I love my Google Chrome web browser. It has a TON of screen real-estate, it's made by Google (who really has hard feelings towards Google? :)...) and, oh yeah, the browsing experience is LIGHTNING FAST. So I was rather dismayed yesterday when I was forced to load up Internet Explorer to work on a particular aspect of another website. I had to go down to my windows search bar to find the executable for IE because I so rarely use it that I had finally just deleted all of the shortcuts. I disliked it that much!

But what was I greeted by? I was (very quickly) introduced to Internet Explorer 9, and it was nothing like the Internet Explorer (6, 7, 8) that many of us have come to loathe. Microsoft has (finally) gotten seriously serious about its web browser...


(I am secretly a huge fan of Microsoft :)... but I also readily admit that some of there past products have been really poor...)




Here is a lovely screenshot of this new, lightweight (yes... lightweight!), seriously fast browser.




(On the professional end, Microsoft is also gaining ground with products like Hyper-V, which was included with Windows Server 2008 R2, the newest Windows 7 based iteration of their professional server software.)

Conclusion:

Microsoft is back in the game :), granted if you went by market share they were never really "out of the game." But I think they are seriously competing for the hearts of the end-user again and quickly regaining consumer confidence. Way to go Microsoft! Keep up the good work.

Even if you aren't a Microsoft fan (and I realize that many aren't...), IE9 is pushing the speed boundaries for internet browsing and this can only mean that we will be seeing a faster Firefox and a faster Google Chrome in the very near future. It was my impression that Firefox was starting to get a bit bloated before Google Chrome came around and Mozilla has really upped their game since. I am very excited! We are going to see some real strides forward over the next several years involving consumer level technology.