Alastair Campbell, 31st August 2006
Internet Explorer 7 is nearly here
After nearly four years since Internet Explorer 6 was released, Microsoft have announced they will launch a new version, Internet Explorer (IE) 7, before the end of 2006.
In the face of growing competition from browsers such as Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera and Netscape, Microsoft have added many new features which they hope to regain the trust of users and to show they are able to move forward and listen to the well publicised criticism regarding the previous versions of IE.
As well as a new look and feel, the improvements to IE7 fall into three main categories:
- Interface developments (for example, using tabs for browsing multiple pages, better zoom functionality, and integrated Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds);
- The way in which pages are displayed are closer to the official standards set by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C);
- Enhanced and improved security.
As all three of these changes can impact how people interact with a website, organisations and website owners are suddenly going to realise that aspects of their site, once the new IE is released, will be broken.
Cascading Style Sheets
IE 7 has a higher standard of support for cascading style sheets (CSS) than any previously released IE. However, if a website uses CSS for displaying pages, site owners may be caught out by the differences. Many CSS ‘hacks’ that were used to help previous version of Internet Explorer (5-6) display websites correctly can disrupt IE 7 due to the CSS fixes that Microsoft have made. This can change the look and feel of a website with unexpected consequences.
Pop-up Blocker
The new pop-up blocker lets users have more control over pop-ups than previous versions of Internet Explorer. Using a safe list of sites, pop-ups are allowed, otherwise they will be blocked. You can also change the filter settings from medium (default) to low or high depending on how often you get pop-ups.
The new Tab feature will also be help to prevent pop-ups, allowing the user to choose whether new pages will be opened as a new window, or new tab.
If a site relies on pop-ups that worked with IE6, it may not work as expected with IE7, this could have a big impact on the visitors and marketing activity of many e-commerce websites, directly effecting sales and revenue.
As always with change there are some aspects that may not be welcomed by site developers, but the general industry opinion is that Microsoft are finally doing the right thing. It is providing better standards support (for CSS especially), and providing the user more control over their browsing experience.
Conclusion
With the announcement from Microsoft that IE 7 will be distributed as a high priority update during the forth quarter of the year, IE will be available for users of Windows XP SP2, Windows XP 64-bit Edition, and Windows Server 2003 SP1, replacing IE 6.
Therefore within the months of October – December around 59% of Internet users will be given the option to upgrade, which judging from past updates, the majority will choose to advance to IE 7.
The transition from IE 6 to IE 7 will be hard for some, but it paves the way for better a browsing experience and easier web development in the future – assuming that Microsoft continue with the improvements as they have said they will.
The main message to take away is: test your sites with IE 7 now!
It is freely available to download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/.
Update
It has now been confirmed that Internet Explorer 7 will be released before the end of October 2006. It will then be delivered to customers via automatic updates a couple of week after that. For further details read Scott Graff's Weblog.
