Digital Home Thoughts: Microsoft Releases IE7

"Microsoft Corp. is giving its Web browser software its first major upgrade in years, amid signs that Internet Explorer's market share is eroding. The release late Wednesday brings Microsoft's browser more in line with competing products such as Opera Software ASA's Opera and Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox. Internet Explorer 7, or IE7, adds features such as tabbed browsing, which lets people open several Web pages without cluttering their desktop with multiple open browser windows."

<yawn> As a hardcore Firefox user, I can't say that this really excites me in the least, but I thought I'd post the news for you anyway. ;-) IE lost its way years ago, and I don't really feel like the IE team really grasps (or cares) why people aren't using IE. I was in a meeting at the Microsoft campus earlier this year, and there was a presentation from the IE7 team. The presenter asked how many people were using IE7, but crucially didn't ask who wasn't, and why they weren't. Or, even better, who was using Firefox, and why they were using that product. If you're afraid to ask, you're afraid to learn, and your product will never get any better. I know that IE7 is a big improvement over IE6, but I don't see any features in the product that lure me back to the crash-crash land of IE...