Microsoft’s Internet Explorer web browser has taken a lot negative publicity over the past 5 years, and rightfully so. Microsoft released Internet Explorer 6.0 on August 27, 2001, and proceeded to sit on their thumbs for close to 4 years before beginning work on their next generation web browser, Internet Explorer 7.0. Why? Well, presumably due to the lack of competition for the most part. If you have 90% or more of the market share without spending company resources, why not use those resources on launching a new product instead? Unfortunately for Microsoft,that 90% can be a misleading figure, as most computers use some variation of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, and each operating system comes with Internet Explorer setup as your default web browser.

Over the past two years, the emergence of upstart open source web browser by Mozilla named Firefox has caused Internet Explorer’s market share to drop drastically. Firefox uses its hundreds of thousands of testers around the world to create a much more secure and user friendly web browser, while IE6 proved to be stale, cluttered, and unsafe. This brings us to Microsoft’s newest version of their web browser, Internet Explorer 7.0.

Why should I upgrade to Internet Explorer 7.0? If you haven’t already downloaded it manually from Microsoft’s website, you were probably given the option to upgrade to Internet Explorer 7 through Microsoft’s automatic update process on November 1, 2006. In case upgrading to newest version of any software isn’t common sense to begin with, here are many other reasons to upgrade from version 6.

Features

Tabbed Browsing – View multiple sites in a single browser window. Easily switch from one site to another through tabs at the top of the browser frame.

Built-in Search Engine Box – Web searches using your favorite search provider can now be entered into a search box within the toolbar, eliminating the clutter of separate toolbars. You can easily choose a provider from the drop-down list or add more providers. Default choices include Google, Yahoo! Search, and MSN search. If you would like to add other search engines to your web browser, check out Microsoft’s Guide to Add Search Providers to IE7.

Favorites Center – Offers easy and fast access to Favorites, Tab Groups, Browsing History, and RSS Feed subscriptions. Expands when needed, and can be anchored in place for even easier access.

Advanced Printing Features – Automatically scales a printed webpage so that it’s not wider than the paper it will be printed on. Internet Explorer 7 also includes a multi-page print preview with live margins, resizing text to avoid document clipping, and an option to print only selected text.

Page Zoom – Enlarge individual webpages, including both text and graphics, to either focus on specific content or to make content more accessible to those with vision limitations.

RSS Feeds – Automatically detects RSS feeds on sites by illuminating an icon on the toolbar. A single click on the icon allows you to preview and optionally subscribe to the site’s RSS feed, and then be automatically notified as content is updated. Read RSS feeds directly in the browser, scan for important stories, and filter your view with search terms or site-specific categories.

Security Enhancements

Anti-Phishing Filters – Proactively warns and helps protect you against potential or known fraudulent sites and blocks the site if appropriate. The opt-in filter is updated several times per hour using the latest security information from Microsoft and several industry partners.

ActiveX Opt-in – Disables nearly all pre-installed ActiveX controls to prevent potentially vulnerable controls from being exposed to attack. You can easily enable or disable ActiveX controls as needed through the Information Bar and the Add-on Manager.

Cross-Domain Barriers – Limits script on webpages from interacting with content from other domains or windows. This enhanced safeguard will further protect against malware by limiting the potential for malicious websites to manipulate flaws in other websites or cause you to download undesired content or software.

Protected Mode **Windows Vista Only** – Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista runs in isolation from other applications in the operating system. Exploits and malicious software are restricted from writing to any location beyond Temporary Internet Files without explicit user consent.

Parental Controls **Windows Vista Only** – To help keep kids safer online, parents can control browsing behavior through the parental control settings built into Windows Vista. The child’s safety level can be monitored and changed remotely. The safety level carries over to many PC activities, such as playing games or browsing the Internet. A child’s browsing session can even be examined by a parent afterwards, and cannot be removed without the parent’s permission.

Improved Performance

CSS Improvements – Addresses many of the major inconsistencies that can cause web developers problems when producing visually rich, interactive webpages. Improved support for CSS 2.1, including selectors and fixed positioning, allow web developers to create more powerful effects without the use of script.

Improved AJAX Support – Improves the implementation of the XMLHTTP Request as a native Javascript object for rich AJAX-style applications. While Internet Explorer 6 handled XMLHTTP requests with an ActiveX control, Internet Explorer 7 exposes XMLHTTP natively. This improves syntactical compatibility across different browsers and allows clients to configure and customize a security policy of their choice without compromising key AJAX scenarios.

Platform Compatibility – Internet Explorer 7 is more compatible with top web features than ever before. Internet Explorer 7 will support many of the new standards on the web to make browsing the web a richer experience and easier to develop for. Further, every new feature in Internet Explorer 7 offers full control via Group Policy, making Internet Explorer administration of even the largest enterprises a breeze.

In addition to adding features, Microsoft has tapped into Firefox’s recipe for success by creating Add-ons. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Windows Defender – Identifies and removes spyware and malware from your computer. Works similar to the popular freeware Spybot.
• IE Spell – Adds spell checking and dictionary lookup to your browser.
• Inline Search – Adds searching that highlights text as you type the search word.
• Del.icio.us – Builds Del.icio.us buttons in to your Internet Explorer 7.0 browser.
• Windows Live Toolbar – Builds various Windows Live products into your browser’s frame by adding a toolbar.

You will find many more Add-ons on Microsoft’s official website. Can’t find a particular Add-on you want? Write your own IE7 Add-on.

If your like me and hate having the menubar below the statusbar (which is how it comes by default in Internet Explorer 7.0), then check out this post on moving your IE7 menubar to the top.

Do you Yahoo!? If you find you use a lot of Yahoo’s products and services, including the popular Yahoo! Mail service, you may want to consider instead using Internet Explorer 7 Optimized for Yahoo!, which features Yahoo! as your homepage, Yahoo! search as your default search, and comes with the Yahoo! Toolbar built-in to it.

If you prefer Google’s services, you can also check out Internet Explorer 7.0 optimized for Google.

Overall, Internet Explorer 7.0 is leaps and bounds above what Internet Explorer 6.0 was, bringing it into the same conversation as it’s primary competitors, Firefox, Flock, and Opera, and making the upgrade from IE6 a no-brainer. Unfortunately, that is where the comparisons stop, as IE7 was designed primarily to catch up to the others. With Opera leading the pack when it comes to innovation and Firefox being fueled by the ideas of hundreds of thousands of testers around the world, Microsoft has a lot of work to do to keep pace. Only time will tell if Microsoft keeps throwing resources at keeping up with the competition.

Other References

• Official IE7 Reference Sheet from Microsoft
• IEBlog