Talk Nerdy to me.

Let's get nerdy.

Thoughts on Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2.

Installation:
On installing IE 7 I received an error on the validation, but I clicked next again and it went thru. This was way to slow to install compared to Firefox. However, once installed you're rewarded with a beautiful interface. Slim downed toolbars and clean new look, much better then Firefox default skin. Here though is an advantage to Firefox. If you don't like the look you can always download new skins to fit your mood. This is still not available in IE and you must purchase additional 3rd party software for this feature.

Features New to IE.

The New Search Function.
This is possibly my favorite feature. It's not just Google or yahoo or msn. It allows you to set up a list of search engines and pick a default. I switch between Google and Yahoo for images all the time. This going to save a lot of time for me. Another search site I added was Amazon. I use that site very often. Other engines include AOL, Ask Jeeves, About, Cnet, eBay, Monster, Overstock, Target, Wal-Mart, Weather.com, and USA Today. Firefox does this, but I thought IE was a little easier to apply and search thru the engines. I do use this feature much in Firefox because I hate the way Firefox downloads images. Hell, I just hate the way firefox downloads. IE uses open search for this search feature and there are literally hundreds of search engines you can use. You can even customize it to use your site as a search engine.

Tabbed Browsing
IE7 finally integrates tab browsing. I've never been just a huge fan of this, but it does have benefits. To some people this was a huge advantage of Firefox as it saved resources on the machine, but Netscape has had this feature for years. It is a little easier to identify the pages on multiple tabs in IE, at least in the default skins. It also give you a thumbnail options so you can see the multiple tabbed pages you have open in thumbnail form. I just like the way it’s embedded in IE better. If you used to the shortcut keys (ctrl T) to bring up tabs you will not even notice the difference. IE has this same shortcut.

Multiple Tabbed Homepages.
You can create multiple home pages. So when you open Internet Explorer it opens multiple pages. I'm not sure why you would use this feature or how many home pages you can set. I set 6 homepages up, but I probably will not use this. I do see this feature in Firefox.

Anti-Phising
No, not Anti-Fishing, anti-phising. These are sites that actively engage in identity theft and stealing your money. Most Internet users should be able to tell the difference between a legitimate site and a phising site. However, working in the industry for 6 years, I know this not to be true. I believe there are far more ignorant users then savvy users and this feature can only help.

IE comes with more security enabled.
Which is a must as it's the most targeted browser on the market. Some may say this is because it's the easiest or weakest browser to take down. This is not true, it's just the biggest target. IE it's the most widely used browser, with 85 percent of internet users using it, while only 11 percent use Firefox. When you factor in the percentages and attacks IE is a more proven browser. That doesn't even account for the disparity in types of users. Mainly Internet savvy users prefer and use Firefox. As they should less attacks, but this is changing with the growing trend and in the last 3 months Firefox has had more updates then IE. Most users don't even think to use other browsers, hell most don’t know you can and can’t even tell you the name of the browser they use.

There a few bugs that must be fixed before primetime.

• Windows Validation. I installed IE 7 Beta 2 on 3 different machines validation had aproblem every time. Fix it.
• Compose mode in blogger works intermediatly and comments in blogger work, but render differently. Fix it.
• Trying to copy and paste images from IE to Photoshop did not work the first time. I had to close Photoshop and reopen it to get it to work. Fix it.

Overall it's like Firefox rebranded and enhanced. If you are an avid Firefox user you are not going to switch and you have no reason too. If you are an IE user get ready to catch up to the rest of the world.

Sorry for getting nerdy there, believe it or not I tied to keep rational and hopefully didn't geek out too badly. If I didtoo damn bad, that's who I am just ask Fuzzbox or CrazyDan. I get that, "what the hell are you talking about look all the time." I should tell the story of the time we got together for Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter trivia. It would scare some of you.