Microsoft Pulls on Firefox’s Tail

[ceodon2]

Microsoft fired the latest volley in the new browser wars on Wednesday, releasing the latest version of Internet Explorer to the public. Our quick take: Microsoft wouldn’t need an ad campaign featuring Jerry Seinfeld if it came out with more products like this.

The new Internet Explorer


Earlier this summer, Mozilla, a non-profit software-development group, released the latest version of its Firefox Web browser. Mozilla made the launch the centerpiece of a campaign to set the world record for most software downloads in a 24 hour period, which it achieved in part because the record didn’t exist previously. Firefox now has about 19% of the browser market, according to Net Appliances Applications, up from 11% in June 2006. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer still has the lion’s share of the browser market – 73% according to Net Appliances – but that’s slowly eroding.
Microsoft isn’t letting its market share disappear unchallenged, though. The company released Internet Explorer 8.0 as a so-called beta, a version that’s not quite complete but still available for anyone to download. We’ve been testing it today and (to go all Mossberg for a moment) can report that it’s full of features that make Web browsing easier.
Confession: The Business Technology Blog uses Firefox whenever possible, mainly because it has “tabs” that allow us to open multiple Web pages in one window. IE 8 has tabs as well, plus a handful of other cool features. One we particularly like: Microsoft has added “accelerators” that facilitate common tasks like emailing a Web site, mapping an address, or looking up a word. Just highlight text on a Web page and a accelerator displays the map or definition in the same window. The bad news: The accelerators that Microsoft includes are Microsoft products – the software giant’s mapping software, email program, and encyclopedia – none of which are our preferred tools.
There’s also a nice feature that makes tabs that are related to one another the same color and a button that shows miniature versions of all open tabs on one screen. Considering the number of tabs we usually have opened at any given time, these features could be real time savers.
We aren’t willing to switch just yet, but we’re impressed with IE 8 and we’ll definitely keep testing it out. We also can’t help but think that one reason there’s real innovation in the new version of Explorer is that Microsoft is facing real competition. Just imagine how cool the Windows or Office would be if Microsoft had real competitors nipping at its heels.
You can download IE 8 here. And when you do, let us know what you think.

[Nathan H]

Ie8 was released in a closed beta long before Firefox 3 was. What alot of people forget as well with Ie8, is the ability to switch between rendering engines. You can choose between the new Standards Complience engine, or the old Ie7 rendering engine, at just the click of a button

[kirtik]

What people don't know about firefox is that you can get a extension which embeds almost any rendering engine into it. ;)

[alexandgruntz]

Is there an extension for FF that greys out everything but the domain, much as IE8 does?

[Sohail]

There's no way IE can beat FF, even if all Windows OSs come with IE installed, most people now know that firefox is the fastest and most customizable browser in the world, plus it's available in most languages on most OSs which is a huge advantage to everyone.

[tnl2k7]

I agree, Microsoft can do all they like with Internet Explorer, but I doubt Firefox users will ever look back. Firefox is way more customisable, you can theme it to your own taste and the addons are brilliant. Gecko (the rendering engine) is extremely fast and standards-based, much more so than anything Microsoft would churn out.

I've used both browsers (I used IE8 during the closed beta on Microsoft Connect, and use Firefox all the time), and while IE8 has some improvements, it's nothing for Mozilla to worry about. At all.

-Luke.

[hackking]

how can i

[Cobol to Java]

I'm quite curious as to how IE8 can bring enough impact to make me rethink why I like Firefox so much...

[Shadow121]

NO WAY will Microsoft ever be able to win the war between Firefox and IE. Firefox IS the most customizable browser I have ever seen/used. Microsoft may just as well give up and distribute Firefox with Windows(like that will ever happen).

Adding on to this, there is actually an Addon for Firefox that allows you to use the IE rendering engine within Firefox. Could it get better then that? Yes, yes it can.

[GG-Xtreme]

Microsoft's doing a great job already. If you downloaded and installed their buggy IE8 beta along with XP SP3, you can't uninstall it and can never revert back to an older version. Brilliant!