Like it or loathe it, a new release of Microsoft's Internet Explorer is upon us once again. For this eighth iteration of their browser, they are focusing heavily on security, ease of use and improvements in RSS, AJAX and CSS. That's a rather general outline, so we'll dive into these new features for a closer look.
Acid3 Fail!
Despite reporting a 100 score on the Acid2 test months ago, IE8 has subsequently registered a sloppy 20/100 on the Acid3 test. Compare that to these recent scores:
- Firefox 3.1 : 89
- Safari 4 : 100
- Opera 10 : 100
- Chrome 1.0 : 71
- When I was looking something up on Live Search Maps, it also suggested that I might want to check out Virtual Earth and Yahoo Maps.
- When I was checking my old Windows Live Mail account it suggested that I may like Yahoo and Hotmail.
- When I was on Engadget it said I may like Gizmodo and Digg.
- I installed a Digg Web Slice and it allows me to see the top 10 articles without having to visit the actual site in a new tab.
- A great example is what eBay have done. Instead of keeping a whole tab open just to keep an eye on the highest bid on that camera you've had your eye on, you simply create a web slice and it will stay in your favorites bar. When you want to see the auction, you click and it will show you a nice, live window of your auction.
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In fact, many users are reporting scores as low as twelve. This is shocking to say the least. For those unfamiliar with the acid tests:
"Acid3 is a test page from the Web Standards Project that checks how well a web browser follows certain web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model and JavaScript."
- Wikipedia
Reclaim your Privacy with InPrivate
The first on our little list of new features in IE8 is InPrivate. As its name might suggest, it is a feature similar to the Incognito mode in Google's Chrome or many of the Firefox extensions that add stealth mode functionality. When this mode is activated it stops Internet Explorer from storing your browsing session. It stops storing your history, cookies, temporary Internet files, form information and any passwords you may have entered. When you disable the InPrivate mode there is no record of your private browsing session. This is a great mode to use when searching for gifts, banking on-line, or other private things.
Suggested Sites
Next, we have "Suggested Sites"; think of it as a kind-of built in Stumble Upon - almost. It's not enabled by default and is turned off during your InPrivate session. Essentially, it sends information back to Microsoft about the sites you visit. Microsoft then returns suggested sites to you that you might find interesting.
Though this could impose upon your privacy, Microsoft have stated that the suggested sites are per-session and that anything that would make the client, you, identifiable aren't logged. The suggested sites feature worked well and showed me sites that were in the same niche as I was interested in.
You get the idea; it works pretty well at expanding your "internet horizon".
Increase Your Browsing Speed with Accelerators
One of the bigger features which has gotten many people interested in IE8 is the accelerators. An accelerator is an action that is performed when you highlight a particular piece of text on a web page. Just as the name suggests, it's supposed to speed up some of the mundane tasks we perform - like looking up something on Wikipedia, translating text to a different language, emailing a small excerpt of a site to a friend, and even posting to Twitter. These can all be performed very easily with some of the built-in accelerators, as well as the newly launched Add-ons site which hosts many more.
When I tried the accelerators, they worked well and helped quite a bit. It takes a little getting used to as, rather than highlighting the word and right-clicking to bring up a menu, you click on a little blue box that appears to access the different accelerators you have installed. However, once you get into the groove, it can become quite powerful.
Slice and Dice With Web Slices
Think of web slices as a kind of RSS feed - but they actually display a small portion of the site rather than just text. For example:
It's a nice little feature, and will be interesting to see what different sites can come up with to take advantage of them.
Web Slices also auto-update - like an RSS feed - and when there is an update, the text is displayed as bold on the Favorites bar. It doesn't appear as if there are many slices available at the moment, but it should catch on soon enough.
SmartScreen
The SmartScreen isn't really a new feature but more of an evolution of the phishing filter technology that Microsoft introduced in version 7. Like Firefox, if a website has been reported as harmful or an impostor, a message will appear warning the user that the site has been reported as harmful and the user really shouldn't visit it.
It's great to see Microsoft evolving its security technology in Internet Explorer. I'm guessing a majority of users won't understand phishing and this filter will hopefully save a lot of people from entering their PayPal details into an impostor site.
It's What's Under the Hood that Counts
These are some of the bigger and more apparent features that are included in the latest version of IE, but there are many new, less obvious, features that are working in the background. One of the things I really like in the new IE is how they've taken a path similar to Google's Chrome with their sandbox implementation.
This means that each tab running in the browser creates its own process within Windows and if a page crashes, the entire browser won't be taken down with it. If the entire browser was to crash though, there is also a new tool which allows you to choose which tabs you want to recover. So if you knew a particularly heavy Flash site was causing the problem, you could simply choose not to recover the troublesome site.
Tab Coloring
There have also been some small, but welcomed changes to the organization of tabs. Say you are visiting eBay and you click a link which opens a new tab; IE8 will know that the new tab is related to the site that opened it. So it will color both the tabs the same. Another subtle change is that, like Chrome, the address of the site is now colored; the domain such as Envato.com is a solid black color while the rest of the address is a light gray color. Chalk this update to improving security as it helps you to identify the real site, as opposed to one that is using some sub-domain trickery.
Sites Not Ready for IE8? Use Compatibility Mode
There has been a push to improve the performance of the HTML parser, CSS engine and JScript run time. As well as performance there has also been a push to improve the rendering of content authored to web standards. In order to ease the transition from IE7 to IE8, Microsoft has created a meta element which when used in a website causes IE8 to run in a compatibility mode and render the page as if it was running in Internet Explorer 7. This will allow a little more time to ensure that a site is ready for IE8.
Developer Debugger
On the developer side of things, Microsoft has also included a debugger for CSS, HTML and Javascript. It's not as nice as the likes of the Firefox extension, Firebug, but it gets the job done and lets you see what's going on underneath the glossy exterior.
Internet Explorer 8 is a welcomed update, and it's nice to see how Microsoft has improved their standards implementation - somewhat.
What issues have you had with this browser? Have your current sites broken? Which feature are you happiest with?
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User Comments
( ADD YOURS )Oto Brglez March 23rd
As the name suggest IE8 will suck big time?
Compatibility mode? FTW? In all this time no propriet xhtml parser?
ACID fail?
IE8 is a joke!
( )lawrence77 March 23rd
What IE8 is a joke??
( )IE8 is faster than FireFox3.0.7! (says pcworld)
Mind this!
Microsoft Rulezzz
Maurizio Liberato March 23rd
What’s the point in being faster if it doesn’t render the pages as it should!!??
Jason Wilson March 23rd
Of course it’s faster, it ignores half the declaration in the CSS file!
Anton Agestam March 23rd
If you want fast, use Chrome or Opera! They get much better results in the acid test!
sebastian March 23rd
Yeah its faster!! to crash!! thats nice Microsoft…
jose_ph March 23rd
- Of course it’s faster, it ignores half the declaration in the CSS file! – Haha best comment ever! lawrence77, come on!
lawrence77 March 24th
My Vista IE is faster than my XP firefox Mr.Jose_ph!
2cents March 25th
lawrence77, your site doesn’t validate, or render correctly in IE.
lawrence77 March 28th
here my IE render it well, Yes thats correct for some machines!
If you come Along with IE, we are a genius in Codes then only IE validate and display it correctly!
Miguel April 19th
Not when it comes to javascript, I’ve ran several tests.
michael March 23rd
This is a Mac fanboy, here, defending IE8. I think you’re missing the point. Honestly, how many people can actually develop a layout that takes full advantage of ACID 3 anyway? Can you?
You obviously don’t understand compatibility mode in IE 8. Out of the box it will break non-compliant layouts. That’s huge and will do more to push standards compliance than any efforts anybody has made up to this point. Firefox doesn’t break site like this will. Safari, Opera and Chrome don’t break sites. IE 8 will actually force designers to learn about web standards. Oh the angry clients who will be screaming when all of a sudden their designs break.
The very people who design non-standard sites will, or at least the majority of them, not even know that their sites are going to break until they get a panic drive call from their clients. Even then they may take a while to get a clue.
The compatibility mode code is an absolute business necessity and would be irresponsible to leave out.
( )Jarryd March 23rd
Who designs non-standard sites? The way it should be done is designing to standards as close as possible (people aren’t perfect and they are guidelines) then whatever IE doesn’t parse properly, add conditional CSS.
No web designer/developer should be building website specific for a particular browser or in a non-standard way, <= IE 7 in this scope.
Safari, Opera and Chrome don’t break sites because they work like a browser should, or very near to it.
I see the compatibility mode as more of a solution for IE 8 to be phased in slowly due to the fact that the way it renders websites may break them (with compatibility mode off).
What’s to stop people leaving it permanently on? It’s out of the designers/developers hands to stop people reverting back to IE 7, hindering the move forward by bringing out this newer version, or at least slowing it down considerably.
Who knows, they might remove the button in a couple of years when IE 8 becomes the major browser over IE 7, and we will all curse the day it was born like we do now for IE 6.
All in all, good on Microsoft for taking a step forward.
Cosmin April 21st
that’s bullshit actually
MS is just not able to create a solid browser and introduces “compatibility mode”…crap!
IE8 is still way behind Firefox, and always will be, because Firefox is developed by the whole world, not just a team of developers.
Oh…and Accelerators? Another crap – this is stolen from the Ubiquity project of Mozilla, you might wanna check it out
The numbers are there and you can’t open your mouth : IE8 fails big time with ACID3, and that’s that!
MS has always “stolen” tech from other projects, and claiming to be they’re own, since Windows and up to IE and whatever you want.
MS’s advantage was that they got Windows out on the market earlier, and that’s it.
A browser that cannot render modern sites properly, but offers you the option to use other redering engines (other than its own), cannot be called a browser….it’s crap…
And yes, I’m using Windows, I’m not a Mac lover (can’t afford one).
And lawrence77, soon everybody will ignore your IE, so you can stick to your dinosaur-aged browser – we will give you a message stating to switch to a better browser
Vista Fan March 23rd
Well It would be nice if you could understand how hard it is to create a web browser.
If you ever do one just tell me and I will be glad to use and tell you how bad it is.
So please make one for next year!
Seriously
: )
( )mamjed March 23rd
well if it is that hard, and microsoft keeps falling short form the standards, then they should just STOP MAKING IE, and ruining our lives
Jason March 30th
I don’t think that “it’s hard to make a web browser” is a valid excuse for a company who is supposed to be making valuable software…that argument is null and void.
Failing the newest Acid test is definitely bad news. It means that once again Microsoft is choosing to ignore all other standards that browsers are trying to move towards. I really pity those who still use IE to surf the web. There are so many other options! I hope everyone keeps using progressive enhancement so that people will switch from IE to something prettier, more stable and usable.
Cosmin April 21st
Well, it would be nice if you understood that no one is asking MS to create IE…
If it’s that hard (and I know it is), how come Mozilla and Safari are way better?
Aren’t they humans too? Or maybe it’s Alien tech
And about your “do a browser for next year”… that’s just words in the wind, I was expecting something smarter
Idan Smith March 23rd
what about some ie8 benchmarks?
( )kaqfa March 23rd
i hope IE8 will more compatible to standard xhtml and css3 as other browser did. but IE surely hopeless, it’s just like an individual microsoft project without obeying any compatibility.
web designers have to work hard to make a design which compatible with IE.
( )DanC March 23rd
I’ve had the beta IE8 for months and have had no trouble making sites that work with it. As long as you follow standards and make sure everything validates, there is no hassle!
( )Andy Bishop March 23rd
I don’t think that’s correct. I’m designing one now (that validates) that IE8 completely flunks. *shakes head in despair*
Meshach March 24th
@DanC: I couldn’t disagree with you more like Andy my site works fine in IE6, IE7, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari but totally screws up in IE8.
Sanne Terpstra March 23rd
I think microsoft should start all the way from the beginning with their new browser. Not just improve IE, because the bugs will come with the new version then.
I think when you release a browser especially if you’re a big company, the browser should come through the test with a ful 100%.
( )wayno007 March 23rd
Well said.
( )lawrence77 March 23rd
somewhat you are correct!
( )Cosmin April 21st
IE will never be good, because it was always just some code (Trident if I’m not mistaking) bought by MS (who also cheated the developer, agreeing to share profits and then they included IE for free in Windows)…
Don’t sweat it, the European Union has this in sight as far as I’ve heard, with a little luck, MS might be forced to give up developing IE
( )Shuuun March 23rd
Oto Brglez, sign…
What are they doing the whole day?
Laughting about Webdesigner like:
” HAHAHAHA, this stupid guys have to code stupid not validate code just for our Browser hahahhaha, someone want Wodka? YES yes YEEEEE” ^^
Somekind of this at every Microsoft Meeting
( )Phunky March 23rd
It’s a step in the right direction – even if MS dropped the trident engine for say WebKit it wouldn’t make our lives easier as we would still need to worry about IE6 and IE7.
Until both of them browsers die we can’t not worry about IE, no matter how good IE8 gets. Wasn’t there rumors kicking around that IE was going to drop the Trident engine after IE8?
( )Darren March 23rd
Yeah, but I’m sorry to say it was not true
http://tr.im/hhAF
( )Jason Wilson March 23rd
Yes but if they continue to produce crappy browsers we will ALWAYS be waiting for our lives to get easier.
As long as we support these poor excuses for browsers, they will linger.
( )Phunky March 23rd
My point is you cant “Not” support them – not unless your target audience allows for it.
I work on a lot of WebApps aimed at Business users which means there is no chance of dropping IE support let alone just IE6. There only only a few minor qwirks these days its nothing like it was when Netscape 4.74 was about… depending on the build NN would render things how it chose too, least you know what to expect with IE.
If you have a viable audience drop IE but as stated further down in this thread when it comes to anything commercial its still a must.
Jason Wilson March 23rd
I understand that line of thought and the reasons behind it. But I also think if we ever want to move ahead we have to adopt a new line of thought.
If a business chooses to restrict itself to a single browser and chooses to restrict itself to IE 6 in order to support an outdated web app that, through poor design or sheer age will only work in IE, that is their choice.
If they make that choice, they are not my target demographic anymore. The app is more important to them than the rest of the internet. When they realise they can no longer view the rest of the internet, they will need to re-evaluate their priorities.
But again, as long as we support bad practices we will perpetuate the cycle.
In the meantime the pages will always load, but I don’t have to care if it looks perfect.
If you want to watch HD TV you’ll get an HD set or enjoy the standard experience.
klaus March 27th
Well said @Jason,
IE is a standard experience, if you want to view cool layouts get Firefox, safari or even Opera …
Its all about target demographics, IE will remain standard with all its so called “web standards” i would rather spend time on my graphics and styling than try to fit in the microsoft box, designers need to run wild nobody is forcing me to learn about web standards @michael
Jayb Carey March 23rd
As long as they quit supporting IE6 I’ll be a little glad…. but other then that, IE browsers are a disgrace to “computing”
( )Phunky March 23rd
They could stop supporting it but most business still won’t upgrade – there are far to many office still on Windows 2000.
When i worked at ACORN Mobility i used to cringe when i found someone with Windows 2000 and IE5.5!! *Urgh shudders*
( )mamjed March 23rd
well when they stop supporting it, it kinda forces that idiot that is 10 years behind schedule to catch up. it also saves me brain cells and time that i waste on making sites IE 6 compatible…
Helen March 24th
MSIE6-People live mostly in Asia. And they are millions! Those Chinese people use illegal copies of Windows where no browser, security or driver update at all is possible. And they do not bother using an old browser. They just do not have an eye for those things.
I’d really love MS had a red buttom that deactivates all IE6 in the world. Looking from a spacelab down to the globe, Asia would become completely dark from one moment to another.
( )Shane March 23rd
Yes, despite some promising signs a while back, the reality is that for us web developers, IE8 is another big disappointment.
And I’m sure it won’t be too long before a gaping security hole is discovered!
( )James March 23rd
I wish Microsoft would just give up on the browser front. I would love a nice clean battle between Safari, Opera and Firefox.
And I really don’t care for any of these new features. ooo wow “web slices”, not amazing at all!
Microsoft have done it again, making a browser slightly better than the last one but still miles behind all others.
( )Meshach March 23rd
I agree. Microsoft is way behind…
Good thing IE8 will be there last version of Internet Explorer.
Link
( )lawrence77 March 23rd
No they will conquer the world hereafter from this IE8!
Microsoft rulezzz
Meshach March 23rd
Microsoft does not “rulezzz”.
You speak very ignorantly.
Stop posting spammy comments!
lawrence77 March 24th
Who spam comments man!
Me?
I say the truth only!!
Develop up of standards is not at all a great think(g), creating standards is really hard!
that Microsoft DO!
Who introduced Web Browser First!
- lawrence77 (Microsoft Fan)
Pieter Vriesacker March 29th
Do you seriously think Microsoft invented the web browser?
Check your facts… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser
Who first introduced a web browser? That seems to be Tim Berners-Lee who made a browser called WorldWideWeb in 1991.
Netscape which is still slightly related to Mozilla’s Firefox came before the first Internet Explorer. So if that is your argument you’re saying Firefox is better than Internet Explorer.
I don’t understand what you’re trying to say in the 3rd paragraph because unfortunately I can’t think of anything that relates Microsoft to standards so please explain that further.
lawrence77 March 29th
Great facts!
now only i know!
Sorry in 3rd paragraph my English is bad(usually) (damn train yourself some english)!
I supports Microsoft only
Vista Fan March 23rd
Really, you know does more than just their browser, they do office, stuff for apple, research on how to make a computer read DNA, The Microsoft Surface, and many more things, like “WINDOWS 7″
( )lawrence77 March 24th
yes of course!
Who knows that!
People reads and notes only bad things in this world! “(
Pieter Vriesacker March 29th
We’re talking about their browser here, don’t get their other products into this noone talked about them, don’t blindlessly start typing and think about what you’re going to say to defend your, oddly, favourite company.
lawrence77 March 29th
Sorry, i turn my points away!
They give IE9 as perfect as ever!
My pray is also that!
Jarryd March 23rd
I think that Firefox would win, just due to the fact it’s more widely known and has more market share than it’s competitors, possibly Safari.
( )Adardesign March 24th
Well said !!!! Lets all Join the IE death march Now
( )Meshach March 24th
I totally agree. Come on people!!
IE Death March
klaus March 27th
Agreed
Eric Boyer March 23rd
for me, Compatibility Mode has been a joke.
there has been noticeable issues that show up in this new “mode” that do not show up at all in IE7. its very rare, but still very very annoying…
( )Phunky March 23rd
There was a great one with Alpha PNG’s in one of the early beta’s i’ve yet to check on the final release so i hope its not back.
( )Chris March 23rd
WTF E BOYERS ON MY FORUMZ GET OUT VERITAS
( )Helen March 24th
Obama should code IE9 alone. This is a matter the administration should care about!
( )mark March 23rd
hassle hassle hassle, why does IE have a compatibility mode? shouldnt it work like all other browsers anyway!?
pish.
( )Simon March 23rd
As you all know, IE sux hard !
( )I’m not expecting a great browser, and I think nobody should. That’s the job of FF, Opera, Safari, etc.
All I’m hoping is that it’s going to be enough to support our websites without having to use some hacks or some external ie_css…
And let’s hope that ie’s market shares will continue to go down !
Whatever, thanks for the article
Scottie332 March 23rd
I wish MS would just leave IE alone now, it just gives us designers more headaches then anything. I get fed up with them implementing new features, that always turn out to be half ass, instead of just focusing on the basics first!!
Like others have said maybe now we can move on from IE6 though, and not have to play around with hacks.
( )insic March 23rd
please give up Microsoft. recall that browser to clean your name. lol.
( )Meshach March 23rd
I agree 100%.
( )Andris March 24th
Well said.
( )Roderick March 23rd
WOW, I didn’t expect all the IE8 hate here, is anybody using a PC?
The new Internet Explorer is much, much better than before, mostly for us developers, try to find a CSS problem with IE8, you won’t unless you try really hard.
Another thing that is bothering me is that reported benchmarks are putting IE8 in front of Firefox and Chrome, that’s really a surprise for me, even if it is just a couple of milliseconds faster.
We have to accept that IE won’t just magically disappear, let’s try to think positive, and hope that they will fix the ACID3 problems with updates.
Cheers.
( )Vista Fan March 23rd
Thanks Someone that is SMART
( )Shuuun March 24th
Well, how long is Microsoft working on their Browsers ?
( )The IE should not be “much, much better than before”, it should be a great standatizised browser that is showing new things… not try to copy ff, chrome and safari the bad way -____-
You have to see the history not the “its getting better” its way to late for just beeing not annoying..
SX March 23rd
More pain for developers. ms likes to make us suffer. That is their plan all along.
( )I should put up a notice for all IE users that they need to change their browsers or the web developers society will come after them.
klaus March 27th
100% Agreeed @SX and am i am hoping developers keep developing “non-standard sites” until “standard site” becomes “non-standard”. Get it? and am talking the future. The true definition of INTERNET FUTURE is FREEEEEDOM
( )Timothy March 23rd
IE8 sucks. Just like IE7 and IE6. Microsoft fails at making browsers. IE6 was good when it came out, just because its only real competition was Netscape, and Netscape was god awful. But now IE6 is then new Netscape. It won’t die.
Microsoft needs to build in forced updates so that migration is faster.
( )Meshach March 23rd
I agree with you 200%!!
( )Valuediz March 23rd
One more IE.. It’s time to use
( )Valuediz March 23rd
.. IE7 Emulate.
( )Eric March 23rd
Agree with James on that – Microsoft should just drop their browser ‘development’ (if you can call it that), and let the real web browsers take over.
( )FireDart March 23rd
Nice info, thanks
( )Patrick March 23rd
i think designers have to boycott the IE. With each release it will be more difficult to fix modern layouts für IE 8, 7 and 6. For me, that really sucks. There are more better browsers out there developed in much shorter time than microsoft need to develope the IE to a “final” version. It’s a disgrace.
Microsoft: Fail.
( )GeemeeTheway March 23rd
use this meta to force render in IE7 mode.
I do not want to spend costly hours to make all my sites render correctly with IE8.
( )GeemeeTheway March 23rd
GeemeeTheway March 23rd
Sorry, code does not show up. Search for META X-UA-Compatible EmulateIE7
yamaniac March 23rd
aaahhhhh! don’t temme we are gonna have another headache launched soon… bw i just tried the msn search for a change… and the results I got on the search was pathetic.. They need to give up on tat too.
( )Martyn March 23rd
Some additional features which is nice but seriously, 20 out of 100 on the acid 3 test.
I can see i’m going to enjoy working with this as much as ie 6 & 7!
( )Kevin Martin March 23rd
Microsoft likes adding fluff and enjoys cutting corners, but this release of IE shows that they are taking the initiative and improving on *some* of there many criticisms.
Good article, btw!
( )François March 23rd
This one is a bullshit as the others version…
( )Adam March 23rd
Why doesn’t every developer in the whole world, make a campaign against microsoft to end this damn nightmare?
Let’s face it, Microsoft haven’t got a clue when it comes to a little bit of research and browsers. IE6 and IE7 should now be forbidden. Now that IE8 is here, we’d expect it to flurish against ie6, ie7 and be battling with the others. But’ oh no, Microsoft doesnt want to raise the blood preasure between brands.
Someone should setup a campaign, FORCING microsoft to drop all their browsers, and FORCING everyone, every business, every network to delete and install something better, i.e, firefox.
( )Thomas March 23rd
Seeing they even thought about having compatibility mode is sad enough.
( )Yoosuf March 23rd
god article, but MS is always puzzling the End users, better to come to a standard as like Web kit or like Mozilla, else no one is gonna use MS products
( )Jem March 23rd
I’d love to see some sort of “boycotting” of IE…
If more of those common third party software installs started coming bundled with other browsers, and people began making subtle promotions on their sites I think we’d really start to notice a shift away from IE. The fact of the matter is, people use whats most convenient, and since IE comes packaged on Windows, the average user is content with using it. You have to really push people to make an effort at something new.
If this release means I get to stop designing for IE6 at work though, I’m happy with that.
( )Meshach March 23rd
I want to see some boycotting of IE too, but most people are to wimpy n00bie/stupid to boycott it.
( )Andris March 24th
The Problem is, that if you live from coding websites and your customer wants the website to render well in any browser you cannot boycott IE since you need money to buy some food. The boycott starts convinving your customer that IE sucks. And that’s a hard thzing to do.
( )canciller March 27th
that´s exactly what i´m doing.
almost all my clients now know that ie sucks big time !
they love firefox
Wes D March 23rd
I would LOVE nothing more than to boycott IE, but unfortunately, even if we, as developers, stop supporting it, the end users will still continue to use it…that is what sucks…
It would be great if we could hold a BROWSER AWARENESS DAY in which all developers put a script on their sites that would detect IE users and display a nice message saying…”THE WORLD WILL END IF YOU DON’T STOP USING IE”.
Anyone else with me?
( )Meshach March 23rd
Haha! I like it!
The national “Stop Internet Explorer Day”.
( )Andris March 24th
I’m with you. Let me know when the day will take place.
( )Pieter Vriesacker March 29th
Sounds like a plan =D
( )DataMouse March 23rd
Boycott IE?
( )How?
I loathe the development time required to fix my designs to IE6 and 7 and regularly advise my customers to change over to Firefox, Opera or Safari.
The answer’s always the same: “We will, but our customers are still looking at the site through IE… So build it for IE”
If Firefox came bundled, that would do the world of good.
IE is only popular because of end user apathy and laziness.
Diego SA March 23rd
I hate when someone use IE. Friends is OK, but clients are difficult ones to convince to use better web browsers…
( )flanders March 23rd
Fuck of IE8
( )Scheißt auf den IE8
Diego SA March 23rd
LOL! Agree!
( )Hanz Ugner March 23rd
IE8 is very nice , i like . it might have a problem or two but othere than that it looks sweet so far . You gotto admit that the new features they added are nice and quite useful . And i never had problems rendering a website with Any of the IE`s
( )Meshach March 23rd
I’m not going to admit that the new features are nice and useful, because they aren’t.
( )redwall_hp March 23rd
That’s because the web developers have applied hacks to get it to work for you!
( )Diego SA March 23rd
I believe the extinction of IE would be a great idea!
I hate to fight with the CSS to make it perfect in various browsers. IE is equal to nothing. Too bad who use it!
Now I develop websites for Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. If it looks great in IE6, 7 or 8, cool. If it doens’t… I don’t care! Update yourselves lazy people! Look us here trying to convince you to not use IE!!!!
Aaah, fuck it!
( )iPad March 23rd
Damn it! I really hate IE 5,6,7,8 and beyond
( )Meshach March 23rd
Same here.
Nina Morena March 23rd
I’ve watched 75% of my site visitors drop to 43% as IE users. I still have to develop with them in mind even if it takes me an additional day. I agree… MS needs to kill IE and let the other guys duke it out for the developers sake. Unfortunately, large companies who are still using Window 2000 with IE 6 because they believe it is secure or for whatever reason, makes our development a whole heck of a lot more difficult.
( )Meshach March 23rd
You could at least put an alert that tell’s them they are not using a standards compliant browser.
( )Sirwan March 23rd
“f#@K MICRO5OFT, S3UM B4GS!! #X@%$…”
just thought i’d join the IE bashing.
( )Sirwan March 23rd
“f#@K MICRO5OFT, S3UM B4GS!! #X@%$…”
just thought i’d join the IE bashing.
( )Nono March 23rd
Annual IE browser meeting at Microsoft castle in Transilvania:
Bill – Is IE8 finish?
( )IE SEO – Yeah, now we add some colors and some cool new icons!!
Bill – Great mate. And what about the thing call “standarous” or something like that?… Oh yeah, web standards?
IE SEO – Oh that. What with them?
Bill – We support them?
IE SEO – We have a very consistent and regular support about the web standards… we consistently ignore them. All of them!
Bill – I like it, is nice. Eh my name is Bill.
SmiffyBagels March 23rd
well me being a total firefox fanboy
( )SCREW YOU MICROSOFT!!!
jeroen March 23rd
Let’s make a browser that is based on IE7 that is based on IE6 that is based upon some shitty crap load of code, some dude thought it was going to be THE browser of his time,
maybe it was…
10 years ago, or longer ago as far as I know.
But people this is 2009! We don’t have hardisks 40gb’s anymore!
BuRn MicrOsoft in HELL!!! stop IE!
( )Jesse Storimer March 23rd
Great overview. So much surprising stuff in there that I didn’t expect.
It seems like MS is actually trying to make IE 8 somewhat of a competitor, but they are just not even close to competing. MS is trying but IE8 is just so far behind FF, Safari, Opera, and Chrome.
IE actually makes the life of web dev’s harder and I don’t know anyone who has actually tried some other browser and gone back to IE. Why? WHY!??!?
( )yassir March 23rd
I always liked IE
( )Meshach March 23rd
Wow….. Just Wow… =0
Lamin Barrow March 23rd
The answer to all these chaos is that all browser vendors need to come together and develop ONE web browser rendering engine. That way they can all go back and develop diff. features for their various browsers but the core engine will always be the same no matter what.
I that ever happens ….all our problems will be solved. Image that..!!!
( )Andy Bishop March 23rd
I can see your point here, but I think we need the different engines to prevent further stagnation of browser development. Competition is healthy and productive. The problem seems to be monopoly by MS and apathy by the browsing world (not us designers, of course).
( )klaus March 27th
Well said @Andy and you do have a point at @Lamin though competition is necessary i just cant take monopoly, this is business Internet is Business and so is MS corporation they must drop IE, we will keep doing what we do.
punk March 23rd
IE has always been forced upon us since its always been a default browser, the whole story could change in just couple of years if IE loses this privilege, but hey! MS doesn’t care a rats ass about us designers and developers.
They need to stick into the competition for the visibility as active software/app builders in the market, even if they get all the hatred in the world.
We know that they know how pathetic IE is and still they blindly releases another version with just a few tweaks as if we are dying for it!
We don’t need you IE! Get the fuk out of our way or wait till we rip you apart.
( )Meshach March 23rd
Microsoft probably assumes most developers are still using tables and not validating their code so they say
( )Vista Fan March 23rd
Probably the intentions of Microsoft is not to create a browser for developers, probably it is for people who just want to surf the web.
Cause that is what browsers are used for. If you want to develop a website you could use adobe dreamweaver.
Yeah about the tables. There are many people who still use them. When I build websites I’m forced to use tables because they tell me that my clients don’t understand divs. So Microsoft is just trying to make those peoples life better. and when it gets to the time that most people understand divs they are going to change it!
( )Meshach March 24th
That’s a load of BS.
If you’re still using tables or a WYSIWYG editor then you aren’t “making websites” you’re learning a stupid program.
The “many people” that still use tables are outdated “web designers” that don’t care about web standards… But guess what? Most web developer do.
Also the thing about “understanding divs” is pure crap, that’s why the people hire a developer, why would they need to “understand divs”?!?!
Diego SA March 24th
Well, I haven’t know someone who only use tables yet.
WYSIWYG is always welcome, even if someone isn’t outdated. For me, it’s only used to preview the page and selected objects I want to edit to find them easily and edit the code.
Sometimes I get stuck in divs and I find out that tables could offer me a better and easier result. Of course, I fell sickness when I use a table, but sometimes is the better option to solve a problem.
About the “undestanding divs”, I believe it’s just an basic knowledge for developers. To hire a developer, it’s necessary to know if the person know the advanced stuff. If a developer doesn’t know dvis, certainly would understand easily how a div works, specially with the CSS that makes the divs comes life.
Well, Microsoft should think forward. Present programming languages working normally is enough to not worry about the fucking tables. No one would complain… I guess so…
I think the problem is to support correctly the CSS.
malakas March 26th
you are full of crap dood
stop whinning
if you are a lousy developer unable to write cross-browser sites then STFU
( )punk March 23rd
broken layouts, css incompatibility, script malfunctions, ajax failures and so on…
what else do we designers and developers have to work with man!
Lets teach ourselves to work around this shit or move on for the better web future, the decision is ours and so are the benefits and failures of our career.
If we keep on losing out on clients and projects just because we are unable to make website compatible with IE, man we are just running on a treadmill.
Its sad that we can’t do much about it but we can at least spread awareness among regular users that there are better browsers out there than IE and encourage them all to upgrade although we all know that a normal layman user who just wants to check mail wouldn’t even bother to upgrade the browser, so what do we do?
i think a few more bold posts around the blogs and online magazines can do us good in spreading the word, people around the web world should know this is happening and this matter should be way too visible for layman users to notice while browsing or just stumbling upon.
It’s just a matter of awareness, who wants to stay stuck with old shitty browsers, people will upgrade, it’s just a matter of awareness and encouragement.
you with me?
( )Meshach March 25th
I’m with you. I will be posting up articles on every blog I’m part of.
( )KYMDUSTING March 23rd
Where is the the EmulateIE6 ???? IE6 is still the browser of choice for most govt organisations. When they finally drop it the ability for IE8 to act like IE6 would be nice to at least transition into a more standards based browser, if you could call IE8 that.
( )Steeven March 23rd
All this means in terms of production workflow is another step to test our sites in IE8 + IE8 compatibility mode (as I will bet you that the IE7 rendering in IE8 will always be just “slightly” different than on the actual IE7).
So it’s like having 2 news browsers to add to the long list of browsers out there that you have to go into and make sure your site works perfectly as intended.
It’s a pain… but welcome to MS world. A life without Walls (and brains).
I’ve been doing more and more css/JS development recently, walking away from heavy use of Flash, but I think I’m going to go back to Flash. At least I know what I see will be seen exactly the same EVERYWHERE.
( )Richard March 23rd
Not sure about you guys but I have already stopped developing for IE6 (client pays extra if they want it). I know that seems like a harsh thing to do but there are very few industries on Earth where someone will take on extra work (a lot of work) to ensure something works for an outdated system/process. I just have a nice big polite banner floating on the top of any IE6 users page saying something along the lines of “Page looks strange doesn’t it, it’s IE6 (your browser) click here to read why you should upgrade.
This has been quite effective as the user is taken to a well writen page identifying security faults, display issues and overall “suckiness”.
Now the reason I say this is because in a years time I will do the same with IE7 and push people to upgrade from that. At every point I try to push people to Firefox (my personal fav).
Although IE8 is dreadful, at least there is a noticable attempt. Lets not be proud of MS, just about every waking minute I code I pray for an Earthquake to topple their offices (I know, harsh) but so long as designers keep pushing people away from the truly aweful IE versions, MS’s figures will show a higher percentage moving to IE8 as the months go by and hopefully lead them towards putting more effort into future version.
Just my thought, personally I’d rather see a 100% market share in FF and run MS into the ground though I haven’t worked out which OS i would move to. It’s a plan in progress. lol
( )Joseph March 23rd
Before you start dissing IE and such think about it. If it wasn’t for Microsoft and such there wouldn’t BE a web browser. Everything stemmed off of Mosaic which was created by Microsoft and other people. I myself don’t use Internet Explorer other then at my vocational school which is all they use. But, in my home school they let us choose between firefox and Internet Explorer. FireFox for the win all the way. but just take that into though.
( )Meshach March 24th
I disagree. There were plenty of programmers, and mosaic was not made by Microsoft.
( )Rene March 23rd
Even if IE8 is better than the previous, IE7 and below are still alive because people dont bother to upgrade, they should somehow have something that automatically kills previous versions from IE and install the new one.
( )Diego SA March 24th
Exactly, that’s what I always think. The Apple have a upgrade software that warns you when there’s a new upgrade of one of the programs. Why Microsoft doens’t try to develop one for the IE? If something inside Windows doens’t allow, try to change it on the next Windows, right? It would be great!
( )Daquan Wright March 23rd
I always find my layouts…not working in any EI browser as it works in Opera or Firefox. Usually padding/margins come into play as far as something going wrong is concerned. I find using extra divs instead of padding/margins will sometimes fix the problem.
Building great products is about pleasing the user and in my opinion, it would do good to learn the IE way. Not because it won’t suck (it probably will…), but because there are a percentage of people who do still use this browser.
Obviously aim your efforts towards Google Chrome, Opera, Safari, and Firefox…surely EI isn’t the majority over four popular browsers. But still…for people who don’t know jack about computers and mainly want to surf the web, IE is a big choice because it comes with Windows automatically.
Creating a beautiful experience for the end user is the greatest thing in the world, even if it means having the nerves of steal to deal with ridiculous IE releases.
( )Lamin Barrow March 24th
Whats the point of an operating system if it doesn’t come with a web browser? Apple does it and in-fact they also installed safari on our machines even without our consent just because you have that Apple App Update when you installed Itunes but no one complains…. If Microsoft ever does that the Crazy Europeans will fine them $100B
( )Shane March 23rd
If Microsoft would follow W3C’s standards instead of trying to make their one the web would be a better place.. Every other browser follows these and you can design a website that will render perfectly in all of these and then look at it in IE and have it fall to pieces.. I hate having to make specific rules for IE7 and the horrible transparency of PNG’s for IE6.. There shouldn’t have to be hacks for css and now with IE8 we are going to have to make certain rules for IE6, 7 and 8 thus making the web very inconvenient for designers… Do I seriously have to do 3 extra things on every page I design to make it IE friendly?
( )Joe March 24th
IE8 has what something like….1-2% market share? Hardly worth losing sleep over.
( )Kevin Quillen March 24th
Think externally, not internally.
The web isn’t going to become what you want (a MS free existence). Hate to break it to you. It’s like the people that have a gripe with MySQL, and want it to vanish in favor of PostGRE.
A majority of the internet are all using IE. Not anyone here most likely, but the average mom and pop, sisters, grandmothers. It isn’t going away.
The best we can do as developers is work with it, and expect it to get better. Commenting on the IE dev blogs may also help.
On the upside, you can stop worrying about IE6 I suppose.
( )Jack March 24th
IE6 is “teh” devil. Let’s not mourn it’s death.
( )Sirwan March 24th
is it me or is nettuts.com over taking psdtuts.com in the rankings?
( )Helen March 24th
IE8 does indeed render strict coded sites correctly. And that’s what we talked about all the years, isn’t it? And MS listened to our requests.
Moreover, what is most important: it does render MY website correctly
The cleartype of texts looks really good. Compare this to Firefox!
And by the way: We are complaining about IE8’s acid tests but have you ever taken a look about what Adobes Dreamweaver CS 4 is coding for s***? This has really nothing to do with html.
( )I hope the next generation of browsers will be a nightmare for DW-layouters.
Diego SA March 24th
Still using the CS3. But I have used the CS4 and there’s nothing that I’d complain.
( )I hate IE but I hope the Microsoft wake up and make a great IE next time. Can’t wait to see if this will happen in IE9.
Kevin March 24th
I can’t stand people relying on Dreamweaver to tell them how their HTML will look. Just use browsers and a local testing server!
qalih March 24th
IE aint that bad, pretty cool actually. Alot faster than Firefox but obviously not as powerful.
( )Alex March 24th
I have chosen to not use Microsoft products and my life has been much better for it. I see no reason to use this browser when there are many other great alternatives. Microsoft has let me down too many times in the past, I’m not going back. The internet is moving very fast and large slow moving corps cannot keep up. I don’t think any company that has a very slow moving old school philosophy will be successful on the internet. Microsoft has clearly not made a successful transition to the web or web technologies. “Think Different” seems to be the cry of this new generation. Good Ridden MS
( )Kevin Quillen March 25th
Explain that to your clients and their customers when doing their website.
Oh right… its illogical.
( )Marlin March 25th
Just go for Opera… Everyone!
( )Brandon March 25th
I’ve found it’s just easier to write an entirely different stylesheet for IE browsers. However I don’t spend nearly as much effort on this one. Usually my stylesheet for IE browsers are as minimal as I can get them, even if it means people on updated browsers see an entirely different site.
I’ve given up on being polite and subtle about getting people to switch to an updated browser. IE6 has been around since 2001… if you haven’t switched by now, you don’t deserve to see what’s going on in 2009. Unfortunately, clients don’t always share my same sentiment..
( )Kevin Quillen March 25th
Because they are paying you to create their website and not be an idealist?
( )Adam Gell March 25th
I wish they would just give up! I mean come on at least transfer to webkit! And then put the crappy features on top!
( )Nykeri March 26th
i’ve tried the beta and in my opinion at that time it was the best version of IE ever even with its issues but when stacked up against the giants of course it’ll fail or score very low but i have to hand it to MS for the improvements however late it may be.
for them to beat Firefox, Safari, Opera or Chrome they have to get with the current standards either fix Trident or switch to a competitors version <-will never happen XD
wonder if it supports css3 yet….hmmm *shrugs, eye rolls*
( )Yohn Doh March 29th
While IE8 certainly is an improvement from IE7 it still has a long way to go. Most of the socalled new features has for long been available as addons in Firefox, like the colortabs.
Thanks for a great summery of IE8.
( )b00m March 29th
Tsk tsk the results sucks!
( )Compatibility to standards is important!
Jason March 30th
A cat turd on a slice of white bread can render HTML better than Internet Explorer.
( )Will March 31st
Seriously, wow i never new you called your mom a cat but well everybody thinks differently.
By the way every web browser can render HTML Correctly. That’s one of the most basic languages ever.
JASOn
( )Keithics April 1st
I love IE specially IE6 , it makes me a hard working developer.
( )Let’s me specify code just for IE
Tests for hours just for IE
And everything just to make it work!
Michael Mokrysz September 5th
I love IE8. Seriously, it’s wonderful – here’s why:
For 2 years I’ve been trying to have my family move to anything but IE, and yet they’ve never wanted to. However, IE 8 froze and/or crashed every 5 minutes on the PC they use at our holiday home (seems to be a known issue with older PCs), and so they had to switch (to FF as it happens).
Once I pointed out all the wonderful extensions, themes, etc for it they’ve stopped using IE even on the PCs at our main home where it worked fine. Thanks Microsoft!
Everything else about it is still crap, but at least it gives me an excuse to convert people to FF for more than my personal benefit.
( )Pre September 7th
Can we just ban it? For junior developers like me who just find plugin’s I like and add it to my site, I don’t have the money to pay someone to fix the ie issues on my site. NOTHING WORKS WITH IE ON MY SITE NOTHING. With all the other browsers it works just fine. I’d really love just a full out ban of IE, all versions of it. I can’t comprehend how the company with the largest R&D budget is putting out such fucking filth. From xbox 360 and the ring of death, to vista to ie. Just fuck em.
( )