Microsoft extends IE 8 charity offer

Artists put the finishing touches on a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge constructed from soup cans. The June stunt was aimed at drawing awareness to Microsoft's Browser for the Better campaign, in which the software maker is donating to a food bank for each download of Internet Explorer 8.

(Credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft is extending a promotion that is designed to spur downloads of Internet Explorer 8 with the promise of donating food to the hungry.

The "Browser for the Better" effort kicked off in June. Under the plan, Microsoft was donating $1.15 in food for each download completed through the program's Web site, up to a maximum of $1 million.

The program was slated to end early this month. However, Microsoft never took the site down and announced formally last week that it is extending the promotion through the end of September.

Microsoft declined to say how many downloads the promotion has received, but the site's Web site reflects the updated deadline and still says that Microsoft will donate a maximum of $1 million.

Besides extending the deadline, the software maker is making one other change to the program--doubling the donation per download (to $2.30) for those who are moving from IE 6. Microsoft has said it would like to persuade more users to move off IE 6, but must nonetheless support those who choose to remain with the years-old browser.

According to Net Applications, IE 6 has 27 percent of the global browser market, as compared with 23 percent for IE 7 and more than 12 percent for IE 8. Various versions of Firefox account for 22 percent of the market, while Apple's Safari holds 4 percent market share.

The Browser for the Better push is just one of many ways that Microsoft is promoting IE 8, including a promotion with Nickleback as well as the boring-but-effective methods of pushing it out through Microsoft's automatic updating mechanisms.

Firefox launched the latest update to its browser, Firefox 3.5, in June.

[mistasandman]

I think that's great of Microsoft to do... not only do you get the BEST browser, but your helping out people that need it too. This is a much better way to get your browser out there than what Firefox, Opera, ect... are doing by trying to FORCE Microsoft to bundle they're crappy browsers with Windows.

[BogusBasin]

Yeah, Microsoft is well known for looking out for people's best interest.

Amen

[Vegaman_Dan]

@BogusBasin:

You forgot to insert your tagline.

[FF2009]

That's the only way to make people use that piece of crap they call a Browser. Let this Browser die people. Use anything alternative. Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari. All of them are better than IE8 and whatever M$ has to offer.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Well, if you were looking to make a comment that woud have the respect of others, I think you missed your chance.

[mistasandman]

I've tried all those other browsers... None of them are as fast, or secure as Internet Explorer. Your lying to yourself (and others) if you believe any different.

[BogusBasin]

You are one funny man

Amen

[mistasandman]

And your a fanboy troll....

[1afd]

I hope you are being sarcastic.

[lazycat202]

bogus:
i know that you always make a big deal out of Apple; even if Apple release a little patch/upgrade. I've IE8 on my machine and got no problem with it. I tried Firefox for 3 months and gave up. I'm using Chrome as my backup browser.
Do yourself a favor: Ask Apple to distribute some of its big $$ (the money that they're ripping off from Apple fans like you) to charities. You know what Apple is gonna say? "Sorry! It's not my job. Please feel free to contact U.S Government and ask for help"

[mistasandman]

Firefox, Opera, and Chrome are such lousy browsers that they can't even GIVE them away for free... Everyone keeps going back to IE because... it's just better. IE has the biggest market because more people CHOOSE to use it. Anyone can use any browser they choose on IE, Microsoft doesn't stop you one bit (regardless of what fanboys have convinced themselves of) But the majority use I.E... Just like the majority will choose Windows 7 over those other 'wanna be' operating systems that try to copy Microsoft ;)

[1afd]

IE comes bundled with Windows, so the people that don't give a crap about what they are using, or are Microsoft fanboys, don't have to do anything.

mistasandman says that market share makes it better, but a lot of people have no clue what firefox even is, because they can't really afford to advertise.

And what makes you think "they go back to IE"

Windows market share: 92%
OSX market share: 7%
Linux market share: 1%

Microsoft IE: 68%
Apple safari: 5%
Mozilla (open-source) Firefox: 23%

OSX and Linux are not so-called "copies" of windows.
People just don't want to fork out the cash for a Mac, and they don't know how to make a hackintosh
A very small percent of the general public knows what Linux is, because there is no advertising

[Hokulea]

The people who don't know what Firefox or Linux are, probably don't care.

I currently use Vista, XP, and Xubuntu. In the past, I've used Macs. None are perfect OS's and never will be, but all have gotten better as time goes on.

I have been using Mozilla browsers since they spun off from Netscape and I've used every version of Firefox. Of all the software I use, I have more problems with Firefox than anything else. This includes Firefox freezing or crashing with evidence of memory corruption. I have only a few well known extensions installed: Adblock Plus, Flashblock, and the Forecastbar.

While I mostly use Fx, I also use IE8. If IE8 had ad blocking and flash blocking then I wouldn't use Fx at all. I think Fx 2 was great but the Fx3 branch has been disappointing to me in many ways, primarily regarding page caching and memory management. IMHO, Fx3 has become a bloated resource hog.

[classicvibe]

I remember reading a report about how IE8 was somehow the most secure browser on CNET, although obviously not the fastest.

And in any case, this is kinda weird... I thought everyone would have IE8 on their computer already since it comes preinstalled, or the OS does an automatic update...

[Michichael]

Is anyone else wildly amused that they can't even get 1 million people to download it willingly? I think this program demonstrates how skewed the "IE 8 downloads" reports are. The number of people that download Microsoft's browser and it's legacy of incompatibility, slowness, and shoddy security is minuscule when they're giving a choice.

[pentest]

Yup, very few people actually download MS software willingly.

[Turgeson]

mistasandman is either an MS troll or an uniformed general user who hasn't been bitten by the headaches IE in it's various forms has imposed on a certain percentage of web users. If you have ever done any type of web development you know all too well how frustrating coding for a non-Web standards browser is. I'll give it to MS for finally joining the standards team with 8, but I never understood why it took so long to get to that point. Still though, IE8 is way behind the tools Firefox offers. They have a script debugger but it's far less useful as Firebug. Here's a question for mistasandman, if IE8 is so great, why is it taking ideas off of Firefox in an attempt to retain usership? In case you didn't know, tab browsing has been around since FF 1.0. Web standards FF 1.0. OS agnostic installation FF 1.0. Kudos to MS for using their $ for charity in a way to get IE8 out. If it it does nothing more than kill IE6, it's worth it.

[techman21]

We use WSUS internally, so does our company-wide deployment of IE8 count as one download?

[shootfirst]

I think you are all missing the point. Microsoft gives money to the hungry when we download IE8, which I think is just stupid and ethically challenged. If we do not DL IE8 we aren't feeding the hungry, which is saying we are selfish cruel bastards. I think trying to make a product popular by offering to donate to charity is despicable. We all know how much money Microsoft rakes in from us and yet they still try to guilt us into using their technology. I'll donate the dollar and change to feed the hungry myself, but I'm not going to use a Microsoft product to do it for me and I will use whatever technology that I chose.

[pentest]

MS: The ethics bar can never be too low.

[8301]

First people complain about the Cashback program, now this. I swear Microsoft could start a program that would create world peace and feed every starving child while petting stray kittens and people would still find something to whine about. You people act like your fingernails get pulled out every time someone uses Internet Explorer.

[Lennron]

That's exactly it. If any other software company in the world was doing this same program, you'd see a page full of positive comments here. But we can't say anything nice about Microsoft and their evil raging software of death.

[10012-1a]

Does it count if I download IE8 and not install it? I'm for helping the homeless. But not a IE fan since it was released. Well maybe is there was a current OSX version.

[EvanSei]

download IE8 to help the poor then delete it and get a good browser, I suggest safari, or chrome, (those seem to run well on my system) I would say firefox but they have gotten to self praising for me

[qooldude]

Download IE8 or the dog - sorry, I mean hungry kid - gets it.

[Bob20Midview]

I've IE8 twice and it will not let me edit my images in Photobucket. It acts funny in other ways while
in Photobucket which I used a lot and must have use of. Back to IE7 and everything works great.
IE8 is a disaster !!

[Bob20Midview]

I've IE8 twice and it will not let me edit my images in Photobucket. It acts funny in other ways while
in Photobucket which I used a lot and must have use of. Back to IE7 and everything works great.
IE8 is a disaster !!