Microsoft Keeps Beating a Dead Browser

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    Microsoft Keeps Beating a Dead Browser


    Last Updated: 03 Jul 2009 at 22:51
    Microsoft Keeps Beating a Dead Browser

    I hate to be constantly beating a dead browser, but news about Internet Explorer 8 keeps coming up, kind of like a day-old fish taco at Earl's House of Chowder.

    It seems Microsoft will stop at nothing to get people to try IE8. First, they published a "get the facts" comparison chart showing how -- surprise! -- IE8 bests Firefox and Chrome in virtually every way. (Note: Whenever anyone from Microsoft says "get the facts," the first thing you should get is your hip boots and waders, because it's going to pile up deep and fast.) I'm still scratching my head over the "Performance" blurb in that chart:

    "Knowing the top speed of a car doesn't tell you how fast you can drive in rush hour. To actually see the difference in page loads between all three browsers, you need slow-motion video. This one's also a tie."

    Right. If anyone out there can explain that one to me, please send me a note.
    [ Cringely isn't joking, either -- Microsoft's IE8 "get the facts" campaign does get it wrong. | For the real facts, check out IE8 vs. Firefox 3.5: The browser wars continue. ]

    But that's not all. They're dangling $10K cash prizes to Aussies willing to go spelunking down undah using only their browser. They've offered to donate eight (count 'em, eight) meals to a food bank for every download of IE8. And they've launched a series of "funny" video ads starring Superman-turned-pitchman Dean Cain.
    This is where things get dicey.

    As first noted by The Technologizer's Harry McCracken (and quickly followed up by virtually everybody else with a blog), there's one ad in particular that's gotten a fair amount of attention. It involves an ordinary looking housewife who borrows her husband's laptop, looks at his browser history, and suddenly starts spewing projectile vomit all over the kitchen in full living technicolor, like Ozzy Osbourne after three days of nothing but beer and bat heads.

    The pitch? If only he'd been using IE8's InPrivate browsing feature, dear old wifey would never know the dark evil puke-inducing Web sites he'd been visiting.
    (What exactly was hubby looking at that so fully engaged the gossamer-thin gag reflex of his loving wife? I have one guess, and it's four words long: Two girls, one cup. Google that, if you dare. But don't blame me if you toss your cookies after.)

    After a lot virtual retching across the blogosphere, Microsoft pulled the ad. (If you must watch it, a copy is still available on YouTube as I write this.) No matter; it achieved its purpose. People are talking about it. For Microsoft, that qualifies as victory.

    The weird part is that this ad, along with the others, is/was part of the Browser for the Better food bank campaign. So is Microsoft bringing food to America's hungry, or just food poisoning?

    From these various moves one could easily draw the conclusion that IE8 is for the gullible, the greedy, the charitably inclined, and the easily gagged. Another obvious conclusion: Microsoft must be pretty damned worried about losing more ground to Firefox, Chrome, and any other browser that wanders down the road -- worried enough to gross out half the Web with an ad even the most adolescent of dot coms would not have dared run.

    The question is why? If the destination is what matters, why does Microsoft care so deeply what browser people use to get there? Maybe this: Unless Bing is the browser's default search engine, no one will go there after the novelty wears off. That's probably enough to make anyone at Microsoft lose their lunch.
    http://www.pcworld.com/article/16786...d_browser.html

    This is related to the Vomit Add M$ had too pull. See the thread about it HERE.

    ~Lordbob
    Lordbob75's Avatar Posted By: Lordbob75
    03 Jul 2009



  1. Posts : 1,806
    Windows 7 Ultimate x32
       #1

    f**k IE8. and that's all, i have, to say, about, that.
    (lol @ forest gump ref)

    dont buy into MS's scheme, Aussies! those starving countries need to learn how to farm!
    so, in the scope, IE8 is making people stupider-er! farm dammit! farm!

    ok, im going to sleep. (FF, FTW)
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 251
    Windows 7 x64 Pro
       #2

    FF totally sucks right now. I think Chrome/Srware Iron and Opera and IE8 are the major players now. FF is very disappointing with being sluggish, and I cant stand the UI and also it seems to be heavy on a system.

    As a developer I also use IE8 and appreciate the developer tools that were included with it without me having to go and install some separate addons.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 6,885
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64, Mint 9
    Thread Starter
       #3

    digitalrurouni said:
    FF totally sucks right now. I think Chrome/Srware Iron and Opera and IE8 are the major players now. FF is very disappointing with being sluggish, and I cant stand the UI and also it seems to be heavy on a system.

    As a developer I also use IE8 and appreciate the developer tools that were included with it without me having to go and install some separate addons.
    I find FF very fast, and versatile. I personally like the GUI, but thats an opinion. I don't think Opera (at least in the US) is a major player at all, but I don't have anything to back that up. Chrome will certainly get up there, though I think that their GUI lacks any.... flavour? I can't think of the word. It's just very plain. Not that thats bad, its just boring.

    ~Lordbob
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 682
    Window 7 build 7600, Xp pro(VM)
       #4

    to me chrome is the fastest to me. FF 3.0 and 3.5 both are slow in windows 7 and IE8 is all time slow in all windows version. But chrome is faster than those two.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 851
    win 7 build 7600.16385 x64
       #5

    FF totally sucks right now. I think Chrome/Srware Iron and Opera and IE8 are the major players now. FF is very disappointing with being sluggish, and I cant stand the UI and also it seems to be heavy on a system.

    As a developer I also use IE8 and appreciate the developer tools that were included with it without me having to go and install some separate addons.
    if not satisfied with firefox try minefield!!!
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 5,807
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64 - Mac OS X 10.6.4 x64
       #6

    digitalrurouni said:
    FF totally sucks right now. I think Chrome/Srware Iron and Opera and IE8 are the major players now. FF is very disappointing with being sluggish, and I cant stand the UI and also it seems to be heavy on a system.

    As a developer I also use IE8 and appreciate the developer tools that were included with it without me having to go and install some separate addons.
    I h8 to bash FF (and this is like taking a dagger to me) but it indeed uses more RAM than IE8 and also started slower than it....then it would blow IE8 away....until 3.5 came out....now my only issue is that 3.5 tends to freeze randomly with this forum....I will check on that tomorrow and check on that Minefield thing!
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 8,375
    W7 Ultimate x64/W10 Pro x64/W11 Pro Triple Boot - Main PC W7 Remote PC Micro ATX W7 Pro x64/W11 Pro
       #7

    IE 8, Chrome, and Opera 9.64 seem to do the job here ok. I prefer the setttings in Opera while Chrome simply swapped sides of the screen for the bookmarks section there just to be different from IE. I haven't looked at the fruit vendor lately to see what So Far off eeeeeeee does!
      My Computers


  8. Posts : 50
    Snow Leopard (10.6.1)
       #8

    I use Safari 4 on OSX & Windows, nothing gets me past the Cover Flow History or the Top Sites (previews of the sites), and the tabs in Safari 4 show in Win7

    Ohh, and you can beat a dead browser, it's still not going anywhere!
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 8,476
    Windows® 8 Pro (64-bit)
       #9

    Just installed Iron browser. Lets see how it outperforms IE8 and safari.
      My Computer


 
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