Will Internet Explorer 8 solve Microsoft's Web browser problems?

No

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by Art Redwood

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As the song goes, "There was a time not too long ago," when posing such a question would have more people responding in the affirmative rather than the negative according to Helium's own poll.

However today There comes to mind a more fitting saying that goes something like this "Its like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.", Microsoft has had their moment in the sun, and while the incidentals of their rise to Internet browser dominance ( through speculated shady behind the door deals, and their world famous strong arm tactics that obliterate any rival in emerging or established markets that they wished to establish a presence in) can and will be debated by scholars for the ages to come, but their latest offering comes too little too late for a market, that's in a constant state of flux, both in its direction and its purpose.

Now don't get me wrong the browser by itself is adequate, I've taken it on the odd test drive but in the end, you have a piece of proprietary software, that by its very nature is secretive and hidden from view, cast into a world that already loves to hate its parent company, and every hacker wanting to earn their net credentials will be trying to crack the thing open farther and wider that the fellow before, as every new vulnerability discovered usually hits the headlines with the dire warnings of the opportunities that such exposed weakness may present to those in the community who might profit from such security holes with such actions as pishing, DDOS, and identify theft, just to name a few of the issues that are constantly hitting the news feeds and creating copy for bloggers to write about around the world about Microsoft and their browser.

But can a browser and indeed a whole companies new direction in the world of always on, cloud computing solutions to a wired world be solved by what amounts to a slick interface redesign and a little tinkering under the hood, unfortunately the answer is no, Microsoft has been behind game since they vanquished Netscape all those net years ago, and in the insuring time did not truly invest the time or the man power needed to continually future proof their product to keep that dominance, no Internet Explorer soon became the poorer cousin as it lagged slowly in critical vulnerability patching and slipping standards compliance that eventually made it open, exposed and dangerous for common domestic chores that most of the net citizens do on their home computers such as
on-line banking etc. let alone mission critical work.

Then into the fray, came the Open Source alternatives, the cheeky little upstarts born out of the fires of defeat from the failed Netscape project that at first no one seems to care about too much, especially the big Netscape killer and current market leader, who's share at that time was unassailable or so it seemed.

That was until it was shown that an open source browser was faster (generally) as well as to respond to critical vulnerabilities, design flaws, and in general all round robustness in a more timely and efficient manner.

Again to their credit Microsoft pulled up their pants or had them reefed up by some stiff and now ever growing competition, hence the delivery of their new and improved browser, but it's too little much too late.

They will always have a share of the browser market, and some might say too much, by their overwhelming dominance of the desktop market, which is predominantly fuelled by the mums and dads of the world that don't know their browsers, from their DSL's and so are happy in ignorance with whatever first offerings they might be given on their brand shinny new purchase.

But even that safe haven is fast eroding, thanks in part to the European Union's decision to force Microsoft to allow users to uninstall Internet Explorer and install other browsers into their operating system. The worm has truly started to turn for Microsoft and unfortunately it's not in a good way.

As in a closed browser few know the code, and even fewer can solve any problems that might be intentionally or unintentionally found and exploited, and fixes might be a long way of especially since where now officially in the middle of a global finical crisis, and things are tough for every business, just ask the Microsoft employees that were asked to take a 10% pay cut the other day, or the others that where just plain sacked all together, so there are physically less eyes to peruse and correct coding errors, introduce improvements, or response as quickly to a changing market and customer suggestions or complaints.

Where as an open source browser that is viewable by developers and hackers alike worldwide, nothing is closed to anyone, so the openness and the transparency is there for all to see, and therefore any mistakes are usually found and corrected very quickly.

As you literally have tens of thousands of eyes worldwide perusing the same code, for the love of developing, and not the bottom line of the parent company and the end result is a stable feature rich package that is driven by committed and passionate users. That is literally taking the world by storm, no Microsoft's time as market leader has come and gone, and while they will always be in the news, it will only ever be with the theme of too little to late thanks in part to their narrow and closed philosophy that will stop them forever from re-reaching the dizzying dominance that they once held...

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