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Why IE will still remain king of the browsers

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief November 4, 2007 · 2 min read

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IE, Safari, Flock, Firefox, Opera, Maxthon. With so much competition raging amongst web browsers, Microsoft Internet Explorer still retains the lion’s share of the pie. Here are several reasons why.

As long as Microsoft Windows is the leading OS for hundreds of millions of desktop PCs, IE will always come bundled with it. Nothing beats out of the box distribution. Just look at why Safari is the Queen Bee of all Macs — because it’s also out of the box. Unless some dominant OS (like Ubuntu) bundles a competing browser such as Firefox, they won’t stand a chance.
Some important sites are still just for Internet Explorer. You want online banking? More or less, you’ll need to fire up IE. You want to pay utility bills with your credit card online? IE again.
ActiveX. ActiveX. ActiveX.
For a sizable number of internet surfers, that shiny, blue letter “e” on the desktop still represents the WWW. Just check out your local internet cafe.
Some large companies and global corporations are eternally married to Internet Explorer. Call centers like Convergys have thousands of seats and each desktop has to have the same softwares and IE is one of them. They have to be the same versions too.

Besides, Microsoft is still trying to improve the browser (well, only after Firefox was reported to be inching closer) with IE7 and the alleged development of IE8.

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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83 Comments

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Coleman Sprock · 15 years ago

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etivac_boy · 18 years ago

Firefox…..the best antispyware on the planet!

distance · 19 years ago

I ceased using IE for internet browsing back in 2003 when I discovered better alternatives FF and Opera. And there was no looking back. I only use it to test if my sites looks good in it. At work, I prefer Opera – there are ways to make it look like I am staring at a black and white word document, so my boss won’t notice it’s yugatech i’m reading.
1) View menu -> Style -> High Contrast (B/W)
2) View -> Images -> No Images
3) F12 -> Uncheck enable plugins (disables flash)
4) I usually zoom it down to 80% (Firefox will only have the zoom feature in version 3, it currently has text size only)
5) Surf all I want

boddah · 19 years ago

Yuga’s right about that shiny blue letter “e” = WWW to majority of internet users.. like in the pc rental where i surf, the shop owner is forced to replace Firefox’s icon to that of IE’s because most users (students mainly) don’t know what to click without that famous icon..they are lost.. the shop owner is like “Ang gagamitin nyong browser, yung Mozilla,” the students are like “Mozilla.. Firefox.. ano yun?” :)

Cesar Noel QuiÃ±on · 19 years ago

Firefox is bundled with the Ubuntu Linux OS as well as the Ubuntu Studio variant

Goe Dee · 19 years ago

FF is for the Geek but for those *un-geek use IE. Ie sucks in many ways. I developed site since 2000 and the most problematic browser I have is IE, most of my CSS is not working fine. But I think it improves on IE7. IE6 has a lot of buggggg. Safari is cool and I am using this to test the other websites project I am doing. I am make sure the site is tested in FF, IE, Safari, Opera , etc etc….

talksmart · 19 years ago

Firefox is better than ‘e’. It works faster when paying Philippine credit cards online. Bancnet, Citibank, Bankard – firefox does magic with them. So far, i don’t have big qualms with the browser.

Nighthawk · 19 years ago

I don’t touch the “e” anymore on my desktop, in fact, I removed it as a shortcut. Firefox is better and safer. My other alternative browser is Opera, which I used for uploading and downloading, it’s the fastest gun in this dang WWWorld.

JP Loh · 19 years ago

It actually depends on how you define “king”. The term is subjective. This entry could be misleading. J/k.

ActiveX? When banks use ActiveX, it scares me. This is my first time to see someone rave about ActiveX.

Berlin · 19 years ago

the IE address bar turns Green when accessing paypal, ebay or other banking websites. This shows you that the site is legit.

valQ · 19 years ago

King as others may think of IE but I don’t think it can surpass the functionalities that Firefox has. IMHO, until now IE can’t figure out how to be robust secure and stable.

J · 19 years ago

my 5 year old niece’s favorite browser is Opera 9! no joke. :D

Norelyn · 19 years ago

You are right…I hate not doing my Citibank online banking because am using Safari and my IE on my Apple is going nuts…besides, Citibank web site is only good for IE users, grrrr….

andre · 19 years ago

ActiveX?

It’s being deemphasized already. I guess those who are still using ActiveX are institutions like banks that have targeted IE only for their customer base.

I am starting to see more banking sites using Java instead of old ActiveX.

quezacolt · 19 years ago

firefox! hehehhe

Jomark · 19 years ago

Same here, most visitors of my sites are using FF.

cogi2ergosum · 19 years ago

of course it’ll be king, silly. the fact doesn’t have to be overstated. the company who has pile-drived itself over a large user base equally assumes the biggest leverage and gets to make the competition eat whorls of dust.

though we’ve always fetished about how a cool, dashing, swashbuckling underdog gets to unseat the tyrant at some point, it’s always the one with the droves and droves of users (whether sympathetic or apathetic) that gets to put his fat butt on the throne (and dictate which browser lands on the desktop)

issai · 19 years ago

a lot of browsers aren’t build for web 2.0 websites. sad…

issai · 19 years ago

go firefox! add-ons are really helpful. i *heart* firebug.

Hamilton Chua · 19 years ago

@j4s0n : I guess you meant Firefox is a “resource hog” NOT “bloated”. I believe we *nix users prefer “top”.

sylv3rblade · 19 years ago

@kuya Jaypee
umm.. isn’t Maxthon like what Firefox is to Netscape?
Maxthon started from a custom IE shootoff then when the developer shared his code, people started pitching stuff in so while the base of the browser is still IE, it’s deviant enough from it’s source to be called a derivative.

Jaypee · 19 years ago

Btw, Maxthon is nothing different from IE. It’s basically IE using a different name. It’s like a wolf on sheep’s clothing. Hehe :D

Miguel · 19 years ago

ActiveX is probably on its way out, replaced by Silverlight. Which runs on Firefox.

Jaypee · 19 years ago

I totally agree with Aja. The basic install of Firefox is not bloated. When the user adds many extensions/add-ons, then it becomes bloated. IE loads faster because it’s integrated with the OS, but using Firefox in Linux (Ubuntu), I have no problems whatsoever and it loads and renders pages very fast even with only 256 MB of RAM.

Sometimes I also use Flock. I keep IE and Opera for testing purposes only.

Than-than · 19 years ago

IE7…is good for internet cafÃ©s and its very reliable for the begginners.

~then at the

MFF…is also useful for personal use and its very easy to use for bookmarks,feeds,check spelling and etc.

Chester · 19 years ago

This is similar to:

Colgate for toothpaste
Xerox for photocopier
Walkman for portable cassette player

People see Internet Explorer (blue E) as the internet itself not a browser.

j4s0n · 19 years ago

@Aja: Even firefox crashes a lot on my linux installation or am i just unlucky w/ FF?

I use FF 98% of the time. Browsing, programming, css, firebug, web developer and some other stuff and it’s amazing, no doubt about that. But to save resources for other applications. I need to close or restart the browser to speed things up again particularly on an aging pc.

Now, if I’m not a member of the non-tech population who just use browsers for surfing and email. I’ll be using IE7 instead.

j4s0n · 19 years ago

@Hamilton Chua: Check your task manager :)

Teejay · 19 years ago

The majority of users on my sites are Firefox users. It maybe because they majority are probably techie.

I am just having Firefox problems right now and using Opera.

Aja Lapus · 19 years ago

Firefox is never bloated. It is actually the user who would make it as such (with Extensions, et al) It’s just a memory hog in Windows sometimes… But I use Linux most of the time, and it works perfectly fast on that platform. Maybe the problem is with Windows. ;)

vance · 19 years ago

I stil like firefox. Dozens of plugins plus skinnable. Oh, I notic e this firefox download manager is faster than IE’s (I don’t know why)

minor · 19 years ago

its like adobo(ie) vs. cordon blue(ff)

jhay · 19 years ago

Same on my blog, FF users outnumber IE. I use 3 browsers depending upon the need and as already outline by Sir Abe. IE for online banking, (that one-time I applied for BDO account), FF for general browsing, Safari for blogging.

sylv3rblade · 19 years ago

I switch browsers every so often-IE7,FF,Opera.

Firefox 2 is too much of a memory hog for my aging laptop though. One of the reasons why I use Opera there.

Kenneth · 19 years ago

I agree, IE has been the more domainant browser among people since it’s bundled with the leading OS: WinXP either WinVista. But users switch to Mozilla FF due to the security it has to offer and customizability it gives to the end-users. ;-)

Hamilton Chua · 19 years ago

Firefox is “bloated” ? How so ?

Dexter · 19 years ago

At my site.. Firefox user is more.. Perhaps tech visitors loves to use Firefox

j4s0n · 19 years ago

Never Ending Browser Wars…

Even after years, IE’s still winning the “usage” share, but it’s not the “King” anymore in general.

IMO, IE7’s not a headache anymore. In fact I prefer IE7 for casual browsing than the bloated FF. Really, that’s right.

Aja Lapus · 19 years ago

Children should be taught well, too. All my pre-ten year old cousins were taught to use Firefox that they look for it whenever they feel playing web-based and flash-based games. :)