Have you seen the latest stupidity that the Windows Internet Explorer team have come up with? Ten Grand Is Buried Here.
The idea is that they encourage you to give up whatever browser you’re using (assuming it’s not Internet Explorer 8), calling it names (like “old Firefox” if you’re using Firefox, “boring Safari” if you’re using Safari, “tarnished Chrome” if you’re using Chrome, and… “that browser” if you’re using Opera) and upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, and they’ll be giving out clues on their Twitter feed about some secret website that’ll only work in IE8 at which you can register and win $10,000AUS (yes, this is an Australian competition).
After looking at the site in Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera, I thought I’d give it a go in Internet Explorer 8. But it didn’t work – it mis-detected my installation of IE8 as being IE7 (no, I didn’t have Compatability Mode on).
In the end, though, I just used User Agent Switcher to make my copy of Firefox pretend to be Internet Explorer 8. Then it worked. So basically, all that I’ve learned is that Firefox does a better job of everything that Internet Explorer does, including viewing websites designed to only work in Internet Explorer. Good work, Microsoft. Have a slow clap.
Good to hear MS is back on form promoting websites that will only work in their own shitty browser, even if it’s just for some lame competition. As someone who occasionally dabbles in web design both personal and professional, my ongoing wish is that someone would take IE out behind the woodshed and put it out of its misery.
To be fair, Internet Explorer 8 actually *does* seem to work quite well. By which I mean, it renders standards-compliant websites in the same way as Firefox and Opera do, which is a pretty good measure these days. Although you’d wonder why they’d go to all that effort rather than just wrap Gecko or WebKit in their own shell and say “to hell with the Trident engine.”
This new promotion is low, though. A whole new kind of low.