Robert Scoble points to yet another grossly inaccurate story from the keyboard of The Register’s Andrew Orlowski (no, I won’t link to it – go to Scoble’s site and follow the link if you must). Orlowski “reported” that the IE7 beta out yesterday doesn’t work with the Google or Yahoo toolbars. Actually, the headline was even more inflammatory: “IE7 nukes Google, Yahoo! Search.”
That’s complete nonsense, as Andrew could have found out had he actually done any reporting or testing, but it didn’t stop him from publishing a pack of lies. Scoble assembles a small mountain of documentation to prove that this story is categorically false (and I can attest to the fact that the Google toolbar works just fine on IE7, because I’m looking at it right here). He then says:
I wonder if Andrew Orlowski will link to my blog and correct his story because his report is HUGELY damaging here.
Sorry, Robert. Andrew Orlowski doesn’t correct anything. He got this story wrong, and even a legitimate journalist like Dan Gillmor got fooled into reusing Orlowski’s distorted report. Neither he nor the Register ever corrected it.
Lawrence Lessig caught Orlowski in another whopper. The original story is still up, with a sorta-kinda-not-really-a-correction-but-an-editorial-note at the very end that just muddies the waters.
Amusingly, I used the Google toolbar in IE7, as well as the Yahoo! Search capabilities also built into IE7 to find all these pages.
Yep. Andrew Orlowski is a hack. Don’t hold your breath waiting for a correction, Robert.
Ed Bott 
Sorry, Ed, but you’re wrong on two points. First of all, as you’ll see if you head back to the Reg’s story, the mistake that Andrew made has been corrected. However, the point of the story – that many people are finding that IE7 does, in fact, make the Google and Yahoo toolbars vanish – is completely correct. It doesn’t happen for everyone, but for a large number of people, it does.
Normally, I like Scoble’s posts (and from people I know who’ve met him, he sounds like a nice guy). But this time, he’s sounding shrill.
I read The Register’s “correction.” We’ll just have to agree to see things differently.
And how can you conclude that “many people” or “a large number of people” are seeing this? There are 100,000 technical beta testers, plus several millions eligible for the download via MSDN. Even a microscopic percentage running into a bug could be spun into “a large number.”
I know one reliable source of information that represents the technical beta-testing community, and I can say with confidence that this bug isn’t being widely reported.
This is an idiotic Register story, it must be a slow news day. It’s Beta 1 software. There are supposed to be issues to work through.
Got to be a slow news day.
Yes, you’re completely right: with 100,000 testers, even a small number percentage could equal a large number. But that doesn’t, in any way, invalidate the fact that the issue is there.
And, if you read Robert’s post, you’d get the impression that AO is simply lying, and there’s no such problem. Robert gives quotes from the IE team that state the they’re not deliberately blocking the toolbars, which is, of course, something that the story doesn’t accuse them of doing. That’s what stage magicians call “misdirection” and it’s common tactic amongst PR people.
Despite several people posting in his comments that they’re having problems, Robert doesn’t admit there’s ANY such issue in his response, because that would mean admitting that Orlowski actually got the story pretty much correct. And, for some reason – I suspect it’s personal – Robert wont’ admit that.
Ian, you’ve now backed off almost completely. Initially you said “a large number of people” are seeing this and “many people” are having this problem. You don’t even know that. Andrew just says he has “multiple corroborations” of what is a bug in a beta product.
Meanwhile, the original story still has the headline “IE7 nukes Google, Yahoo! Search.” Anyone just skimming will read that only one way. And the story as posted still says, “There are sound compatibility reasons for Microsoft disabling third-party toolbars …” Do you honestly want us to believe that this does not say that Microsoft disabled these toolbars either deliberately or negligently?
You can parse Andrew’s words as finely as you want, but the reality is that he left exactly the impression that he wanted to leave. He can deny that he said X, while lots of sites link to him reporting that he said exactly that.
Hackery at its finest.
Ed,
One of the links Robert points to, the one by Jeremy Mazner, states. “Fact: older versions of the Y! toolbar (I believe version 5.6 and earlier) do have issues that prevent them from working in IE 7 TechBeta. These issues were fixed in Y! toolbar versions 6 and above.”
That tells me that the IE testing team did find a bug with older Yahoo toolbars. Which doesn’t jive with the “All of the toolbars work with IE 7” story that Robert is attempting to spin.
The Register article is still yellow journalism, but it does have a grain of truth.
Scott: when I say “all of the toolbars are working” that is completely accurate. I’m talking about the currently-shipping toolbars.
If you have some evidence that a currently-shipping toolbar isn’t working, I’d like to see it. I have seen NO EVIDENCE that a currently-shipping toolbar doesn’t work.
” I have seen NO EVIDENCE that a currently-shipping toolbar doesn’t work.”
NOW, we’re talking in truths. “Currently shipping” is very different. It’s not realistic since a lot of people out there never upgrade their toolbars, but at least it identifies the problem.
If Andrew says that people are reporting problems with the toolbars, can you admit that there is a possibility those people were running older versions of the Yahoo toolbar and did in fact have a problem?
The rest of his article is crap and you’re right to complain about the misleading headline, but you’re doing the IE team a disservice by painting their work as “only works with the current toolbars”. Are there plans to make IE7 work with older toolbars?
Yes.
Yes. But that wasn’t the point of Orlowski’s article. Go and read it again. He didn’t print “they are having problems with XYZ old version of Yahoo’s toolbar.” No, he said they were having trouble with all of them. That’s not journalism. It’s a hatchet job.
Well, well. well, you guys sure can go into the nitty gritty of journalism.
Was very interesting reading and well spoken.
Came across your website by entering “latest news on Vista Microsoft” and ended up at this intersting article.
Have no website only, since a short time, a photo gallery, that of my wife (link, which has nothing to do with this comment, but since there was a URL window I posted hers.
I am not a computer wizard was just curious to learn more about Vista in order to know more when it comes out in the stores.
Sergio Baumgartner, Zuerich, Switzerland
Orlowski is a hack pretty much sums up the existence of this talentless useless scumbag.