Two Weeks with Internet Explorer: A Review

On the second of this month, I uninstalled Google Chrome after I began having some problems with it and started using exclusively Internet Explorer.

Yes, I’m still alive. No, it wasn’t hell.

After a little more than two weeks I can safely say that IE isn’t just suitable as a means of downloading Chrome/Firefox/browser of choice. It’s a good browser. It was fast, didn’t crash, and didn’t eat up gigabytes of memory like Chrome does. However, I’m still switching back to Chrome. Why?

It’s the little things.

Before I get into this, I realize that these are all things that I have gripes about simply because I was so used to them being in Chrome. And, really, the points I made about IE in the third paragraph is what should matter. But if you’re competing with another product you need to be able to match and surpass their feature set. This is especially true if you have a reputation of being second best.

So, here is what I missed:

1. Plugins.
   Yes, I know IE has add-ons, but the two are so incomparable that it’s ridiculous. I missed my color picker plugin and Reddit Enhancement Suite. When a plugin is available for every browser except IE (even Opera), that tells me there is something about IE that makes it difficult to write for. Maybe it’s for security. But it doesn’t matter. Users will go where convenience lies. You can’t rely on people not knowing about something to keep them from wanting it.
2. Being able to open images in a new tab.
   Opening images in another tab is just part of how I save new images. It’s muscle memory for me and I know I’m not the only one who does it. I’m not a developer, but this feels like something that would be simple to implement.
3. Ad-Blocking.
   OF MY GOD YES. I NEED THIS. Especially on Youtube. I learned about Tracking Protection Lists, and they are good, but they can’t work on videos or on Gmail’s text ads like AdBlock+ on Chrome can. And, yes, I know that ABP is available for IE, but no matter how I tried I couldn’t get it to work. The ABP team ended up telling me to install a beta build and, let me tell you, no normal user is going to do that.
4. Zoom.
   This is yet another note IE needs to take from Chrome. Zoom needs to be settable on a site by site basis. Some sites need more zoom than others. Some sites were designed for smaller monitors and, when you have a big one, they just don’t look right. So, when you zoom in on those sites, if you go to another site that is better designed afterwards, they look like you’re on the mobile version.

I like IE. I love how nice the Windows 8 app for it works, and how the desktop mode version is just so unobtrusive in its design. However, where IE is a Lincoln MKS, Chrome is a Mercedes E350. Both are great and perform about equally, but Chrome just has the edge on fit and finish. When you close the door on Chrome, you get a nice “whump”. On IE, it’s a “chunk”. It’s not huge difference, but it’s enough to notice when you’re using it as your daily driver. Especially if you’ve used the other before.

Fixing these issues would go a big way in taking some of Chrome’s nearly 50% market share back. Again, I have no problem using IE and I will even defend it when people make stupid jokes about it, but I’m going to be defending it using Chrome.