It’s been a little over a year since we released IE7 on Windows XP and for Windows Vista, so I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about where we are after the year.
According to internal Microsoft research based on data from Visual Sciences Corporation, there are over 300 million users are experiencing the web with IE7. This makes IE7 the second most popular browser after IE6. IE7 is already #1 in the US and UK, and we expect IE7 to surpass IE6 worldwide shortly.
Perhaps more important than the overall numbers is the positive impact IE7 has made for our users. As you know, we focused a lot on improving security in IE7. We believe IE 7 is the safest Microsoft browser released to date. According to a vulnerability report published today, IE7 has fewer vulnerabilities than previous versions of IE over the same time period. What’s more, the report showed that IE7 had both fewer fixed and unfixed vulnerabilities in the first year than the other browsers we compared.
View: Full Article @ IE Team Blog
According to internal Microsoft research based on data from Visual Sciences Corporation, there are over 300 million users are experiencing the web with IE7. This makes IE7 the second most popular browser after IE6. IE7 is already #1 in the US and UK, and we expect IE7 to surpass IE6 worldwide shortly.
Perhaps more important than the overall numbers is the positive impact IE7 has made for our users. As you know, we focused a lot on improving security in IE7. We believe IE 7 is the safest Microsoft browser released to date. According to a vulnerability report published today, IE7 has fewer vulnerabilities than previous versions of IE over the same time period. What’s more, the report showed that IE7 had both fewer fixed and unfixed vulnerabilities in the first year than the other browsers we compared.
View: Full Article @ IE Team Blog
They lost me when they neglected IE6 for so long, and, even worse from my perspective, ignored web standards for so long. I suspect there are thousands upon thousands just like me, who took that as an opportunity to check out the competition, and liked what they found.
i think it's cause of Firefox that MS eventually got around to making IE7.
Totally agree. There just isn't any other reason for MS to revisit IE after letting it sitting for so long.
Hehe, yeah, anything else would be a catastrophy given that track record.
Couldn't it also mean that people still on IE 6 (after all, it's the most popular browser) will need less support as they're becoming accustomed to the browser? Sure, he can say this depends on IE 7, but the thing is that the IE 6 users didn't all switch to IE 7. Actually, most of them didn't. And I doubt early IE 7 adopters will need even less support calls than old IE 6 users, so I wouldn't be surprised if the major reason for this is to be found elsewhere, for example as for IE 6 maturity as a browser. Anyway, we'll see if he's right about this as more people switch to this browser.
Overall, sure, IE 7 is a huge improvement over IE 6, one that was necessary to catch up with the competition. There are still some pretty gaping holes in its feature set though, for example an open extension API. The current plugin support doesn't seem all that powerful compared to that in Firefox, looking at what's being offered. It's these things that at least power users often want to see. Other things include lacking SVG support for a common vector graphics standard, a useful graphics niche for the web due to the small files produced for schematics, graphs, and so on. Much moreso than e.g. PNG too, since the object information is preserved and can be edited later. It's already in use in Wikipedia for example, and frustrating to not have it supported by the browser natively.
Last edited by Jugalator on 03 Dec 2007 - 11:55
1) IE comes with Windows and is the default browser. IE 6 for XP users and IE7 for Vista users. This means that anyone who goes to a computer store and buys a computer (with the exception of Mac, and those gOS machines) will automatically be an IE user. Unless the user knows about other browsers, they'll simply continue using IE.
2) IE7 was pushed out as a critical update to many XP comptuers. (It has not yet been added to the critical update in Japanese Windows which begs the question, how is it critical for some users and not critical for others? Are we not on the same Internet?) Once it's "critical" on all Windows it will replace most of those IE6 browsers which are currently the majority.
You obviously didn't read the 'biased article' as it clearly says IE6 is the most used browser in the world.
You obviously didn't read the 'biased article' as it clearly says IE6 is the most used browser in the world.
well, regardless of which version is being used, it still assumes IE is used the most
doesnt take into account other browsers
its still worth nothing if he doesnt compare it to anything but previous versions
which of course will be better
doesnt take into account other browsers
Well, why wouldn't it ... IE is the most widely used browser!
I really wish MS would do more than patch holes in IE. Improving standards support only every few years is bull****. I bet IE8 will not support CSS3 at all while at the same time other browsers do.
Development is always going to lean towards the market leader - currently Microsoft's offering, thus IE7 wins for me.
I have adopted IE7 on my machines now having previously loved Firefox. For me it comes down to speed...might just be me eh?
Critical Vulnerability in Microsoft Metrics
Last edited by lbmouse on 03 Dec 2007 - 15:23
Of course they are going to spin it in their favor, were you expecting them to cheer IE on?
Of course they are going to spin it in their favor, were you expecting them to cheer IE on?
And, more importantly, when can we expect them to shut up?
Last edited by Croquant on 03 Dec 2007 - 16:29
Just a thought.
LOL, good one.
I don't care how Microsoft got IE7 up there, they did it. Whether they forced it down to XP users as a critical update, or they included it with Vista, it doesn't matter. FF and Opera came out with pretty useful tools that, I admit, IE7 does not yet have, but that just makes FF and Opera unique, not better. And compatibility? Don't even start on that, compared to IE7 not supporting CSS3, there are a lot of simpler web support issues plaguing the competitors.
I used IE6, until I found FF. I was loyal to FF until IE7 came out, and I'm sorry to say, but I jumped ships once again. IE7 stole my heart, and this was BEFORE Vista arrived, or the critical update.
Fact is, IE7 has the majority of the public, computer illiterate users and enthusiasts alike. Simple statistics show, that although IE may not be the most innovative or efficient, it is the most used, and in the end, isn't that what defines the "better" browser?
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