I have been trying to confirm whether my impressions that Firefox 2.0 and Opera 9 are clearly superior to to IE7 are supported both in the IT Press and the blogosphere. I have had mixed results. Ask and Google searches on the topic bring up mixed results at best:
1)Surprisingly there are very few real definitive reviews from the IT trade press. Feature set walkthroughs, early RC-Release Candidate impressions, talking mouth “feelings” – too many. But actual benchmarks against clearly defined measures of what makes a good browser – very few. Comparative benchmarks closely match features and functionality with easy tabular layout plus real speed of performance benchmarks for various page types: static, database dynamic, AJAX powered – all of which can be done in closed localhost test environ – NADA.
2)One of the major browser issues has been IEs continued flaunting of W3C and other Web standards for over 7 years with no removal of proprietary extensions as Apple, Netscape, Mozilla and others have done. Nor has Microsoft deemed it necessary to meet commitments to HTML, JavaScript, DOM, CSS and other standards pledged back in 1997 when Redmond was re-assuring corporates that it and IE would be good supporters of Web standards. So you would think there would be a reckoning on how IE7 after 6 years of stalling would now measure up against these essential Web 2.0 enabling standards. Well … not exactly at all from the Trade Press.
3)So if the IT trade press is remiss – what would the blogosphere have to say. Well of course that means wading and sifting through literally hundreds of pages of Google and Ask pages (even those more-of-the-samed) trying to isolate “Whats up in the blogosphere”. But I have found the blog-watchers Technorati, Digg, Tailrank and others to be more helpful. Unfortunately only one, Tailrank has the direct orientation I am looking for. Unfortunately Tailrank does not appear to have the depth and breadth one would want at this time – but they certainly dont lack the ambition.
So the follow up on this post, will start to summarize the useful (and sometimes embarrassing to me and my assumptions) findings. As always – keep an open eye.
(c)JBSurveyer 2007
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