Digital Thoughts: SP2 Day Looms Near
by Jay Weintraub
This issue’s Digital
Thoughts and Digital Trends share a connection.
Given that one deals with email and this one with something
entirely different, pops, this connection doesn’t
necessarily make itself apparent at first glance. Both have
been stars for direct marketers, yet one is still going strong
while the other is recovering. That, however, may change
soon.
In March and April of this
year there was a flurry of discussion regarding Microsoft’s
Service Pack 2 and its implications for our industry. It was
billed as a comprehensive upgrade to XP… bah. Would it block
pops by default or not? That’s what we all wanted to know.
Word from Redmond kept changing; the tension was mounting.
Finally, the word was out – pops would be blocked by
default. Then, like a prisoner getting a call from the
Governor, Microsoft sent a reprieve – SP2 was to be delayed.
Guess who is back? SP2. It’s
not just finished but moments away from being blasted out to
millions of machines through their Automatic Updates
utility. So why does it seem that no one in our industry is
talking about it? The mainstream press has articles on it
almost daily, but none of the industry newsletters have
covered the topic. Do they know something I don’t know?
Perhaps people simply have been too busy to keep up with the
news. In that case, I offer the below in an attempt to bring
others up speed on SP2 and its impact to direct marketers.
SP2 appears to impact three
overlapping groups. One is the corporate user – the company
with hundreds or thousands of machines that need updating.
The second group is the home user. The third are those
measuring the impact of SP2. As for what exactly SP2 does,
much is behind the scenes. There are, however, three big
areas of change in user interaction resulting from SP2 –
Windows Firewall, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer.
For the tech savvy and/or
system administrators sleeping through the news, here is
some of what you might need to know. The new built-in
firewall, now on by default, is “likely to break
applications if they use unusual IP ports to access
applications, whether personal or corporate. In addition,
the firewall is designed to activate much earlier in the
boot cycle than before and remains on until after the IP
stack is disabled, which may cause problems for users whose
machines need to access network resources.” Various test
centers have found different, not always repeatable, glitches
including blue screens of death, faulty rollback (if
uninstalling SP2 and reverting to SP1), improper integration
with existing third party security applications (such as
Norton Anti-virus). For example, Symantec, maker of Norton
Anti-virus recently stated they will have a product update
to better use new features of SP2.
As for the changes to Outlook
Express, this isn’t Gmail, so we’ll pretend that we covered
it. Now onto what we really care about, Internet Explorer.
Pops will be blocked by default. So will Active X ads. For
those who have used MSN instant messenger and the newest
version of AIM, some of the new visual tricks should feel
familiar. Messages will appear on an information bar rather
than intruding on the page. As is the case with Outlook 2003
that blocks images automatically, users will see the files
blocked and have options regarding viewing them. This level
of information is expected to allow users to surf without
being tempted to modify their security settings to view a
site. Users will also have a simpler way to see what
programs have been added to their IE. The new Manage Add-ons
dialog box provides a single location to view and manage all
IE add-ons. The name, type, and publisher of each add-on are
listed, as well as the status (enabled or disabled), and
some usage statistics. Users can easily disable any unwanted
ones or search for updated versions.
As I wrote months ago, I can’t
say I’m happy to see the changes. It’s less about the work
it creates and more what it represents, a loss of control
resulting from one company’s decision. How bad could it
hurt? According to one report, XP users make up 48% of the
computer market. According an advertiser, XP users make up
60%+ of the referring browsers. In any event, the death of
the pop will spread further than simply showing fewer
impressions. Like the saying about a butterfly flapping its
wings in China, so too will be the case with pops, and
unlike CAN-SPAM, whose usefulness to the end user is
debatable, SP2 will lead to appreciable differences. Whether
for the better remains to be seen.
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