ev gives us a glimpse of one possible smart tag future:
“The reason I did it is because yesterday, I turned Smart Tags on on a page that had code snippets on it, and every instance of the word TRUE (when in all-caps as is often the case when writing code) was highlighted because it’s a stock symbol . That struck me as bad. Not to mention stupid and much more confusing to the user than helpful. Linking obvious trademarks with basically only one meaning, like “American Express,” I can see the argument for (I’m not saying it’s a good idea), but when it happens on everyday words that have a million meanings, that’s trouble. Oddly, as I look at this page now with Smart Tags on, TRUE isn’t highlighted, but American Express is, so I haven’t quite figured out the logic. Anyway, in general, I’m still waiting and seeing, but the threat is clear; I thought I’d do at least this one easy thing.”