browser compatibility a revenue and measurement issue, not merely a technical annoyance.
It also fits an existing strand of skepticism about Microsoft's approach to the web, with Darren Barefoot framing the lack of support as a reason a willing customer cannot spend money with the company.
First-order effects
- Firefox users facing the unsupported Microsoft offering lose a usable path to buy or access it, while Microsoft risks forfeiting those customers' demand.
Second-order effects
- For adCenter advertisers, any Firefox-related tracking gap can weaken confidence in campaign measurement by leaving part of the browser audience uncounted or inaccessible.
Third-order effects
- As Microsoft moves more services onto the web, browser compatibility becomes a distribution constraint: product teams that exclude alternative browsers can impose commercial costs on the advertising and service businesses they are meant to grow.
The trend: Web-service expansion is making cross-browser support a competitive requirement because access, transactions, and advertising measurement increasingly depend on the browser layer.