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It turns out that Microsoft's Internet Explorer engineering team has considered changing the name of its web browser in order to escape its negative reputation. While the name hasn't changed yet, the team admits that it could one day.
During a Reddit Q&A session, users asked Engineer, Jonathan Sampson, if Microsoft had ever thought about changing the IE name, to which he replied:
“It's been suggested internally; I remember a particularly long email thread where numerous people were passionately debating it. Plenty of ideas get kicked around about how we can separate ourselves from negative perceptions that no longer reflect our product today. The discussion I recall seeing was a very recent one (just a few weeks ago). Who knows what the future holds.”
Maybe we'll see Internet Explorer replaced with something new in Windows 9…
Internet Explorer is notorious for being the first thing you replace when you come face to face with a fresh Windows install or brand new PC. Despite its reputation, according to Netapp, Internet Explorer still accounts for a huge share of the world's web browser usage, although a lot of this comes from incredibly old versions of the browser.
Microsoft is currently attempting to ween users off of older versions of Internet Explorer, much like how it tried to get users to switch from Windows XP. However, it isn't succeeding in doing so, it seems that users just love to cling on to legacy Microsoft software.
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KitGuru Says: A branding change could be good for Microsoft's web browser, maybe we'll see it happen in Windows 9. However, even if it did change, most enthusiasts will likely stick to their web browser of choice regardless of what Microsoft does. Do you guys think Microsoft should put the Internet Explorer name behind it?
Source: The Inquirer
I feel for this, sure explorer still lacks the addons and customization, but its ties to the OS make it a quick light-weight browser that actually beats the big 2 (Firefox and chrome) performance wise in a lot of cases, namely start up time and 0-5 tabs memory usage.
I would like to see explorer stick to its guns as a starting browser, if it keeps simple its speed and memory usage will make it a compelling choice (if only as a quick search engine for ease of use). Wheres if they aim for the addons and heavy usage of the big 2 (as they did with win 8/RT on tablets vs android and apple) the result will likely lack in content and performance; joining the market a few years late.
If they pull their efforts into the “simplicity” idea, we could expect further performance increases, without a few of its current addons and features, but who uses them right? we have FF and chrome for that.