Vacation From Google Chrome: Week 3, Internet Explorer

Well, I started with Internet Explorer as my main browser back with version 6. I did it for the reason most people use it right now, it is pre-installed on their computers and they don’t know there are better things out there. I was originally going to make this week dedicated to the browser Maxthon, but I decided to give IE a try because I hadn’t used version 8 yet. However, I soon regretted it, and this was by far the hardest week so far.

Likes:

• 64-bit version – This is the first browser I have come across so far with a 64-bit version.
• Set Up – The browser asks you questions to quickly set it up to how you want it.
• Home Page Tabs – IE can open up more than one tab for your homepage.
• Search Bar – IE suggests queries from your history and from popular ones. It also allows you to switch between search engines. Built in Wikipedia was cool too.
• Tab Isolation – If one tab crashes, it doesn’t crash the entire browser.
• Grouped Tabs – Tabs were grouped by color so you could see what tab comes from what.
• Site Compatibility – Every site I went to was compatible with IE.
• Add-ons – While not as good as Firefox’s selection, they got about as much as Google Chrome has.
• Address Bar – It gives recommendations from history and popular sites.
• Full-screen – IE has a full screen mode, unlike Safari.

Dislikes:

• Content Incompatibility – I couldn’t believe how much content on sites had a little x on them meaning they didn’t work. Even though websites would work with IE, a lot of the content would not.
• Freezing – IE constantly froze up on me. It could only handle a few tabs at a time.
• Memory Usage – Often hit 500K when there were several tabs open.
• Acid 3 Test – I thought it was impossible to get a 12/100, but apparently IE got it.
• No RSS Button – I couldn’t figure out how to add an RSS feed in IE.
• Address And Search Bar Not Combined – I guess this is just a personal preference, but I think only one bar is needed, like in Chrome. It saves a tiny bit of room, and a central location lets you get everything from one spot. Of course you could always use the correct bar, but having both Search and URL suggestions is more helpful.
• Windows 7 Taskbar Implementation – Each tab acts like a different Window, so if you have 10 tabs or so open, it would show all of them if you click on the IE button on the taskbar. In Google Chrome, each Window including its tabs is shown.
• Tabs On The Bottom – In Google Chrome, tabs are on top so they can merge with the title bar, which saves room. Plus, in real life a tab is on the top of things like Google Chrome. It just is more logical to have it on top. I couldn’t figure out anyway to change this either.
• Full Screen Mode – This should be a basic feature, but since Safari didn’t have it, I’d just like to note IE does.
• Password Memory – Even if I had wanted it to keep my password, it never let me stay logged in. Also, the pop-up asking me to remember passwords was really annoying. Other browsers are way better because they just have a little bar asking.
• Accelerators – It seems Microsoft goes on and on about their little accelerators and how they somehow make up for the speed. Don’t let them fool you, these things were worthless.
• No Mouse-Gestures – Opera made these mouse-gestures, and ever since then I have used them by and add-on in both Firefox and Google Chrome. Naturally I tried finding an add-on for IE, but I could only find something called IE7Pro, which only works for version 7.
• Tabs On The Bottom – In Google Chrome, tabs are on top so they can merge with the title bar, which saves room. Plus, in real life a tab is on the top of things like Google Chrome. It just is more logical to have it on top.
• Address And Search Bar Not Combined – I guess this is just a personal preference, but I think only one bar is needed, like in Chrome. It saves a tiny bit of room, and a central location lets you get everything from one spot. Of course you could always use the correct bar, but having both Search and URL suggestions is more helpful.
• Speed – The speed outright sucks, no speed tests required (no slow motion video cameras needed… inside joke).

Fixed Dislikes:

• Command Bar – This toolbar is on the tab bar. This really sucks if you have many tabs open because it takes away your space. I was quick to disable it and just relied on shortcuts.

Neutral:

• Favorites Button – By pressing the button it opens a handy menu with your bookmarks, history, and RSS. It is a lot easier to access these things than most browsers. However, it takes some of the tab bars room which I don’t like. I ended up leaving it though.
• New Tab Page – While it’s good it had one, the only feature it included that I really cared about was reopening closed tabs. I ended up using netvibes.com, which I had wanted to use for a while now.
• Theme – The theme was quite simple and I liked the transparency, but it my opinion it was pretty ugly. Just my preference though.

While I was initially somewhat biased when I responded to the browser chart Microsoft put out (http://misterswag.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/microsofts-browser-comparison-chart-a-bunch-of-garbage/), I now stand by everything I said. IE flat out sucked and I’ll admit it, I ended up breaking the rules and went to Opera some more. I just couldn’t handle IE. It’s got the fast track off my computer.

I am coming to my final browser in this vacation, which is Firefox. It is the browser that saved me in the first place from Internet Explorer. I used to be a huge Firefox Nerd (I even had a blog called it). However, when Google Chrome came out, the performance got me to switch. I last used Firefox back in version 3.0. I am hoping with the new 3.6 (I think) is a lot better. Join me next week for my impressions, and then a final wrap up.

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