While the Web browser has become the primary application we use to interact with other applications and the rest of the Internet, it has also become the application we most often take for granted. Once we decide which browser we want to use, we generally stick to it without considering whether the latest version of other browsers have something more to offer. The inertia is understandable — why fix what’s not broken.
But there are some significant changes coming to the way Web browsers will display and interact with content delivered via the Internet. New protocols like HTML5 may give you a renewed reason to compare Web browsers. In response to these changes, Microsoft is developing Internet Explorer 9 to compete favorably in this latest upgrade of standards. Time will tell if they can make a compelling browser that will cause anyone to reconsider their browser of choice.
However, I wonder if the browser wars are really over? By that I mean does anyone really get excited about a new version of Internet Explorer anymore. Is anyone really interested in any new browser version? Personally, I prefer Internet Explorer, but I am not passionate about it. And I am not really excited about a pending new version. I use IE because I always have — inertia. What about you? Are you excited about IE9?
On scale of 1 to 5, just how excited are you about the pending release of Internet Explorer 9?
Test drive
If you are interested in getting a glimpse of Internet Explorer 9, there are two Web sites to check out:
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