Apr 28, 2006

I just downloaded the beta version of Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer. Here are a couple of quick thoughts on it:

(1) This is a very RSS friendly browser, and will go a long way towards getting non-geeks to use the technology. IE 7 has a little RSS icon (shown on left) that is highlighted when you are browsing a site that has an RSS feed associated with it. After you select a feed type (such as RSS 2.0), you are taken to a page that shows the feeds’ contents and prompts you to subscribe. Once you subscribe, you can view the feed in a built in RSS feed reader. Below is a screen shot of the subscribe page:

I’m a broken record here, but I really believe you need to include an RSS feed on any new website you develop.

(2) The browser uses a technique called anti aliasing to make fonts on websites smoother and thus easier to read (I’m told this is standard on Macs). When you install IE 7, it also automatically uses the technique in Outlook. It’s a subtle thing, but makes for a more pleasing browsing experience. Below are screenshots that show what I’m talking about:

Normal font:

Anti-Aliased Font:

(3) IE 7 includes lots of features users of Firefox (and Firefox extensions) take for granted – tabbed browsing, ability to zoom in on a page, pop up blocking, etc. Good stuff.

For me personally, the bottom line is that I switched to Firefox as my principle brower two years ago and I’m not going back. I switched mostly for security reasons, and stayed after IE plugged it’s security holes because I thought Firefox was better than IE by a long, long ways. It really wasn’t a hard decision. With the release of IE 7, Microsoft has closed the quality gap with Firefox significantly. If IE had been this good two years ago I probably wouldn’t have switched.

http://www.bivingsreport.com/2006/ie7/ The Bivings Report » IE7

[...] The latest Beta version of Internet 7 was released a few days ago and the reaction of the blogosphere has been mixed. Based on what I’ve read, my guess would be that the the reviews are probably 20% positive, 60% middling and 30% negative. You know what though, it doesn’t matter all that much. The blogosphere isn’t fair, and it certainly isn’t representative of typical consumers. Bloggers tend to own Macs and use alternative browsers like Firefox at much higher percentages than typical Internet users. And I’d speculate that the people who have downloaded IE 7 and written reviews at this early date are mostly Internet professionals who use Firefox and other alternative browsers more heavily than even bloggers. IE 7 is playing to an extremely tough crowd at this point. The browser is being judged by some of IE’s harshest critics.So how do you track the reaction of the blogosphere to the release? I’d avoid the kind of good/bad approach I took in the opening paragraph. As mentioned, it just doesn’t matter that much. In this case, the conclusion a reviewer reaches is far less important than the details of what they have to say (what specifically do the like and not like). It’s sort of like playing for a coach like Bobby Knight. The fact that he calls you stupid and lazy doesn’t matter – he’s always going to call you are stupid and lazy. What’s important is what you did in this particular instance to make him reach that conclusion. [...]
http://www.jimmyburnett.com/archives/10.html Jimmy Burnett

Internet Explorer 7 Holding It’s Own….

After over a week of using Internet Explorer 7 I can honestly say Microsoft has done pretty good with this browser. …
Thain Dikkers

Can’t stand the anti aliasing on a normal display screen. Would like to know how to turn it off. It might be OK on an LCD or laptop but the options should be give to use it or not. Would like to be able to modify the format used, don’t like the big tabs/arrows/etc. that use a third of the screen it seems.
Thain Dikkers

Can’t stand the anti aliasing on a normal display screen. Would like to know how to turn it off. It might be OK on an LCD or laptop but the options should be give to use it or not. Would like to be able to modify the format used, don’t like the big tabs/arrows/etc. that use a third of the screen it seems.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Notice

We are pleased to announce the launch of the Brick Factory, a Washington, DC-based digital agency founded by former employees of The Bivings Group. You can read the details of the transition here.

As a result of the change, The Bivings Report will no longer be updated, although we intend to keep it up for archival purposes. You can read the Brick Factory's new blog here.

Internet Explorer 7 is a Step in the Right Direction

Notice

Categories

Archives