I want to write a simple rectangle with a red shadow in SVG. I have a simple filter:
You have provided invalid SVG - you need to close your
element.
Your example (fixed) shows a red shadow for me in Chrome. Here's what this URL looks like for me with Chrome v15:
What OS/browser/version are you seeing different results with?
Edit: In Firefox v7 I see all greyscale, and in Safari v5 I don't see the shadow effect at all. Your answer, most likely then, is simply that you're testing in a browser/version with incomplete support of the SVG filter specification.