Are We Ever Going To See IE 7.0?

Originally published May 1, 2006.

Recently the 800 lb. Redmond Gorilla announced another delay in the launch of Vista, the new version of Windows. This time the delay put the release of the new operating system past this year's Holiday season. (How did that happen?)

As a part of the launch, a new version of Internet Explorer - 7.0 - was promised. However, since IE's development is ahead of the plagued Vista, Microsoft announced that 7.0 will be released later this year, ahead of Vista.

Some of you out there are going to say, "I don't care if I ever see IE 7.0." I understand the sentiment. But, I care. IE 6 is so beat in so many ways.

What do you think? Aren't we due for a major upgrade of that old war horse, 6.0 wit its place in the pantheon of web browsers now secure? It's easy to see why it isn't the best browser out there, but it sure is the most widely used. At last MS is paying attention to the new browsers, particularly Firefox, which has eaten into its market share.

Just what are we going to see in the new IE? It will reveal to us where Bill and Company think the net is going, and what kinds of things they think we need in a web browser. No small task.

While the early adopters are kicking around beta releases, I thought I'd give you a thumbnail of most likely changes that you will see when 7.0 is officially released. Since user interface and user preferences (the Browser Style Sheet) are things that I - and Dear Readers of Joy Gems - are interested in, this is what we have to look forward to:

• the ability to optimize the browser interface - more control over its look and feel, such as customizing toolbars
• the ability to navigate multiple pages in one browser - like FireFox and Opera which use tabs to represent a page rather than opening multiple browsers (at last)
• a better way to manage favorites (heard that one before)
• a built-in search box connected to a (guess who's?) search engine (but at least you can change it to the one you use)

The issue of most interest to me is how well the new browser will comply with web standards, particularly Cascading Style Sheets. From what I've read - and there is a lot of talk on this - many bugs will be fixed, and in many ways 7.0 will be more standards compliant. At least that's Microsoft's take. But it will not reach the level of compliance that the web development community would like it to reach. MS will insist on including a lot of proprietary programming inside 7.0, so as not to break the back of old web sites which use non-standard code. In other words, they unleashed some pretty bad stuff years ago and they'll need to roll out a new browser to support the bad stuff. Too bad for all of us.

Not much of the above has to do with security, something MS began to emphasize several years ago in all product development. No doubt IE 7.0 will be examined with that in mind. The anticipated changes will affect the security of your computer as well as the data stored within. One of my favorites? The anti-phishing measures MS claims to be taking in 7.0. Ever get a fake email or see a phony site asking you to "update" your credit card info? That's phishing. Unfortunately, too many people fall for it. Goodbye identity.

If you can't wait or are curious and brave, you can download a beta version of 7.0 to see what many of us will be looking at for much of every day within a year.