Wonder what Marc Andreessen has to say about Microsoft now portraying its browser as the underdog in the browser wars.
A decade after it succeeded in strangling Netscape, both the company and the browser, Microsoft is trying to position itself as the underdog in the renewed browser fight. While that would be like a five-term Senator positioning himself as a Washington outsider, in this case, Microsoft may have a point.
You’ve probably already seen the TV commercials for Internet Explorer 9, full of gushing quotes from reviewers. Microsoft has shown off 15, 30 and 60 second commercials with dubstep-flavored techno that do something very different from past Microsoft ads: they actually show off the product.
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Some people feel IE has become underrated and ignored in favor of Chrome, although it is undoubtedly fast and is better at Acid3 compliance (OK, so it’s 100% and Chrome is 99%), but I’ve never liked its insistence on alphabetizing your bookmarks instead of letting you sort them the way you prefer, and the lack of important add-ons (like AdBlock Plus) is also a turn-off.
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Hating Microsoft has been fashionable for years, so getting people to consider IE9 won’t be easy, but Microsoft deserves some credit for trying. Its new marketing approach is to acknowledge the dislike, through a Microsoft-operated Tumblr site called “The Browser You Loved to Hate,” which is replete with Tweets and quotes from bloggers singing the praises of IE, mixed with some humor as well.
But don’t think Microsoft is going soft. A new blog post by Roger Capriotti, director of Internet Explorer product marketing, picks apart the latest usage stats and questions the methodologies used and whether or not Chrome’s numbers are inflated. Numbers from Net Applications show that IE9 is the most popular browser on Windows 7 and growing, which means as Win7 grows and XP fades, IE9 will increase its presence.
All of which still amuses me to no end, given this is all free software.
