40 comments

• RSS feed for comments on this post
• RSS feed for comments on all posts

• Jeff
  March 23rd, 2007 at 10:23

  Some people are just masochists.

• snitko
  March 23rd, 2007 at 10:59

  You’ve forgotten such addons as Maxthon, many people use them and feel quite ok ) I personally used it for some time and moving to Firefox was a pain in the ass, was very hard to get used to it. Though now, of course, can’t imagine using anything else, than FF.

• Maaike
  March 23rd, 2007 at 11:55

  I think most people couldn’t care less which browser they’re using, as long as it works. I made my parents use FF, but I’m quite sure they’re only using it to do me a favour (and because I’ve hidden all shortcuts to IE from their desktop ).

• Kristin
  March 23rd, 2007 at 12:11

  I believe in your first alternative: They don´t know the alternatives. Good article Robert. Love this subject…

• Harmen Janssen
  March 23rd, 2007 at 13:05

  It’s a question I’ve asked myself often as well. I don’t see any advantage in using Microsoft’s browser.
  I love Firefox, and have come to rely on its various plugins. When I switched to a Mac a while back, I’ve tried Safari to see if it worked for me, but the fact that F5 is not (by default?) the refresh-button disturbs me no end.

  The ultimate weird thing for me is web developers who actually prefer using IE6. But on the other hand, the developers I know who do this are mostly ASP.NET developers.

• Tom
  March 23rd, 2007 at 13:08

  I think your no. 1 reason is right. Another reason might be: they are just very familiar with IE6, which they used for probably more than 5 years. I see people choke on IE7 and they want to go back to IE6. I agree with Maaike: most people don’t even know what a browser is, they just know they have to tick a certain IE-icon to enter the internet.

• Jeroen Mulder
  March 23rd, 2007 at 13:19

  For me, IE7 was the perfect moment to convert some people to using Firefox. After IE7 was installed, they had no idea what they were looking at. They wanted their old browser back, which is not an option. So, I recommended Firefox as the browser that brings the best in a world they’re familiar with.

  But yes, I agree, I don’t know why they use it. The “I visit many sites that don’t work in Firefox” just doesn’t fly. I’m a heavy browser and rarely do I ever come across a site that I want to use often, yet requires IE. Then again, that’s just me…

• Birgit
  March 23rd, 2007 at 13:31

  Had a serious discussion about that yesterday (or, rather, an argument). Opponent is strongly convinced that IE is not only faster and easier to use, but also safer and less likely to crash down.

  I would like to see some unbiased tests about that to either approve or disprove that. So, if anyone has some links…?

  I have been using Opera since 2002 and FF since 2004 and I have never had a better browsing experience than with the latter.

• Binny V A
  March 23rd, 2007 at 13:38

  The only reason I use IE is to test how my sites hold up in IE - I use Linux and I had to install IE on Wine just for testing purposes.

  I am at a complete loss to understand why people use it as their primary browser.

• Rob Mason
  March 23rd, 2007 at 14:06

  Familiarity is the biggest thing that stops people using other browsers. I’ve experienced it first hand with my wife. I’ll say”Try Firefox out, it’s great” and she’ll respond with a “Oh yeah, but I know IE and I’m used to it”…what a crap excuse.

  Once you’ve tried better you never go back.

• Jens Meiert
  March 23rd, 2007 at 14:12

  Nice overview, and I wholeheartedly agree on almost all points (I also always claimed that IE is unusable and urgently needs the next update). Thus for most web professionals, IE’s single purpose stays to test.

• Devon Young
  March 23rd, 2007 at 15:03

  The UI bugs me a lot. Whenever I have to use IE, it’s irritating. It seems unfamiliar and takes my focus away from what I’m trying to do. I know of a few non-experienced users who don’t like it either. It’s actually helped me convince them to give Firefox a try.

• Chris Huff
  March 23rd, 2007 at 17:20

  Your conclusion is right on, especially #2. People use it because it’s already there. They don’t know why it’s a bad browser, so they just assume that websites are not built right if they look funny in IE, not realizing that it’s the other way around. To some extent, however, they are right. We should make sure our websites work in even the stupidest browsers out there. That’s one way we know we’ve done our job well.

• KwangErn Liew
  March 23rd, 2007 at 17:52

  I actually thought quite opposite to all of you. IE7 has really changed the UI to get rid of many options that aren’t needed frequently. Gettin’ rid of the top menu bar really makes sense. How often do you actually use it? I know I don’t on my FF. And FYI, I’m a Debian user.

  Sure, it doesn’t have half the perks of other browsers, but is it _really_ necessary for average users?

  I think Microsoft is gettin’ there, catching up with the rest. But they also try not to leave their user-base behind.

  Not perfect, but mucho better than IE6 IMHO.

• drnhrn
  March 23rd, 2007 at 18:42

  IE7 has the best multimedia support. I’m talking about the WMP11 embedded sweetness. It’s fast and works superbly. For Firefox you will have to use the (discontinued product, and completely unmaintained) WMP Netscape plugin. (Vista doesn’t even ship with it anymore.) It has problems with aspect ratios and sometimes the image is all disorted. Video stuff on IE7 simply works better than on Opera/Firefox.

  The UI is imho quite pleasant, tabs work better than on Opera at least (Opera folks attempt to be too smart and fail utterly in the logics of the tabs), it’s pretty fast. Some things are slightly worse on the alternatives and some slightly better. There’s not much to say on that area.

  Then the problem with IE7. There isn’t really good ad blocker for IE. Microsoft is for IE7 supporting add-on development but no one has done “Adblock plus + Filterset.G” for IE7. Yet. That’s a blocker for me.. The day such add-on arrives I’ll go 100% IE7.

  Security? It’s actually pretty good, there has been many years of development since the XP/IE6 codebases and it shows. You can’t really start whining that IE7 on Vista is insecure when there’s no real proof of it. It’s under the hood simply different product set from the others.

• adam
  March 23rd, 2007 at 20:26

  The best plugin for FF is AdBlock+. I hardly ever see an advert now which makes the web a much nicer place to be.

  When I go back to IE now it seems much slower as t loads all the ads!

  It’s also really annoying when you do something that looks okay in FF and then you look at it in IE and it looks completely different. What’s that all about?

• Robert Nyman - author
  March 23rd, 2007 at 20:29

  Thanks everyone for very good comments! I’m really glad that we can talk about this in a balanced manner, as opposed to flaming.

  Thanks.

• NICCAI
  March 23rd, 2007 at 20:33

  Well, this is interesting. I have to agree with you - and I still use IE a fair amount (again due to testing). However, I think you’ve stated more reasons why users started using IE in the beginning. Now, they use it, because change is undesirable for most. Familiarity is key to why people don’t switch. The same is true for switching from PC to Mac or switching away from Outlook. People just don’t like change. I once asked a user/client what change meant to them. The answer was “death.”

  With that said, IE7 is an embarrassment. The UI is a horrible step back - and I don’t mean hiding the file menu (I’m not going to touch that one). What happened to button placement? You need a mental map of where the button locations are and what buttons might be in each location - ridiculous. Back is over here, refresh over there. Also, the script and CSS execution is very, very slow. It is so slow that I’m almost embarrassed myself.

  In my opinion, IE7 will be replaced by a brand new MS browser - much the way Firefox converted Netscape users. The long and the short is that its days are numbered, and MS will combat this by creating a new option.

• Aaron Schmidt
  March 24th, 2007 at 5:48

  I interviewed a candidate for the position of “intermediate web developer” last week. He told me that his browser of choice was IE7 and his explanation was that IE7 had the little “tab button” to open a new tab whereas Firefox didn’t have this. He was aware that there was a keyboard shortcut for opening a new tab in Fx but didn’t know what it was.

  Needless to say, we’re still looking…

• Andrey Sorochan
  March 24th, 2007 at 10:14

  Aaron Schmidt, amazing story!

• Johan
  March 24th, 2007 at 11:58

  I see less and less talk about Opera??

• eugene
  March 24th, 2007 at 12:49

  People use IE because using Internet is clicking that ‘blue E‘ on their desktop.

  Maybe this will help too: http://www.ie7pro.com

• adam
  March 24th, 2007 at 19:05

  I’ve also been using a browser called Maxthon. It has the same rendering engine as IE but has a much nicer UI.

  Has anyone else used it?

• wioota
  March 25th, 2007 at 9:48

  OMG - thats where the menu is?? I’ve been using IE7 for testing for ages and never knew ALT made the menu appear… its definitely meant I avoid IE for general browsing. I might actually use it now. The main thing in its favour is that it doesn’t have the same cut and paste issues FF has.

• Chris
  March 25th, 2007 at 10:15

  I have a colleague who insits on using IE; I asserted that in the whole company FF is installed. But she don’t use it, I told her many times…
  But I think many of the other browsers’ advantages aren’t used anyway by the users. I basically miss 4 things in IE, I think:
  - Large number of plugins
  - Searchbox
  - Quicksearch
  - Speed

  There are other things but that are the most useful. However none of my colleagues actually uses them.
  Apart from loving Firefox I don’t think that’s a bad idea hiding the menu - I can’t remember using it.

  Another point using IE is corporate environment. For Germany I can say that often only IE is allowed for security reasons. I know it sounds like a joke but it isn’t…

• Jason Martino
  March 25th, 2007 at 15:26

  I was just telling my coworker yesterday that IE felt “tinny”, had an annoying flicker and a sub-par tab interface. We’ve had to relearn naming conventions. Remember Tools-> Internet Options? Now we have new option tabs and everything is in a different place and named differently. This makes debugging and phone tech support more difficult. “If you are on IE6, this is how to clear the cache…” “If you are on IE7, this is how to clear the cache…”

• Robert Nyman - author
  March 25th, 2007 at 20:20

  NICCAI,

  I agree, familiarity is definitely the key, and most people are really refrained when it comes to change.

  Aaron,

  He he.
  Well, if he prefers IE 7 and is super in all other areas, by all means. But I guess he wasn’t…

  Johan,

  At least to me, Opera has never been, and will probably never be, an interesting choice to me.

  eugene,

  Thanks for the tip!

  adam,

  I’ve never tried it myself, but I played around with Avant Browser a long time ago.

  wioota,

  Yes, it’s a little secret.

  Chris,

  Apart from loving Firefox I don’t think that’s a bad idea hiding the menu - I can’t remember using it.

  For more computer-savy people, that’’s just fine. But I think most IE users just wonder where it has gone.

  Jason,

  Interesting, I’ve never thought about it from the support point of view, just how much has changed in that perspective.

• Allen
  March 26th, 2007 at 19:00

  I have to disagree with the assessment that Firefox is in any way “in the lead” on extensibility. IE has ActiveX control support, which makes it light years ahead of every other browser on Windows when it comes to this.

  I’m a developer in PHP, Perl, Delphi, and some other languages, and I prefer Firefox for day to day browsing, but ActiveX is absolutely the most powerful browser technology there is.

  Anything you can write as an normal windows program, can be wrapped in an ActiveX container and turned into a ‘pluggable’ control within IE.

  Neither Mozilla nor Opera have anything that even comes near this level of functionality.

• Erik Wallentinsen »
  March 26th, 2007 at 21:01

  [...] Robert Nyman Don’t worry, this is not a post about Internet Explorer’s support (or lack thereof) of code [...]

• Robert Nyman - author
  March 27th, 2007 at 11:11

  Allen,

  I don’t necessarily mean that the technology is better, but rather that the massive amount of extensions and extension developers has put it into a leading position in the market.

• Allen
  March 27th, 2007 at 16:02

  That may be true, I don’t have any idea which one has more available plug-ins, or better available plug-ins. I certainly use more of them in firefox though. Flashblock and “Web Developer” are both great.

  I am skeptical of the claim however. I find it hard to believe that firefox/mozilla extensions have a dominant market position when the browser itself is just breaking 30% penetration according to http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

• Erik Wallentinsen
  March 28th, 2007 at 14:54

  Slightly off-topic, but a good example to the first point of your conclusion, Robert, is the following: A few weeks ago, Microsoft started pushing IE7 through the semi-required updates. A few days later a friend of mine says:

  -”I really like the new internet!”.
  I responded:
  -”What do you mean? Internet hasn’t changed as far as I know.” (a bit sarcastic).
  - “Yes it has, I downloaded it with my windows update”.

  Clearly he didn’t know that IE is just a program, not ‘the internet’. I’m sure he isn’t the only one out there…

• Robert Wellock
  March 28th, 2007 at 16:41

  Unfortunately many educational establishments only allow the use of IE and it is really sickening.

• Robert Nyman - author
  March 29th, 2007 at 8:14

  Erik,

  Most likely, you’re right.

  Robert Wellock,

  Sounds kind of counter-productive…

• Jermayn Parker
  March 29th, 2007 at 10:09

  Not only educational establishments but also government and main stream businesses do not allow anything else. At the place were I work, some of the products do not work in Firefox like foxweb…

• BlueClock
  March 29th, 2007 at 10:40

  I think that your number one reason, that they don’t know about the alternatives, needs some expansion.

  Not only do most people not know about the alternatives, i doubt if any of them care.

  Most people I talk to don’t know what you mean when you talk about a browser and many still type a URL into google rather than just into the address bar.

  And why should they care? They just want to get online, get some news, book a hotel, bouy a book etc.

  The developer community is large, but tiny in comparison to the actual web user base. Firebug and similar extension are great for developers, but their user base is miniscule in comparison to the web using population.

  I think IE has held it’s dominance in the western world simply because it is the default option for most people. As different OSs take hold throughout the rest of the world this will change.

  I use IE7/FF/Opera at work
  Camino at Home

• Bruce Lawson’s personal site  : Why do you use this browser, not that browser?
  April 2nd, 2007 at 20:28

  [...] A little while ago, Robert Nyman asked Why would anyone use Internet Explorer? [...]

• AeroMax
  April 9th, 2007 at 15:15

  Asked hacker Mr. xxx-xxx-boy

  Q: Does IE really have that much `holes’ in it?
  A: “Heck no! Firefox, Opera, `ol Netscape and the rest of those so called browser have more holes in them like a circuit board than IE. They even have so much `tender’ spots, so ripe for the taking.”

  Q: Why IE then?
  A: “It’s the world! Why waste on a few odds & ends on a small following, when you can have the world…
  if any of those `other’ browsers were on top of the world, then that would be our prey of choice. Heck! it would’ve been far easier poking those tempting `tender’ spots. Not so for IE, going up against a giant like MS. They’re covering those holes faster now than we could plan our next `peeking’! As for the rest of the `newbies’, they’ve only `vaccinated’ after IE got the brunt. What matters is, anticipating an attack, not covering up only after the the big fella’s down with a flu. & yes, the rest of the flock only expanded on what MS has gone thru… after the storm. So you see, why go for easy prey when it’s the big game we want. Try browsers built like a tank for OS/2 and other heavyweights. Yup IE is hanging on & almost at par. As for the rest, we haven’t trained our sights on them… yet. M$ hasn’t been boring… X->”

  “And yes, I personally use MS IE myself ever since i realized what the internet was. I just love it. Like what that other fella said, it really does integrate beautifully with all sorts of web & media stuff. seamlessly when the rest still just mess up things.
  Hat’s off to those who bravely & boldly explore the web on IE!”

  AeroMax: Thanks!
  Mr. xxx…boy: Welcome. Oh, and watch your six, when surfing…

• Robert Nyman - author
  April 9th, 2007 at 21:57

  AeroMax,

  Thanks for the story.

• John Scott
  July 15th, 2007 at 2:23

  I really think which browser safer is a mute point for the average user. Sure the people who have bone with Microsoft will say Firefox. But other than being another choice that’s about all it is for most.
  It’s really about using a browser that you like and our familiar with.
  Most of this safer crap people brag about with Firefox is not concerning for most. They really could care less. I tell most user’s that firefox is probably safer, but of course if some idiot writes malware for just Firefox then all bet’s are off. I tell people to worry more about what sites you go too than which browser is safer. Safer may have worked with IE6 VS Firefox. But IE 7 has made some great strides in security. Which must impress the masses because Firefox adoption has slowed.

Robert's pics

On Flickr