Monopolies rarely last forever. First, Microsoft killed the early lead of the popular Netscape Navigator browser when Redmond bundled Internet Explorer with Windows 95. By maneuvering itself into a dominant browser market share in the late 1990s, Microsoft created a monopoly -- but also sparked the Mozilla Foundation and Google Inc. to fight back. Netscape eventually died after 10 years of AOL ownership, but a 1998 Mozilla project moved similar code into open source, creating Firefox -- which is now the browser of choice for many an IT pro. Today, Firefox and Chrome threaten Microsoft's supremacy.
In recent years Microsoft has lost gobs of market share to Firefox, Chrome and the browser for the Mac OS X, Safari. Estimates vary, but according to recent research from Net Applications.com, Internet Explorer has a little more than 60 percent of the market, Firefox weighs in with 23 percent and Chrome has 7 percent (which has certainly risen since the results were released last summer).
The browser isn't just a simple app anymore, but a strategic semi-platform for Web developers. Browsers have to parse code at sites supported by ad networks. They're also used for e-commerce, where they support corporate revenue streams. Most of the browser dough today comes through search advertising. (Can you say "Bing"?)
Those factors add up to some compelling economics. That, and pride, are what we're sure are fueling Microsoft's drive to regain total browser dominance -- 60 percent share just doesn't cut it in Redmond.
The Microsoft IE 8 drive kicked off with a slew of privacy and efficiency features. The new IE 9 beta, released in September, pushes the envelope still further, focusing on performance and modern standards. HTML5, currently in the working draft stage at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), represents the cutting edge, offering a richer way of delivering graphics and video. The Scalable Vector Graphics portion of the spec promises native browser support for video using standard HTML5 markup, reducing the need for Adobe Flash or even Microsoft Silverlight browser add-ons.
Microsoft may be onto something innovative with IE 9, but that assessment will ultimately rest with the IT professionals and developers involved. To support this report, 62 Redmond readers responded to our queries about the new IE 9 browser, currently at beta release. More than a dozen provided the insight that only true IT pros have, and which we've distilled for you here.
Speed Demon
One of Redmond's major goals with IE 9 is boosting speed, be it the speed of downloading, rendering or video playback. While IE 9 is still in test mode, the speed goal seems to be achieved, according to some of our Redmond respondents.
"I downloaded and used IE 9 for a while. It works very well but it's a beta. The upside is IE 9 is fast, clean and easy to use -- maybe because I'm used to IE 8," says Redmond reader Charles Chang.
"Internet Explorer 9 is definitely faster than other browsers," says reader J.C. Warren, a client server integration analyst from Issaquah, Wash. "It solved a performance issue on my work computer where pages loaded incredibly slowly. I couldn't determine the cause and tried the Internet Explorer 9 beta on a lark -- and the slowness evaporated."
Warren isn't alone in noting the speed gains. "I downloaded Internet Explorer 9 on zero day and love it. I run all of the others -- Firefox, Chrome and Safari -- but keep coming back to Internet Explorer 9. Initial app load seems faster and page rendering is as fast as any, if not quicker in most cases," says Redmond reader Roy Humphries.
While Chang, Warren and Humphries see the beta as faster, others aren't so sure. Reader Chris Gahlsdorf, systems administrator for Northwest Human Services, only noticed a mild bump. "I did some basic speed tests, and while a little faster, it wasn't anything earth-shattering," Gahlsdorf says.
Others question how much impact the browser itself has on performance. "I don't notice any speed difference between IE 9 and Firefox, or even IE 8 and Chrome. All the hoopla about the speed of JavaScript is lost on me because I have a 20 mbps fiber-optic connection and a fast computer," says Doug Perrault, a CPA and Web programmer near Tampa, Fla. "That it takes 1 ms to run a script in Chrome versus 8 ms in Internet Explorer 8 isn't that big of a deal. In both cases sites pop right up and work as if they were native Windows apps. The real speed differences are on the side of the servers. If the server is slow, the site is slow, even if you're using Chrome."
Simple UI
Google Chrome changed the whole browser UI paradigm. Just like the Google search engine, Chrome is decidedly sparse. Internet Explorer 9 apparently took some Chrome cues -- and the majority of the Redmond readers who responded like it.
"IE 8 was a disappointment, as it was still shackled to the IE 7 frame of mind," says Gahlsdorf. "With IE 9, Microsoft used the Windows 7 mentality: simple is good. As a developer and administrator I appreciate still having access to the more advanced features, but I don't need them cluttering up my screen every day when I only use them 10 percent of the time."
Reader Brian Knackstedt also wants his browsers lean and mean. "I like the new interface. It's nice to be able to drag and drop tabs between windows and have more screen real estate," says Knackstedt.
And Humphries, already impressed with the browser's speed, is also a fan of the IE 9 UI. "You could argue that the interface has been stolen from Chrome, but that's the same as saying, 'Hey, your car has four wheels; you stole my IP!'
"I won't drop the others," Humphries adds. "I have uses for them all, but Internet Explorer is my workhorse and just seems to work. It looks like Redmond finally got it right!"
:shock:
