Microsoft mocks Internet Explorer haters in new ad [video]

This ad isn't about the merits of IE as a browser, this ad is about building a preformed thought in the common users mind whenever they hear someone bash IE. IE hasn't been the victim of bad PR, it has earned it's reputation through years of blood/sweat/tears by the hands of developers. Microsoft recognizes that they won't be able to change this attitude in the developer community, but that they can lessen the weight a developer's opinion has amongst non-technically minded people, which is a much larger share of users.<p>Like it or not, a lot of people will think of this ad first (and what it tells them), the next time one of us tries to warn them about IE

As I said in the other IE submission, most of the criticisms that have been levelled against IE are technical in nature and very real (dragging their feet on web standards, breaking their own compatibility guidelines from version to version, etc). So portraying IE haters as having the IQ of the average YouTube commenter just loses any credibility in the message (plus the way they fell back on badly judged kitten memes was just cringe-worthy)<p>Nobody is disputing that IE has come along way. The issue isn't whether the latest version of the browser is capable, but rather whether we'd want to get back into bed with Microsoft given their past history. And thankfully there is so much choice in the market now, that people can choose not to use browsers for even the seemingly trivial reasons; such as historical prejudice.<p>Thus as long as there is competition in the market, I'm going to support the platforms that have a history of promoting a free and open web.

IE hate is well deserved. How many hundreds of thousands or millions of productive hours have been lost due to incompabilities, bugs, etc?<p>That being said, Microsoft is full of talented people and they do create some fantastic products. IE is slowly getting to a more respectable point and hating on it so harshly seems juvenile.

I actually kinda like the ad, because the guy could be me in a heartbeat, i even own the same keyboard xD.<p>However the hate in me burns with the power of a thousand sons, when it comes to IE. The almost constant changes of MS standards with each new version of IE, inevitably breaks something, and will often require separate CSS styling..<p>And dont get me started on maintaining an app, that was built on IE6..<p>If I was in a room with Hitler, Osama bin Laden and the devlead for IE6, and had a gun with only 2 bullets.. I would shoot the IE6 lead twice..<p>That said and done, i really hope they start to embrace the "real" standards, as the the new development team proclaims.

For me, IE is like landmines. Built as weapon to break the web rather than to do anything constructive, and then abandoned after the war to create more havoc for years.<p>Maybe MS should have given the new generations of IE a new name. Rebranding would probably have been cheaper and more effective than marketing campaigns trying to make IE respectable.

The thing about IE is that once they gain some market share, they start trying to push their "own" standards, even if the community is moving in the opposite direction. That is just the way it has been since IE6.<p>The ad targets haters that convince "regular users" that IE sucks...haters needed to do that because regular users couldn't totally grasp how much their web experience is affected for using that crappy browser and how many features they were missing.<p>The fact that a lot of them do not realize how awful their experience is, is due to countless hours of near-suicide frustration from programmers and coders around the world trying to make IE compatible applications.

Ha ha, yeah, I know, the way some people carry on, you'd think Internet Explorer had crippled the web and added hundreds of hours to web development projects everywhere for over a decade, or something. Jeez!

Yeah, the detractors of IE are just mindlessly posting "IE SUCKS" over and over for no reason. It's not that the browser is seriously lacking, or that it's been behind for so long and actively blocking open standards. It's that the internet is dumb and people just love to hate.

This ad might have a point if it was actually IE10 that people hated. People hate IE 6, 7, 8, and 9, because they stalled web progress and MS did nothing proactive to try to filter them out of the marketplace. Talk about missing the point entirely.

So internet explorer is good because it is the best browser on a platform (xbox360) that didn't have a browser before and where it doesn't have any competition because there are no other browsers?

I have to admit that I had something personal against IE:<p>When I stated as an entrepreneur, the banks forced me to use IE as using any other browser will be full of incompatibility bugs. They made them on purpose.<p>So they forced me to use a Windows machine when I worked with Unix. I had to spend a thousand dollars so I could use my ebank and read-write my customer's Office documents(because MS also made very hard for Office documents for being standardized).<p>When I created my site I had to spend a lot more money so it worked on the main browser: Explorer. It was kind of hard to understand why it was so difficult to make something that worked in all browsers, it was always Microsoft fault there.<p>I calculated that I doubled my expenses because of non expected stupid incompatibility bugs on my web site. The people that made it really cursed the Redmon company.<p>The moment I could jump ship and work without Windows or Explorer I experienced an Enlightenment, a liberation: Now I just don't hate them, I simply don't care because I know the only reason they are doing the right things is because they lost the monopoly in some areas and had been forced to react.<p>Good for them, I prefer "don't be evil" than "embrace, extent, and extinguish" for now.

Did you guys notice the OS X hand cursor when he tweets? Here is a screenshot: <a href="http://imgur.com/ll0fq" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/ll0fq</a>

Did you notice this in the ad?<p><a href="http://www.karaokewebstandard.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.karaokewebstandard.org/</a>

"Sucks less"? Well, that's totally going to make me feel tempted to give it a try...<p>Seriously, I started my web dev career at a time when IE had a market share of 80% and... I'm OK now.<p>I'm glad that Microsoft decided to embrace web standards and is committed to make IE easier to develop for but they'll have to do much more than this if they want to be taken seriously again.

I used to love IE simply for OnMouseEnter and OnMouseOut... made JS dragging techniques super easy, compared to other browsers, but still couldn't use it cause they were the only ones so, pfft. I stood by them till Chrome came out. I preferred Microsofts decisions of how the web should be rendered over w3c.

I think a good response to this would be a four hour live-coding session of trying to get shit to be backwards compatible with 6, 7, and 8.<p>Oh wait, I can't test your browser without a VM because I didn't buy your OS? Fuck you.

Where is this ad going to be shown? Because, honestly, IE isn't that vilified outside of tech circles. My parents and friends happily use it without a second thought.

It is an example of a symptom that has presented itself because of an underlying disease rotting away the core of Microsoft.

Follow up video is here, just for kicks: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&#38;v=dAecpAcyFCw" rel="nofollow">http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&#38;v=d...</a>

wishful thinking, MS... nobody gives a damn about your browser anymore

Lmao:<p><i>&#62; IE implements HTML6.<p>&#62; and 7, 8, and 9.</i><p>Oh, if only.<p>Good ad though, but they're still not there yet.

So the message of this ad is that the new IE sucks <i>less</i> than it's predecessors? That's what I took away from it.

If you can't beat 'em, mock 'em!

"Comments are disabled for this video."<p>What else is there to say, really?

This was just submitted a few hours ago:<p><a href="http://cbateman.com/blog/whats-missing-in-internet-explorer-10" rel="nofollow">http://cbateman.com/blog/whats-missing-in-internet-explorer-...</a><p>That's probably not even the full list of what's missing in IE10, as html5test puts IE10 way below the others in HTML5 features:<p><a href="http://html5test.com/results/desktop.html" rel="nofollow">http://html5test.com/results/desktop.html</a><p>I wouldn't hold my breath for WebGL appearing even in IE11. Whatever Microsoft is saying, the "security" of WebGL is not the main reason why Microsoft is not the adopting it - not even close. Just like security is also not the main reason why Apple is not allowing other JS engines on iOS.<p>The security reason is used mainly as a "reasonable" excuse to cover for the <i>real</i> reason why they aren't implementing it (they obviously don't want OpenGL to gain anymore traction that it has already gained in mobile and Linux). If security would be an excuse to not implement something, we'd probably still be in the dark ages of the web. Consider Flash, it's one of the least secure pieces of software out there, and yet it's also what enabled video on the web for everyone. It's the reason Youtube exists today.<p>The lack of support for XP, which is still like 40% of the market, means Chrome is still by far the most secure browser on XP, which is something companies who aren't going to get new PC's and Windows licenses anytime soon should start considering.<p>No full screen API, no Web Audio API, and no WebRTC (and no Opus either) are also very regrettable omissions from IE10, and it will be another year or two before it will get them. Who knows how far ahead Chrome and Firefox will be by then.