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November 03, 2006
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7
Webpage (article): Windows Releases Internet Explorer 7
Webpage (reviews): Consumer reviews of IE7
After five years, Microsoft finally came out on Wednesday with a new version of Internet Explorer, IE7, which can be downloaded for free. The new browser is an integral part of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system, which is to be released to both businesses and consumers in the next few months.
Internet Explorer 7 is apparently superior to IE6 for several key reasons. For one thing, there is a tabbing feature that allows users to view a number of web pages simultaneously without running multiple browser windows. Moreover, there is a search box displayed in IE7’s browser, meaning users don’t have to go to another webpage in order to search for things on the Internet. Mostly for the purpose of avoiding antitrust issues in Europe, IE7 allows users to choose whether they want to use the search engine provided by Microsoft or that of another company, such as Google or Yahoo. Finally, IE7 is more secure than IE6 and other outdated versions of the browser.
While all of these are much-needed improvements over IE6, the newest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is not dramatically different than its predecessor or than competing products, such as Opera Software ASA's Opera and Mozilla's Firefox (which is open source). Although Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has a U.S. market share around 86%, this is still a significant decline from the 93% of the market it served just 2 years ago.
I am interested to see if Internet Explorer is able to maintain its current level of market share in the next few years, or if FF, Opera, Safari, and other web browsers will continue to creep in on its territory. On Wired Blog, I read more than 20 user reviews of IE7, and the difference of opinion regarding the quality and appeal of IE7 was startling. Some people used said “IE sucks” and that “Firefox is much better”. Others said IE7 is much better than IE6, and also much better than it gets credit for (they supported Windows XP as a whole, also).
The most important thing I've taken away from this article is that I, a Safari user, wish Safari had the tabbing feature that IE7, like Firefox and Opera, is now offering. Right now I have 5 web pages open, in addition to word processing pages, iTunes, etc. It's just too much! Centralizing my web pages to one browser would certainly simplify things. Maybe I ought to download Internet Explorer 7!
Posted by alathans at November 3, 2006 12:49 PM