Special measures to Open the Web

February 23, 2011 · by Aleksander Aas

This guest post is part of a series found on the German Community site. Written by Nico, a long time Opera fan.

At the turn of the millennium the Web was a wild place. Social networks we now know and love was in their early infancy, Internet Explorer dominated the market share and browsers from Norway fought hard to open the web and attract attention.

MSN Portal unborked in Opera 7.02.

In February 2003 a special "Bork" edition of Opera was released to address the home page of MSN. But why was this done?

It all started in back in 2001. Opera users was denied access to the then popular MSN portal. This lead to a outcry Online, and MSN had to bow to public pressure. Opera had won the battle, but the war was far from over. Some parts of MSN was still not displayed to Opera users.

Two weeks before the release of the "Bork" edition, the situation escalated. Once again the MSN portal from Microsoft intentionally delivers an incorrect version of the site for Opera users, although Opera was fully capable of delivering the original MSN site.

MSN Portal as seen in IE.

Opera did not like this course of action and published a special version of Opera 7.01, the so-called "Bork" edition. This fulfilled a single, simple purpose: it changed the look of the MSN page. Visitors were now welcomed into the language of the Swedish Chef from the Muppet Show when browsing MSN. Bork, bork, bork!

Video on YouTube

Opera pointed out that not only websites can deliver wrong content, but so can the browser vendors. A little known fact is that the development of the Borked edition also sparked the first steps into UserJS and later extensions for all browsers!

The situation today is a lot better, most website owners are committed to web standards and most pages look the same in all browsers and thus contribute to the basic idea of an open web. While there are still exceptions, closer collaboration between Web developers and browser manufacturers is a continuous effort that pays off. Everyone deserves the best possible Internet experience - regardless of browser or device.

Nico Heister is an avid Opera user since Opera 7. He blogs for the German Opera community and is a big part of their community. In his free time, he goes to the movies and meets with friends. He is currently working as a media designer for a small web agency in Germany. His My Opera username is HellbillyDeluxe

Readers' comments 18

Left under the original article, as archived.

TamilWednesday, February 23, 2011 2:57:29 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/LOL2.gif -
Zdenko TimulakWednesday, February 23, 2011 3:19:22 PM
Mağruf ÇolakoğluWednesday, February 23, 2011 3:20:19 PM
ZodiusWednesday, February 23, 2011 3:35:13 PM
As Tamil said,
RafalWednesday, February 23, 2011 3:47:16 PM
Opera screenshot actually looks better than IE one. What gives?
NicoWednesday, February 23, 2011 4:40:17 PM
Originally posted by d.i.z.:

Opera screenshot actually looks better than IE one. What gives?
MSN portal is broken in IE because it uses the broken HTML file that was delivered to Opera users to show that even with IE, MSN can be broken if it gets the wrong file.
ZodiusWednesday, February 23, 2011 4:53:42 PM
Originally posted by HellbillyDeluxe:

MSN portal is broken in IE because it uses the broken HTML file that was delivered to Opera users to show that even with IE, MSN can be broken if it gets the wrong file.

LMAO! Good one!!!

Now let's load some pages in IE that Opera renders perfectly due to web standards.
random414Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:23:33 PM

Does anyone have a screenshot with Opera displaying the "Bork, bork, bork!" MSN page?
abdur92Wednesday, February 23, 2011 6:27:08 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/ROFL.gif -
NicoWednesday, February 23, 2011 6:29:14 PM
Originally posted by random414:

Does anyone have a screenshot with Opera displaying the "Bork, bork, bork!" MSN page?
Here's a screenshot with Opera displaying the Bork edition of MSN: http://files.myopera.com/HellbillyDeluxe/files/opera_bork-edition_full.png
ZodiusWednesday, February 23, 2011 6:32:59 PM
Anybody know if there is an extension of some kind to enable web pages speak Bork?

Also, I demand Opera 7 skin for Opera 11! Opera 7 was a classic beauty!
Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaWednesday, February 23, 2011 9:00:48 PM
Some years later MSN opened Polish version of the portal. It was also screwed in Opera, AFAIR.
Cutting SpoonThursday, February 24, 2011 4:06:39 AM
Hehe, I always laugh when this story comes up.
QuHnoThursday, February 24, 2011 5:37:14 AM
I still have that version in one of my backups - I think I should install it and look, how good it copes with the MSN page as it is today

bork, bork, bork
dave1974Friday, February 25, 2011 11:07:02 AM
Originally posted by AleksOD:

Anybody know if there is an extension of some kind to enable web pages speak Bork?

I was about to ask exactly the same thing!
Charles SchlossSaturday, February 26, 2011 6:02:26 AM
Why did I not get an email subscription notice for this?

I would have said some thing 3 days ago.

I have used Opera bork edition before in wine (via crossover on my mac)

I have contacted many sites to "open the web"
Nathan RodriguezMonday, February 28, 2011 1:49:54 PM
What unfair competition done by msn...
Cutting SpoonWednesday, March 2, 2011 5:24:57 PM
alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork is still up....