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Lofty Matters: I'm Not Buying Just Windows Shopping
"The most exciting thing is this is a technology that is ready to use today and can provide a meaningful level of protection as you browse around the web," said Andy Zeigler, privacy programme manager with Microsoft's IE team. source Hmmmm, in 2011 it is good to see Microsoft talking about a "meaningful level of protection" but would it be just a little churlish of me to suggest that such statements are way past their sell by date? I suppose I have to state that my opinions on this page are what we historians call irretrievably biased. Perhaps I do claim that this bias is based on experience rather than simple prejudice but for any MicroSoft junkie who daily mainlines the corporate brown sugar it probably remains an "oddball opinion". But that is just the point I am going to drive at in this article, Microsoft junkies distort the browser figures and the truth is actually not out there at all! When we consider what the motivation is behind the "Motion Trackng Protection" in IE9 then it would appear it is not exactly as simple as serving the needs of the consumer! Then we have to consider the move by MicroSoft to get their system adopted as the International Standard! Microsoft's Tracking Protection arrived after the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said it's worried about the state of consumer privacy on the web. source My advice for years now has been; "IE is only good for one job, downloading Firefox.", and I am sticking with that mantra. As IE 9 rolls out from the dark satanic presses and mills of the industrial production unit at Redmond, the world's "free press and unbiased media" will be conscripted into eulogy and yet again reveal their irretrievable bias. No doubt El Reg will provide something close to critical analysis but it is more or less a lone bastion of freedom of information when it comes to telling the browser consumer something truthful. Naturally I expect to be accused of fanciful thinking, as usual, but here, let's just have a live example from the unbiased and world renowned BBC: "Privacy features One feature being put front and centre of IE9 is tracking protection that gives users better control over how their information is shared across the web....." This article continues to explain the innovation of "do not track" options and how this sets IE right out there in the lead. As you can see, this is a "front and centre" feature of this innovatory development in IE9. There is another line further down the page and it sits quietly alone in the corner: Firefox also offers a 'do not track' option. Now correct me if I am wrong here but this no track option is being heralded as an innovation? Well yes, an innovation in Internet Explorer but Firefox not only has it but has had it for some time. So surely, one would think, a really good journalist would actually ask the question "Why is IE9 being heralded as an innovationary leap forward when its main front and centre innovation is actually just a catch up on the rest of the market?" Could the answer be that the BBC is a MicroSoft junkie which daily injects itself with that dirty brown sugar and peddles it around the alleys and backyards of the internet. That sugar makes you delusional, that sugar is far from sweet And in my humble irretrievably biased opinion, the figures on market share are also the product of this addiction. You see, if you take into account the share of the PC OS market, where through tactics Microsoft have persistently been "questioned" on in many a fine courtroom, then Windows dominates the PC market, at home, in business and in government operations worldwide. Hardly a new fact, hardly a revelation, but my point isn't about OS or domination of the PC market it is about the figures which show who uses what browser. Let's start by asking if there is a whole segment of these figures which represent browser users who have no choice; their business, institution, place of work, installed Windows and use IE by default and their employees have to do same. Then let's also question the figures for browser share in the light of those who are confirmed Microsoft junkies and believe that the world was created in 7 days by Bill Gates. For them all talk of alternate universes such as Firefox or Safari or Chrome is the work of deranged lunatics. This group wouldn't know how to do anything unless it came up as a pop up instruction on their Windows platform. So what we really need is a graph which shows the figures for those who have freedom of choice. That is the key issue, freedom of choice. Yes, yes, yes, I know that Microsoft were compelled to introduce such an innovation as freedom of choice in browser selection but that doesn't mean that the whole market they have sold to over the last 15 years haven't been swallowing that brown sugar so long that they are helplessly addicted: "I choose IE because it is Microsoft and Microsoft is the best." My question based on my opinions is this, if Microsoft have held this artificially created dominant position for so long, and if they have penetrated the psyche of the market place so deeply, then is anything less than a 70% browser share actually a statistic of failure?" Conversely, if people have had to make the proactive choice in browser then that would indicate that the selection is actually a representation of a freedom of thought. In other words the figures in the graph show that the choice of Chrome or Firefox as browser is a decision based on much stronger motivation than that which selects IE. So if we are going to be really generous and deduct from IE's market share as little as a 25% epsilon semi-moron factor, big up Aldous Huxley, then the IE figures of true freedom of choice market share are more like 35% on a good day when the sun is shining brightly. If we then go back to our suggestion that with such dominance in the market place and with such a strong history of the penetration of the customer psyche a figure of 70% is the minimum share to be expected, then does a "freedom of thought" adjustment to the figures actually reveal just how deeply damaged the IE brand is? In my opinion, IE9 will prove to be yet another ground breaking innovation just like Vista and all the world's "free media" will, like they did with Vista, be falling over themselves to tell you why it is so good, so right. Go on, you know you want it, you know you need it, go on, just try it once, how can that hurt, just try it once, you can always give it up if you don't like it. Felix Columbidae 2011 Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com |
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