Competition Drives IE 8 Development

I'm a diehard Firefox user now, and I can't envision going back to Internet Explorer. Does anyone still think IE is a better browser?

Firefox is better in so many ways. I don't even know all the technical names of the stuff they do, or all the reasons why it's a better browser. I like how you can quickly copy a link off a web page and paste it where you need it; I like how the url is more filled out, gives more details on the page you're going for, whatever that's called; and I also like the search bar at the bottom of the browser. And the tabbed pages are very nice.

But even this Firefox fan is starting get curious about Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft has released RC1, which is not an ode to the old RC Cola but which actually means "release candidate 1" of IE 8.

PCMag.com got an early perusal of RC1 and has posted a review. The review is the subject of much discussion at  Slashdot. This particular comment piqued my interest, mostly because of the term "porn mode:"

The release candidate differs only slightly from Beta 2, most notably in tweaks to its InPrivate Browsing feature, aka porn mode. That feature has been decoupled with InPrivate Filtering, which blocks third-party content providers from creating profile of your browsing habits. RC1 also improves on performance, especially in startup time, but still trails Firefox and Chrome in JavaScript speed. Protection against the relatively new threat of "clickjacking," where a site tries to get you to press buttons underneath a sham frame page, has also been added -- the first browser to include such protections.

I'm also interested in the "clickjacking" protections, because I'm getting tired of the all the sham pages out there.

Many of the Slashdotters say that Microsoft is still hopelessly behind Firefox, that Microsoft mostly stopped browser development for five years until Firefox came along. I don't follow the browser wars at all, and I don't know all the underlying browser technology, but nonetheless, I've seen Microsoft do this before. A major new player comes on the scene, and Microsoft gets a fire in their belly. Here's hoping IE 8 continues the tradition and ratchets up browser development across the board.