Levitation & LawnMark websites show you the power of Internet Explorer

In spite of the fact that Internet Explorer has been improving with every version release, people still love to hate it. Microsoft has been going all out and trying its level best - apart from considering a rebranding exercise - to capture mind space, but has not really been very successful at it.
To me, it is all in the mind. IE lost its brand equity and people no longer want to use it. Its like, most think that a particular search engine gives the best result – and they cannot imagine that any other could give equally good, if not better search results. As a result of which they do not even attempt to try out the other search engines. Habits die hard!
It’s the same with browsers too. IE got a bad name, and rightly too – what with some of its earlier releases like Internet Explorer 6 being full of holes. Microsoft took its dominant position in the browser market for granted and remained complacent. Firefox and then Chrome jumped into the market, exploited the user’s disenchantment with IE and managed to gain a formidable market share.
But with the release of Internet Explorer 9, things started changing. Folks started taking IE seriously again. After Internet Explorer 10 was released, I too switched to it as my default web browser, for the security and the speeds that it offered to me.
IE still owns over half of the market share, although it is no longer the dominant player. It does not matter how you feel about Microsoft. What is important that you get the best browser you deserve. Let go of preconceived notions, try Internet Explorer for a week and see how it suits you. If you don’t like it you can always go back to your favorite alternative browser.

To test your browser, visit the LawnMark 2013 site with IE10 or the latest versions of Firefox or Chrome and click on the RUN BENCHMARK button in the bottom right corner.
Check how fast your browser renders the complete page. Internet Explorer 10 took 7.55 seconds. On Chrome and Firefox, its 150 seconds and counting. So I closed these two browsers. On Opera the button just wouldn’t load.

Now visit the Levitation website. On IE10, you will see a blank gray screen with some gray buttons. On the latest versions of Opera, Chrome or Firefox, you will see the flag and a few effects when you click on it.

But visit the site with Internet Explorer 11 and you will see the fluidity with which the images move. Simply moving the cursor makes the flag jump or levitate.

After reading this, I know there will still be people who will not be able to resist saying, “IE still sux“! That’s all right. I am not trying to push IE to you. Just want to make sure that you re-check what the ecosystem is NOW offering you, and then decide which browser, you feel suits you the best.

Meet Inori Aizawa – Internet Explorer personified!

In a personification of the browser Internet Explorer, on the occasion of ongoing Anime Festival Asia (AFA) 2013, Microsoft has posted a video of a character named Inori Aizawa, who is now also the mascot for the Internet Explorer browser. It’s an anime, and Inori is a female character, who had a terrifying past and is now all geared up to fight the world.



In the video, Inori who likes surfing the internet, karaoke, the new coding language HTML5 is fighting against the dark side of the internet – malware and online bullies, who seems to appear as drones. In her elegant and typical wardrobe, the logo of Windows can be seen on her skirt.
The personified web-browser, tells about her past,

My name is Inoriand I’m an anime personification for Internet Explorer! Shall we explore the web? When I was younger, I used to be a clumsy, slow and awkward girl. However, just like the story of ugly duckling, people told me that I have really matured and changed over the years. I feel confident in my abilities now, and I’m eager to show you what I can do. Why don’t you get to know me a little better?

There is no denying that Internet Explorer had a bad patch. They were once a very good browser, but ever since other 3rd party alternative cropped up, Microsoft sort of missed on polishing its web-browser esp. IE6. But things have changed drastically over the last couple of years. The browser we all loved to hate has really grown stronger. The newest version, Internet Explorer 11 is secure, swift, light and stable.
You can get to know more about her on her Facebook page. You can watch the video here. There is also a special cuter version of Internet Explorer dedicated to her, which you can download from here.

Internet Explorer 11 popularity surges, runs 10% of all desktop browsers

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 11 has surged a record elevation in the latest statistics of web browsers for the desktop provided by Net Market Share. As expected, Internet Explorer has continued its world domination and is used by over 57% people to access the internet.

The browser we all once loved to hate, has travelled miles to stand where it is today. Last month, it registered a three times growth in the market share. IE 11 is the latest version of Microsoft’s web-browser, which originally came out bundled with Microsoft’s latest operating system Windows 8.1. But later, Microsoft made it available to Windows 7 and Windows 8 as well.
Internet Explorer 8, which is the default web browser on Windows 7 tops the chart with almost 22% share in the browser space. Its success could be traced back to the fact that Windows 7 is also the most used operating system.

Share wise, Internet Explorer 11 is as of now only behind Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 10 and Google Chrome. Whereas the most used version of Firefox is the version number 25.
Internet Explorer 11 boasts some very intuitive features. Some of which are SPDY network protocol, HTML 5 pre-fetch and resource priorities, some critical changes in CSS management, better support for Web GL, touch improvements, and the infinite tab pinning capability.
We also reported about Windows 8.1 and Windows 8 combined success, which now account for 10% share for the desktop operating system(s).
All the newer versions of Internet Explorer have registered increment in their share. To sum things up, Microsoft rules both the desktop operating system and web-browser space by quite a big margin.

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Microsoft details new features in Internet Explorer 12

June 3, 2014

Internet Explorer 12 has now become the most awaited version of IE. But what is more interesting about it is the list of features in Internet Explorer 12 that IE has published for the world to see. You too can see the features that may be included in the next version of IE. And this is known as the ‘Internet Explorer Web Platform Status and Roadmap’. In other words - status.modern.ie



IE had earlier published an official statement that they want to build a deeper partnership with Web developers. Hence, beta of status.modern.ie was launched which had the list of features that are still in the development phase for the next version of IE, i.e. Internet Explorer 12. In addition to this, IE mentioned that,

“Developers can create new experiences to reach hundreds of millions of devices on people’s desks, in their pockets and in their living rooms. Customers are only a click away. Join us at Build for an unprecedented learning opportunity for developers building on the Microsoft platform.”

status.modern.ie

Status.modern.ie basically holds a list of features that may be included in Internet Explorer 12. We are calling it as ‘may be’ because some of the features are still under consideration. This link also includes explanations for each of these features as well.

IE is happy with the response they have received from the web developers, along with their feedback on what could improve. In other words, it’s a ‘wish list’ for Internet Explorer 12 from the web developers from across the globe.
With the launch of status.modern.ie, IE said,

“Today, after some of our team members host the Microsoft Astronaut’s Welcome Reception at JSConf 2014, we are happy to announce that we are removing the beta tag from status.modern.ie! We’ve incorporated a number of improvements based on your feedback.”

Some of the changes that are embedded in this final version of status.modern.ie are:
1)      Its open sourced
2)      The entire site is available on GitHub
3)      The IE Support data is exposed as a service
4)      There’s a new ‘Interop’ menu that lets users to easily enter in their browser support interests to find features available in the Web platform
5)      Using HTML5 History and Angular routing, status.modern.IE enables users to deep link to a feature they want to share with others.
6)      Improved Mobile Support and Performance
Internet Explorer 12 certainly has a lot of stuff in store for the users. It will be interesting to see how many features that are mentioned on status.modern.ie, get incorporated within this new version of IE!