Flow My Thoughts, The IT Professor Said

Furrowed Browsers

http://www.evolt.org/article/Browser_Wars_II_The_Saga_Continues/25/60181/index.html

A somewhat astringent article on the current state of browsers, and what is likely in the future, along with copious feedback which itself is interesting. The main point being made, that the Microsoft IE platform has reached the end of its natural code life and cannot be further updated, makes a lot of sense.

The contention that users do not care about browsers, however, misses the key element which brought the InterNet information highway up to everyone's driveway. Without the [relatively] easily used GUI to the Net that browsing represents, the whole infosphere phenomenon would have been critically delayed. Moreover, the current state of browsers, of all types, is close to deplorable -- both bug-ridden and vulnerable to exploits, they are starting to become a liability rather than an effective tool.

If general user sense of this becomes widespread, it could signally defeat further penetration of networked technology into people's lives, and in the long run, it is hard to see this as otherwise but detrimental. Alas, it is also hard to see that there will be any good solution any time soon.