Comments on: Views of IE's competition

Microsoft's Internet Explorer may be the browser of choice for many Web surfers, but the browser still lags in new features.

[WishER]

Looks like tab browsing is the only thing IE doesn't have

I'll start off by stating that I like IE a lot more than all the other browsers. IE hasn't had a major update in 3 years, but still seems to be ahead in many respects other than lil minor trinkets that the other browsers have.

Tabbed Browsing - I know a lot of people are fans of this method of browsing, but there is another half of the world that just hates it (including myself). Tabbed browsing is one of the things preventing me from using FireFox, and so on. They don't provide a quick way of disabling the tabs all completely.

Multi Process Running - Most of the "IE Competitors" don't provide ways to run new browser instances in seperate processes. So if a site causes one of the browser windows to fail, they all die making you lose all the pages and work you were on.

No custom toolbars - IE competitors don't provide a standard to developing custom toolbars. I can't live without my Google toobar, and I am not simply talking about the capability of search box being there. I would miss my highlight, up level navigation, page info and site search. Most web companies have killer toolbars for using their site. What is opera's solution? Firefox? etc.

Integration with Office tools? - IE offers great integration capabilities with MS Office, and offers APIs for integration which gives access to the same integration to other office tool companies, which for some reason most don't use. Just about every web related software can be integrated into IE, from Dreamweaver to your Digital Camera's software. FireFox doesn't have any real level of support.

The list of things that are missing in these new browsers, which are supported on the OLD TIMER IE, is just too big to mention here. SO when people complain about not having tab browsing, or google search as their default search engine, I just laugh.

IE is not going anywhere. No new browser will even touch a significant amount of the capabilities that IE offers. Even if it takes another 3 years, IE will still remain on top in terms of feature lists and so on.

Take care...

[d2r4]

bravo

Although I find tabbed browsing an excellent feature. I must agree IE has many advantages, and 9 time out of 10 comes out on top.

RE: looks like tabbed browsing is...

Agustin, you smell like a microsoft rep to me.

[brentdax]

Wha?

"Tabbed Browsing"

You say that you can't figure out how to disable tabbed browsing. That's one of the beauties of Firefox: if you don't want to use tabbed browsing, all you have to do is not open a tab. Firefox doesn't open tabs without asking. I suspect Opera and Safari are the same way.

"Multi Process Running"

This is true. However, IE needs this feature far more than other browsers, which tend to be rock-solid. The only time I've ever had Firefox 1.0PR crash was when a bad extension was loaded--I just had to uninstall the extension (three obvious clicks for an operation that's impossible in most IEs, and buried in XP SP2) and it hasn't crashed since.

"No custom toolbars"

Firefox offers Extensions, which allow for toolbars, as well as much more powerful behavior than your average IE toolbar. They can also be disabled and uninstalled easily, unlike those annoying spyware "search bars" that tend to sink their teeth into IE. There's even a Google toolbar extension for Firefox--but the integrated Google search box and built-in popup blocker make it mostly unnecessary anyway.

"Integration with Office tools"

Do you really think that Firefox not being integrated with Office is *Mozilla's* fault? There's nothing stopping Microsoft from doing this, save the visions of dollar signs dancing in front of their faces. As to your other point (about third-party integration), once again Firefox's Extensions allow for this--and are much easier to deal with than IE add-ins.

"things that are missing in these new browsers"

I can only think of one that wasn't a gimmick that never caught on (like the Radio bar or Channels), or a misfeature (like its buggy rendering and lack of standards support): ActiveX. And that has proven to be such a gaping security hole that I don't consider this a loss.

Re: Looks like...

> Tabbed Browsing - I know a lot of people are fans of this method of browsing..

Love it ... won't do without it.

> Multi Process Running - Most of the "IE Competitors" don't provide ways to run new browser instances in seperate processes. So if a site causes one of the browser windows to fail, they all die making you lose all the pages and work you were on.

In my experience, I get far fewer browser errors via Mozilla/Firefox than in IE. BHOs that install themselves at will in IE are more than annoying - they are a security threat and the source of instability for IE and the OS.

> No custom toolbars
Extensions in Firefox provide far more functionality than IE provides - ad blocking, image zooming, rss feeds, selectable image removing, etc. I agree with another poster re: the Google toolbar being unneeded (but it is available if wanted).

[WishER]

Looks like tab browsing is the only thing IE doesn't have

I'll start off by stating that I like IE a lot more than all the other browsers. IE hasn't had a major update in 3 years, but still seems to be ahead in many respects other than lil minor trinkets that the other browsers have.

Tabbed Browsing - I know a lot of people are fans of this method of browsing, but there is another half of the world that just hates it (including myself). Tabbed browsing is one of the things preventing me from using FireFox, and so on. They don't provide a quick way of disabling the tabs all completely.

Multi Process Running - Most of the "IE Competitors" don't provide ways to run new browser instances in seperate processes. So if a site causes one of the browser windows to fail, they all die making you lose all the pages and work you were on.

No custom toolbars - IE competitors don't provide a standard to developing custom toolbars. I can't live without my Google toobar, and I am not simply talking about the capability of search box being there. I would miss my highlight, up level navigation, page info and site search. Most web companies have killer toolbars for using their site. What is opera's solution? Firefox? etc.

Integration with Office tools? - IE offers great integration capabilities with MS Office, and offers APIs for integration which gives access to the same integration to other office tool companies, which for some reason most don't use. Just about every web related software can be integrated into IE, from Dreamweaver to your Digital Camera's software. FireFox doesn't have any real level of support.

The list of things that are missing in these new browsers, which are supported on the OLD TIMER IE, is just too big to mention here. SO when people complain about not having tab browsing, or google search as their default search engine, I just laugh.

IE is not going anywhere. No new browser will even touch a significant amount of the capabilities that IE offers. Even if it takes another 3 years, IE will still remain on top in terms of feature lists and so on.

Take care...

[d2r4]

bravo

Although I find tabbed browsing an excellent feature. I must agree IE has many advantages, and 9 time out of 10 comes out on top.

RE: looks like tabbed browsing is...

Agustin, you smell like a microsoft rep to me.

[brentdax]

Wha?

"Tabbed Browsing"

You say that you can't figure out how to disable tabbed browsing. That's one of the beauties of Firefox: if you don't want to use tabbed browsing, all you have to do is not open a tab. Firefox doesn't open tabs without asking. I suspect Opera and Safari are the same way.

"Multi Process Running"

This is true. However, IE needs this feature far more than other browsers, which tend to be rock-solid. The only time I've ever had Firefox 1.0PR crash was when a bad extension was loaded--I just had to uninstall the extension (three obvious clicks for an operation that's impossible in most IEs, and buried in XP SP2) and it hasn't crashed since.

"No custom toolbars"

Firefox offers Extensions, which allow for toolbars, as well as much more powerful behavior than your average IE toolbar. They can also be disabled and uninstalled easily, unlike those annoying spyware "search bars" that tend to sink their teeth into IE. There's even a Google toolbar extension for Firefox--but the integrated Google search box and built-in popup blocker make it mostly unnecessary anyway.

"Integration with Office tools"

Do you really think that Firefox not being integrated with Office is *Mozilla's* fault? There's nothing stopping Microsoft from doing this, save the visions of dollar signs dancing in front of their faces. As to your other point (about third-party integration), once again Firefox's Extensions allow for this--and are much easier to deal with than IE add-ins.

"things that are missing in these new browsers"

I can only think of one that wasn't a gimmick that never caught on (like the Radio bar or Channels), or a misfeature (like its buggy rendering and lack of standards support): ActiveX. And that has proven to be such a gaping security hole that I don't consider this a loss.

Re: Looks like...

> Tabbed Browsing - I know a lot of people are fans of this method of browsing..

Love it ... won't do without it.

> Multi Process Running - Most of the "IE Competitors" don't provide ways to run new browser instances in seperate processes. So if a site causes one of the browser windows to fail, they all die making you lose all the pages and work you were on.

In my experience, I get far fewer browser errors via Mozilla/Firefox than in IE. BHOs that install themselves at will in IE are more than annoying - they are a security threat and the source of instability for IE and the OS.

> No custom toolbars
Extensions in Firefox provide far more functionality than IE provides - ad blocking, image zooming, rss feeds, selectable image removing, etc. I agree with another poster re: the Google toolbar being unneeded (but it is available if wanted).