Is IE8 your default web browser?

If not, why not? I’ve heard them all (actually, I probably haven’t but it feels like I have :)). For the record here’s where I stand:

• IE8 – Installed on my laptop. Default browser. Used 99% of the time.
• Firefox 3.6 – Installed on my laptop. Used mainly for testing.
• Safari – Never (knowingly) installed it on any device.
• Opera – Never installed on my laptop. Installed on my Samsung Omnia phone as the default browser.
• Chrome – Tried it some time back. Failed to see what the fuss was about however I’ve recently installed Chrome 4 to check it out after hearing some good feedback from friends and colleagues

Why do I stand by IE8? Easy. It’s fast, it’s secure, it really has embraced standards, features like accelerators and search providers have me hooked (I kick myself whenever I find myself doing a manual address lookup), the developer tools are fantastic (and they’re always available as they’re an integral part of IE8) and of course, I work for Microsoft and anyone found using anything other than Microsoft technology receives “corrective coaching”.

It’s fast

Seriously, if your IE isn’t fast there’s a problem. If it’s slow to start or open a new tab, check you add-ons because it shouldn’t be. Try launching in “No Add-ons mode” from the Start menu as a quick test. People often talk about performance as benchmarking. I’m sure they’re right that browser abc can perform faster on JavaScript benchmark xyz but that’s only one part of the picture (in fact it’s only one part of the client picture which is only one part of the overall picture!).

In the real world, the performance differences across the different areas on the major browsers are tiny. This post about IE8 Performance from the IE Blog makes interesting reading. As does the (slightly irritating) IE8 Performance Testing video.

I did my own little experiment by clearing my cache and loading my blog 10 times in IE8 then in Firefox 3.5.7. IE8 won hands down. I mean by a mile. This surprised me. Then I realised Firefox was downloading an update :). Still, IE8 won by a mile when I’d updated. Then I realised that perhaps what I was using as my measure of “page loaded” wasn’t working as I expected in Firefox (Firefox was spending an age reading from Slideshare.net). So I started timing how long it took for my recent tweets to appear in the sidebar. There is nothing to choose between IE and Firefox. I’d have to capture the screen and frame count to separate them.

As an aside, I sat in awe in the MIX10 Keynote this morning where an early developer preview of IE9 was unveiled. IE9 has a new JavaScript engine, takes advantage of background JavaScript compilation and uses hardware accelerated rendering. The results are truly amazing. Watch the keynote video to see what I mean.

It’s secure

We made massive investments in IE8 security to be sure that IE8 would be the most secure browser straight out of the box. Secure by design and secure by default. In other words, security as paramount from the earliest stages and with a default set of features and configuration that maximises protection for users.

The much talked about NSS Labs testing of IE8, Firefox, Safari, Chrome and Opera demonstrated just what a high level of protection IE8 provides. Yes the study was funded by Microsoft (NSS aren’t a charity after all – how else do these things get done) originally for internal use for the IE team to understand just how far they’d come. Turns out they’d come a long way, overtaken the competition in the process and were now glancing at them in their rear-view. Who wouldn’t opt to publish it given the results? I’d have favoured employing some trumpeters and a decent composer and having myself an IE fanfare but then nobody asked me.

It’s best friends with standards

We may have had our differences in the past. Standards even fell out with us for a bit while we were too busy playing with other toys but we came to our senses. IE and standards are new best friends and long may it continue. We even helped out with some of his homework we were so keen to get back on good terms with him.

Although other browsers have been quick to implement features of the HTML 5 working draft, we haven’t been simply spectating. In IE8 we implemented some features from the HTML 5 working draft. Features such as browser state (network connectivity), local storage, native JSON support, cross-domain requests etc. We’ve submitted a request to join the W3C SVG working group and we’re actively engaged in the debate around HTML5.

We’re serious about standards and committed to helping define them and test conformance to them as well as implement them in our products. That’s a big change and one that many people either fail or refuse to acknowledge.

Features

Where should I start? There’s tonnes of stuff and I’m sure I haven’t explored it all yet. I love the convenience of accelerators and the simplicity of the new search capabilities. The SmartScreen filter is a powerful new security measure incorporating both anti-phishing and anti-malware defences, zooming support is much improved and of course it’s just far more stable than previous versions.

And, of course, there’s the built-in dev tools…

Developer Tools

Just fantastic. I’m a huge fan and they’re unique in that they’re part of the browser install so any machine with IE8 has the developer tools available. The IE8 Developer Tools offer a rich HTML, CSS and JavaScript debugging environment for you to work with. For monitoring HTTP traffic (one thing the Developer Tools wont do) I use Fiddler, a free, powerful HTTP debugging proxy.

Try it

Go on. Give it a shot for a bit and see what you think.Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. :)