Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

The early 90's brought forward the dawn of history where the world wide web is concerned. The few that were navigating across the world wide web where using an assortment of shareware (free software) and other software to find there way.

In 1995 Microsoft released Windows 95 which incorporated features which included support for dial-up networking and TCP/IP; key technologies for connecting to the Internet. In response to to growing public interest in the Internet, Microsoft created plug in called Internet explorer. This made the Internet more accessible to the public, while creating a standard for browsers in the future.

Over the years there has been many versions of Internet Explorer, IE7 being the latest, with every successive year the program has become more reliable and bug free. While Internet Explorer began as a cross-platform browser the emergence of other proprietary browsers has eliminated their market share in the Mac world. Now the newest versions is good for simply browsing content on the web, to deploying and administrating a set of rich Windows Internet technologies.

Compatibility

The compatibility of Internet Explorer has changed over the years and versions of the plug in. it started with the ability two be a cross platform browser but this didn't last. The newest version is just for Windows XP or greater and is not offered on Mac OSX. You can use it on some of the old Linux and Unix machines but only old out of date versions which have glaring security holes.

When it comes to web standards Internet Explorer supports very few compared to other browsers such as, Opera and Firefox. But the standards that it lacks are mostly out of date and not used as prevalently as the ones that are included. Standards that are included with Internet Explorer are ones such as: Frames, Java, RSS, Atom, and XSLT.

Flaws

A flaw can be something that some people consider acceptable as just a little glitch when the program runs into a programing issue or a lack or resources. But in the world of people who depend on these programs for there lively hood it turns into more of an issue.

One of the most prevalent flaws that is seen with the newest, and a lot of the older versions of Internet Explorer, is security venerability. This is a major issue inside large networks (or Intranet) that contain sensitive data, this is why a lot of these company's continue to use older versions. The venerabilities originate from unclear signposting of secure sites as well as a badge system that was unable to identify phishing sites and alert the user.

Usability

Some people consider the new tab system (well maybe not new seeing as Firefox was using it prior) to be a pain or just another useless feature. It is just as easy to keep track of multiple windows in the task bar and very convenient to use Alt-Tab to switch between. But it is nice to have all of the active browser window in its own task bar, this way they are not mixed in between programs in the systems task bar. This makes the usability and productivity to go up seeing as what window is what is more clear.

The button placement of back, forward, stop and refresh has changed in the newest version of Internet Explorer. This changes the button dynamic that