Microsoft had two representatives at the event Friday, a move lauded by Neuberg. "I really respect that they came to the conference this year" and are having a dialog, he said.

One of Microsoft's reps, IE software architect Ted Johnson, said the company would not be announcing anything at the event about future versions of the browser. "We're just here to listen and learn," he said.

SVG, Johnson said, grew out of proposals from Microsoft and Adobe. Microsoft has supported vector graphics via Vector Markup Language (VML), he said, but he gave a nod to SVG.

"SVG's coming of age," Johnson said.

Microsoft's lack of SVG support in IE is a problem, said conference attendee Greg Sterndale, senior software engineer at Plectix.