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IE7 Launch Delay - Search Market Tactic?

Has anyone else noticed that it's been quite a while since MS released a new browser? They used to have a new release every couple months.

I suspect a tactic is in place to to gain maximum search market share.

Today Firefox is generally the preferred browser by those who care, so why are MS accepting defeat for now?

They say they've been delaying launch to spend more time on security. But does that really take 2 years and $2bn? Their Security updates, adware remover and anti hijacking updates should cover most of the problems.

I suspect the IE7 delay is so they can deliver MSN Search results up to a quality good enough so people see less of a need to switch to competition. They've pooled a lot of resources into their search last 2 years (even though google head hunts em) and I've noticed some improvement in results quality.

With the imminent launch of new browser with a default SE providing desirable results, they'll instantly take a tasty slice of the G & Y! search pie.

Any thoughts? Legal issues?

- Y! MyWeb

Reasons are mostly progmatic

The reasons for the delay are mostly <strike>pragmatic</strike> progmatic and mostly have to do with CSS 2 compliance. Sure, the GUI seems to be up to snuff, but it still isn't as extensible than Firefox (one of SeaMonkey's problems, as well), however, the problem that really bites them is their advanced web standards compliance.

IE 7 is just *minorly* more compliant with existing standards than IE 6; but what's paradoxical is that the IE team really shot themselves in the foot by removing three "bugs" in their rendering engine that no one wanted removed in the first place. I am, of course, referring to the Star Hack, dot hack, and Holly Hack. I couldn't find any site on the dot hack; it's where you put a "." infront of any css property that you want for IE-only browsers . (All three techniques are used over at Incendiary.ws to accomplish CSS 3 transparencies in Mozilla, Opera, and IE)

Due to lack of foresight and planning by the IE Team, all three of these "hacks" are no more, while the CSS float model (reason the hacks are mostly used) is still notoriously broken, as of Feb 2006.

So you have the worst of all conceivable worlds:
A browser that

  1. does not support whole classes of web standards, including CSS 3, and with no plans on doing so, such as XSLT 2 and application/xhtml+xml (same as Google, btw)
  2. has intentionally removed virtually all the known bugs since 3.0 that it intentionally supported in the past.
  3. has the same old tired CSS bugs since 5.0
  4. has brand new quirks of its own
  5. does not have a single escape mechanism for website designers

In short, this is going to be a big upset for people when they find out that IE 7 does a worse job than Firefox at interpreting pages "specifically designed" for *either* IE 6 or standards-compliant browsers. Hope you have none of those.

Lol! According to the XHTML link above, MS devs claim they don't want to support XHTML because it would be <quote>another mess like the one with current HTML [parsing]</quote>, because their codebase is so screwed up, and they claim they don't have plans until IE 8.

By hopeseekr at Mar 23 2006 - 17:46

As long as they remove

As long as they remove windowed controls I'll be happy. Having to use the shim hack on everything is a pain in the behind.

By webprofessor at Mar 23 2006 - 18:01

Huh?

Is the date on this story wrong? Is it from the future? Or the past?

Microsoft released a new version of IE7 on Monday! Monday! That was not a long time ago. The previous version was released in January. Prior to that, Microsoft hadn't really released a new version in years. So both your statements are wrong:

Has anyone else noticed that it's been quite a while since MS released a new browser? - WRONG - they released one on Monday
They used to have a new release every couple months. - WRONG - they never used to release browsers.

This article is completely nonsensical.

By Nathan Weinberg at Mar 23 2006 - 18:33

Vista delayed, along with IE

Microsoft said a fews days back they were delaying Vista by two months, to work on security, which is what I had assumed the parent poster meant. Instead, now I see he only included a google search with no clear indication at all to what he was referring to. But since IE 7 is rumoured to be launched the same day as Vista, it still seems valid.

However, in the new releas of 20 March, not a single problem I addressed was fixed and *every* indication suggests they cannot be fixed until long after the release; otherwise they would be fixed by now, because all these issues have been known since at least 2003.

While the article makes sense, it is absolutely abhorrently sourced.

By hopeseekr at Mar 23 2006 - 19:04

shakes up

Microsoft shakes up Windows unit
Key Office executive now responsible for future versions... yada yada yada

By seobook at Mar 23 2006 - 20:06