Gawker: valleywag, internet explorer

Worst Tech Commercial Ever, Probably

Ryan Tate — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 17:46:17 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.If Harry McCracken, who has been writing about personal computers for 29 years, says this Microsoft spot is the worst technology commercial ever, he's probably right. Warning: It's also gross.

The ad attempts to sell the new Internet Explorer Web browser on a simple premise: Your husband is probably looking at truly disgusting things on the internet, and this product will help him hide those things, from you.

Another ad in the same series makes even less sense, illustrating how IE helps you alienate your friends with annoying links. And there's this one, which just freaks us out.

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.

These spots are, at least, marginally more rational than the absurdist, quickly-abandoned Jerry Seinfeld commercials for Vista. They just need a nice tagline. How about, "Internet Explorer: Why Not Drag Out Your Dysfunctional, Creepy Relationship a Bit Longer?" For the eighth iteration of Microsoft's browser, that's kind of perfect!

Google Chrome market share tops Opera, latest Internet Explorer beta version

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:40:00 EDT

Users of Google's Chrome browser account for about 1 percent of the market, reports Net Applications, a market researcher. European browser-maker Opera — which you might have heard had it agreed to make the iPhone's browser, but it didn't, so you haven't — claims 0.74 percent of all users. Microsoft's Internet Explorer still dominates the market, but its latest version, Internet Explorer 8 beta 2, which was released around the same time as Chrome, owns only a third as much market share, around 0.34 percent. [PaidContent]

Microsoft realizes the Internet is for porn

Nicholas Carlson — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 11:20:00 EDT

Mozilla ended up dropping the feature from Firefox 3, but rumor has it Microsoft is considering adding a private browsing mode to its Internet Explorer 8 update. Private browsing — also known as "porn mode" — makes dumping a browser's history, clearing its cache and blocking cookies that much easier. Apple's Safari browser has had it as an option since 2005, when Paul Boutin recommended readers use it for "birthday shopping."

Firefox use growing, Internet Explorer slipping

Alaska Miller — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Only four years after its launch, Mozilla's Google-milking cash cow Web browser, Firefox, is now approaching 20 percent market share, reports NetApplications, a website-statistics provider. Just two months ago, over 8 million people downloaded a copy of Firefox 3, in a marketing stunt which garnered Mozilla a Guinness record. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer is dipping below 70 percent market share. [TGDaily]

Microsoft's $240 million not enough to make Facebook Internet Explorer-compatible

Jackson West — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:40:00 EDT

Facebook's list of supported browsers does not include one that's proven relatively popular (if by hook or by crook) — Microsoft Internet Explorer. As blogger Dan Lewis points out, Microsoft may have invested $240 million in the social network startup, and you'd think that would win them some favors:

You know, like maybe a preferential app placement, integration of MS Live Search or MSN Messenger, or at least some stickers.

But no, Facebook asks you to "Please keep it real" and use Firefox, Opera, Safari or Flock — the latter having sub-minuscule market share. Somebody call COO Sheryl Sandberg, because obviously some developer at Facebook is having far too much fun and it needs to be stopped.

Internet Explorer 8 will drive you nuts — the 25-word version

Paul Boutin — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 16:40:54 EDT

"You're pretending that there's one standard, but since nobody has a way to test against the standard, it's not a real standard." — Software pundit Joel Spolsky on the impossibility of conforming to Web standards. If you're a Web developer, Spolsky's 4,738-word treatise, with illustrations, is worth reading on your employer's time.

Internet Explorer can't find a working version of Google Maps

Nicholas Carlson — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:20:07 EST

Outside of geekdom, Internet Explorer still dominates browser market share. That means for most people, the Web works the way Microsoft wants it to. And so far, for those using the newest version of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft's version of the Web doesn't include Google Maps. Or at least not a very useful version of it. We're sure a fix is high on Microsoft's priority list. Check out the screenshot Blogoscoped's Phillip Lenssen nabbed, below.

AOL discontinues a browser no one uses

Owen Thomas — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 12:00:21 EST

The surprise in AOL discontinuing the Netscape browser isn't that the Netscape browser is gone. It's that it was still alive, and that anyone was still working on it. From the moment AOL bought Netscape in 1998 this was a foregone conclusion. AOL was interested in Netscape's Web traffic, not its browser; it continued using Microsoft's internet Explorer in its online service even after the acquisition. That it took AOL nine years to finally kill off the Netscape browser speaks to the Internet giant's fatal sluggishness. Not to mention its unresponsiveness to customers. Netscape has long been nothing but a memory. With its antiquated and buggy browser gone, it can now be a fond one.

Opera's drama-queen antitrust lawsuit

Tim Faulkner — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 17:20:35 EST

Opera Software, maker of a feature-laden but forgotten Web browser, is complaining to the European Commission about Microsoft's Internet Explorer. It's an old gripe: Opera points out — duh — that IE is bundled with Windows. Opera claims this is illegal and that IE holds back the web with lousy support for standards. This smells like a publicity stunt meant to remind people Opera still exists.

The European Commission did not pursue the same complaints in their own recently concluded antitrust suit against Microsoft, and Mozilla's Firefox and Apple's Safari have been slowly but surely taking market share from Microsoft's dominant product. But it is Europe, so one never knows. Maybe Opera can successfully sue itself into getting some users, and keep Microsoft spending money on lawyers instead of coders.

Firefox gaining on IE with Google's help

Jordan Golson — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:42:54 EDT

The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit behind Firefox, just released its 2006 financial statement. It turns out Moz's for-profit arm is making millions from a deal with Google. 85 percent of its revenue — some $56 million — came from the Google search box that is the default on every Firefox install. Google also provides users for Firefox via a pay-to-download program with Google's AdSense program and the Google Pack — a collection of apps including Google Earth, Adobe Reader, Skype and Firefox. Firefox is generally posited as David against Goliath — Microsoft's Internet Explorer. But really, Firefox is more of the slingshot, wielded by the David of Mountain View as Google and Microsoft fight Browser Wars 2.0. The latest data marks Firefox at 14.9 percent market share against IE's still-dominant 77.9 percent.

Google glitches: Stuck on page one

ndouglas — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 18:16:29 EST

Google fixed an bug in Google Desktop that kept Internet Explorer users from clicking past the first page of search results. Actually, this problem existed all last year, but no one ever bothered checking past the first ten results. Everyone clicks the first result anyway, don't they?

Google Repairs Glitch That Kept Some IE Users On The First Page Of Results [Search Engine Watch]