Last week, Microsoft announced that it was releasing the long-awaited Internet Explorer 7 Web browser. It’s been more than five years since the last version became available.Explorer has been the most widely used Web browser since the late 1990s when it overtook its only major rival, Netscape Navigator. Its popularity largely stemmed from the fact that it came packaged with every copy of Windows, the world’s most widely used operating system.
In the time since Explorer 6 was released, a number of free browsers have risen to popularity. The most notable of these have been the free browsers Firefox and Opera as well as Apple’s Safari.
According to statistics at W3Schools.com (a site run by the World Wide Web Consortium, the organization that regulates Internet standards), over 90 percent of Internet users were browsing with Explorer in 2002. Today that number has dropped to about 60 percent. This is an even greater trend at thewarrior.org where only about one-third of Internet traffic comes from Microsoft browsers. This is likely due in large part to the fact that college-age users are the most likely to install and use third-part software that is not packaged with their computers.
The increased popularity of these other browsers came as a result of Microsoft’s failure to upgrade Explorer. It suffered from flawed security, few popular features and poor rendering of HTML and other Web design technologies. In a “Top 25” list, the computer magazine PC World rated Internet Explorer 6 as the eighth worst technology product of all time.
With Explorer 7, Microsoft hopes to regain its grip on the browser market. The Explorer 7 includes a number of new features that it had been lacking in previous versions.
Probably the most noticeable change in Explorer 7 is tabbed browsing. For many users of Opera and Firefox, tabs have become a way of life. They allow multiple Web pages to be viewed under separate tabs of a single window. This reduces clutter onscreen and allows for quick switching between sites. As I write this article, I have Firefox tabs open for email, Wikipedia and several informational sites about Internet Explorer.
Explorer 7 also claims to have added a number of security features. Only time will tell whether this claim turns out to be true, but if it is, it would be a major breakthrough. Secunia.com, an Internet security site, said Explorer 6 had 20 unpatched security flaws. Opera, on the other hand, only had one, and it was fixed.
Among geeks, Internet Explorer 6 was a source of frustration and the target of mockery. With the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft hopes to not only be the most widely used but also the most well-respected Web browser available.
Popularity: 18% [?]
