The Evolution of Internet Explorer: A Mixed Bag

Internet Explorer has been at the receiving end of criticism and ridicule over the past two years, as users have increasingly abandoned it for faster and more feature-rich browsers like Firefox and Chrome. While Internet Explorer 8 is certainly an improvement over its predecessors, it still lags behind in many areas.

One area where Internet Explorer 8 falls short is in terms of JavaScript performance. In the SunSpider JavaScript test, Opera 10.5 emerged as a clear winner, completing the test a whopping 10 times faster than Internet Explorer 8. Similarly, in the drill Mayo test, which involves completing two JavaScript tests with Celtic canes and V8 benchmarks, Internet Explorer 8 struggled to keep up, barely managing to complete the tests alone. This lack of JavaScript performance is not unique to Internet Explorer 8, as other browsers also fared poorly in these tests.

However, when it comes to acid 3, which is less of a test of outright speed than the other tests, Internet Explorer 8 performed relatively well, although still behind the competition. The Peacekeeper test, which focuses on many aspects of a browser's performance, did not go as smoothly for Internet Explorer 8, with the browser struggling to complete the tests in comparison to its competitors.

Despite these limitations, there are some areas where Internet Explorer 8 excels. When it comes to boot up times, the browser is faster than Firefox and Opera when starting from a cold start, although this advantage disappears when considering memory usage. Interestingly, Internet Explorer 8's memory usage is actually one of its strong suits, but even here, it falls short of Firefox.

One feature that sets Internet Explorer 8 apart from other browsers is its support for accelerators. Accelerators allow users to perform various actions on highlighted text, such as mapping, translating, or emailing, and are a very useful feature that could be beneficial in other browsers as well.

In addition to its performance issues, security remains a major concern with Internet Explorer 8. While it's not as laughable as it once was, there's no doubt that users can do much better than this browser when it comes to protecting their online data and security.

Overall, while Internet Explorer 8 is certainly an improvement over previous versions, its limitations and performance issues mean that it still has a long way to go before it can be considered a top-tier browser. As a result, it currently ranks fifth among the various browsers available today.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enInternet Explorer has gotten kicked around a lot in the past two years as people are leaving it in droves in heading to Firefox Chrome and the other browsers and while Internet Explorer 8 certainly is much better than its predecessors it still likes far behind in a lot of areas first we will begin with the SunSpider JavaScript test as this graph shows it wasn't even close as Opera 10.5 finish to test over 10 times faster it doesn't get any better when it comes to the drill Mayo test either as Internet Explorer 8 couldn't even complete it using both the Celtic canes JavaScript test and the v8 benchmark ie 8 just barely lagged alone but of course JavaScript isn't everything using acid 3 which is less of a test of outright speed than the other tests in an explorer 8 fared quite poorly as well it also finished way behind the other browsers and the Peacekeeper test which focuses on many many aspects of a browser's performance and there's a better general test while faster than Internet Explorer 7 as you can tell fast and internet explorer 8 don't go together very well it does get somewhat better when you look at boot up times as you can see in a1 start starting the browser after it's already been opened ie is faster than Firefox and opera but when it comes to cold starts again it's dead last memory usage is it strong suit but even then it's solidly outclassed by Firefox that's really disappointing considering that Internet Explorer is built into Windows to a level that the others just can't match luckily numbers aren't everything using Internet Explorer isn't nearly as bad as in previous versions as long as you can keep away from loading up with a million toolbars Aero glass is nicely integrated into the top of the browser and you can quickly and easily customize the look of the browser to make it nice and streamlined looking it also features several nice features such as in private browsing which as with the other browsers won't save your history when you're in that mode one very nice feature of Internet Explorer 8 is support for accelerators accelerators allow you to do different things with highlighted text such as map it translate it email it and more it's a very useful feature that I certainly wouldn't mind using in more browsers overall Internet Explorer isn't as terrible as you might think for sure it's slower than say Chrome but not to the point that the numbers make it out to be it lacks a lot of the special features such as individual tap handling robust add-on support an outright speed that the other browsers have however and security continues to be a major problem while it's not the joke that it used to be there's no doubt that you can do much better so Internet Explorer it's a fifth-place now feel free to go back to the main video via the annotation on your screen to see how the rest of the browsers did youInternet Explorer has gotten kicked around a lot in the past two years as people are leaving it in droves in heading to Firefox Chrome and the other browsers and while Internet Explorer 8 certainly is much better than its predecessors it still likes far behind in a lot of areas first we will begin with the SunSpider JavaScript test as this graph shows it wasn't even close as Opera 10.5 finish to test over 10 times faster it doesn't get any better when it comes to the drill Mayo test either as Internet Explorer 8 couldn't even complete it using both the Celtic canes JavaScript test and the v8 benchmark ie 8 just barely lagged alone but of course JavaScript isn't everything using acid 3 which is less of a test of outright speed than the other tests in an explorer 8 fared quite poorly as well it also finished way behind the other browsers and the Peacekeeper test which focuses on many many aspects of a browser's performance and there's a better general test while faster than Internet Explorer 7 as you can tell fast and internet explorer 8 don't go together very well it does get somewhat better when you look at boot up times as you can see in a1 start starting the browser after it's already been opened ie is faster than Firefox and opera but when it comes to cold starts again it's dead last memory usage is it strong suit but even then it's solidly outclassed by Firefox that's really disappointing considering that Internet Explorer is built into Windows to a level that the others just can't match luckily numbers aren't everything using Internet Explorer isn't nearly as bad as in previous versions as long as you can keep away from loading up with a million toolbars Aero glass is nicely integrated into the top of the browser and you can quickly and easily customize the look of the browser to make it nice and streamlined looking it also features several nice features such as in private browsing which as with the other browsers won't save your history when you're in that mode one very nice feature of Internet Explorer 8 is support for accelerators accelerators allow you to do different things with highlighted text such as map it translate it email it and more it's a very useful feature that I certainly wouldn't mind using in more browsers overall Internet Explorer isn't as terrible as you might think for sure it's slower than say Chrome but not to the point that the numbers make it out to be it lacks a lot of the special features such as individual tap handling robust add-on support an outright speed that the other browsers have however and security continues to be a major problem while it's not the joke that it used to be there's no doubt that you can do much better so Internet Explorer it's a fifth-place now feel free to go back to the main video via the annotation on your screen to see how the rest of the browsers did you