Most ordinary web users know that browsers are constantly updating. Microsoft recently launched the latest version of its Internet Explorer browser, IE9. But why are so many uninstalling IE9, and how will this affect web development as a whole?
IE is of course not the only browser around. Besides the popular Firefox there are the Mac-based Safari, Google Chrome and others. For website developers this variety can be a bit of a headache: we write in code which the browser interprets, but how can we be sure all browsers read the same code in the same way? because if they do not, the consequences can be severe for a carefully designed web page.
The World Wide Web Consortium has tried to solve this by developing standards that govern the way browsers interpret code. However IE, the most widely used family of browsers because of Microsoft’s hegemony in the market, is the least “standards-compliant”. This means that websites that look good in other browsers display wrongly in IE — borders appear in the wrong place, images are too far to one side, blocks that should be centered pop up on the left, the list goes on. If the developer rewrite the code for IE, the web pages don’t look right in the other browsers.
Developers get around this by adding extra bits of code, or even entire files, to correct the display. Understandably, they have long complained of the frustrations caused by IE’s discrepancies.
The good news is that each new version of IE is more standards-compliant than the last, culminating in the one now in general use, IE8. But web code itself is evolving. A new version is already here for the taking: if you’re interested it’s called html5 and css3. And while earlier versions of Firefox and Safari have been accessing this new code for some time, IE8 cannot read it — the first Microsoft product to do so is IE9.
The new code enables imaginative web design that was previously only possible with the use of complex imagery that slowed download times. A shadow may be added to a picture, or a coloured block containing text can be given rounded corners or funky outlines. Websites of the future will look less rigid and more three-dimensional. The new code allows audio and video content to be added without the use of plugins, again decreasing download time — and much more besides.
Html5 will also enhance ebooks and browser-based apps, says e-rights expert Katy Loffman. But developers can really only design for browsers that are in current use, and with the complaints I hear against IE9, I fear it will be some time because it becomes widespread.
IE9 won’t download onto operating systems older than Vista — for XP users this means a whole new computer, with financial implications that will cause them to hesitate. Upgrades of Firefox, for example, make no such demands.
Even more worrying, many people who are able to download IE9 uninstall it very soon after. Michael Debenham, who runs a family website, complained: “The user interface is very unfriendly compared with IE8. I spent a good while trying to recover my Favourites toolbar, but with no success…. I tried to find various other features that I was used to in IE8 — no success there either. At that point I gave up and uninstalled it.” And his experience is by no means unique.
You may say, “XP is finished, IE now works like Google Chrome, get used to it,” and this is fine for the web-savvy who routinely browser-hop. It’s not ok for everyday users who just want to do what they did before, only faster.
Michael went on: “To use a motor trade analogy: if you are trying to sell a car with a turbo-charged V8 engine, superb brakes, suspension and roadholding, but rotten bodywork, seats and controls, you don’t have much of a market.”
Microsoft’s new initiative may keep us in the dark ages for some time yet.
