Posted on 07/31/2011 6:36:07 AM PDT by KyGeezer
Results from an online IQ test taken by over 100,000 people have been reported as indicating the users of Internet Explorer have low IQ and have provoked some IE users to threaten legal action. But the study's findings are valuable ammunition for web developers.
A Canadian company that designs, validates and publishes psychometric tests for recruitment, career guidance and staff development, released its report Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage and found itself at the centre of a storm.
The survey findings were reported by Jared Newman on PC World with the headline "Internet Explorer Users Are Kinda Stupid" and as his story spread AptiQuant started to receive hate mail from IE users.
In an attempt to defuse the situation Leonard Howard, AptiQuant's founder and CEO said,
"I just want to make it clear that the report released by my company did not suggest that if you use IE that means you have a low IQ, but what it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer."
And if a quick look at the chart below shows that this is indeed the case. There are three clusters - a below average one comprising all the versions of IE, one that is slightly above average comprising Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and a final one that is again significantly better with three minority browser choices, IE with Chrome Frame, Camino and Opera.
(Excerpt) Read more at i-programmer.info ...
Yeah, I sympothize with you there. Those shifts are intended to be helpful.
Keep in mind that most new user interfaces are relegating file management even further down and search will be your file management system.
I’s alwys ben a IE usur, ben goood fur me
I use whatever suits me at the time. For the moment, I am using Chrome. I came to chrome back when IE, and even Firefox, became bloated, slow, and cumbersome. I maintain several PC's, most of which were around 5 years old, and their speed and memory was a bit limited. Chrome is snappy and fast. IE9 and the newer Firefox are much improved now on speed, but I tend to stick with Chrome for now, because there is no reason to change. I keep IE and FF installed and updated on all computers, so I can use whatever I want. My young son recently got into Opera, and it runs well too. I was a browser junkie for a while, had to have every mainstream browser installed, but now I just use whatever works best for me, for the tasks at hand. I'm not a fanboi or a hater any more.
Well it appears IE attracts bugs, virus’s etc. etc. and why people use something else. Seems “FireFox” somehow works better by some. But the question is how? Is it faster, does it show more than IE? Does it take anymore steps to boot it up? Questions still remain....:(
I personally prefer Safari for browsing.
Why?
I tried Chrome and liked it till I discovered it didn’t work with a few online pay sites like the USPS.
I think the same of Apple products.
Just had another buddy go down with malware using a free product. We're all getting 3-5 eMails a day from him.
There is a reason MS is on top and most used.
In the grand scheme of things, if one or the other works for YOU, who gives a crap?!
Good point. I too question the premise of the study. IE users so vastly outnumber any others that the sample has no choice but to run to a lower mean. I have known a fair number of tech people who were “Anybody but Bill Gates” true believers. Techies also probably score better on IQ tests than the general population, because that’s what it takes to be a successful techie. So unless a study accounts for all that, I can’t take these results as saying anything too useful.
Firefox has all the free plugins and greasemonkey scripts IE and Chrome don’t, and yes the more plugins you add, the more memory FF uses, and the slower it gets, but the tradeoff is worth it.
Adblocker+ and Downloadhelper are some of the most invaluable.
>>>The first step was admitting that I had a problem.
The problem is/was not you - it’s IE that’s the problem. :)
Thanks for the information! I will bear it in mind; I keep hearing good things about Chrome. One day I’ll have to try it.
“In my contracts, I support IE (Windows) and Safari (Mac). When people call that use one of the others, I simply direct them to the browser that came installed on their PC/Mac. To support them all would be a foolish waste of time (money).”
What if I call you and complain your site doesn’t work on my Android mobile phone? I’m out in the field and don’t have access to a PC/Mac?
I’m also a developer and I find your attitude rather perplexing. Modern web application developers abandoned that mindset years ago. We first code to be compliant with W3C specs. Which means using the best browser or two in regards to the support of those standards. We then go back in, if we must, and add a few CSS tweaks for layouts in IE6+. The use of libraries such as jQuery, Dojo or Prototype takes a lot of that pain out.
In my opinion if you must use IE then use IE9. However if you have a choice then use something (anything) else.
If you want an objective analysis of how your current browser is going to be able to handle the next generation of web applications/sites then use these 2 tests:
http://acid3.acidtests.org/
http://html5test.com/
http://dromaeo.com/?all
BTW - I have talked with Chris Wilson the Microsoft Lead for Internet Explorer and he admitted that their primary objective was; and I quote “To not break the Internet in the view of my grandma using her banking site”.
I used an Apple product once, but not long enough to draw any real conclusions. All I can tell you is that my ex, the tech wiz from MIT, had no use for Apple. He just found it underwhelming, and from what I could see, from years of living in the MIT milieu, his fellow super-techies felt the same.
Chrome is best for me for web browsing, Firefox for web development
Speed mostly. And the flick through history is really nice.
[TomGuy:] I downloaded a few 'freeware' replacements, but most were 32-bit. I did, find a few that seemed adequate, as I want one that allows double panes:
Y'all need to look at FreeCommander.
Though my absolute fav is A43 by BGMiller. Not as many bells and whistles, and a bit eclectic (takes some getting used to), but the features it does have are the necessary ones (built in txt editor, customizable shortcuts, a decent 'find', zip support) - and it is very simple and efficient once you figure it out. Best of all, it is wholly portable, so I use it from thumb drives all the time... Just unzip it to a directory somewhere drop a shortcut on you desktop (and another in the path somewhere if you are so inclined), and away you go.
However, that being said, let the Win7 Explorer grow on you - outside of it's irritating desire to always open to 'libraries' (a completely useless nonsensical idea), it is ather efficient once you get used to it - If I go back to XP (as a tech I am still on XP boxen all the time) I find it less intuitive than 7 - just have to get used to using the address bar instead of the sidebar.
The main problem with IE all along is ActiveX - A subsystem of IE, (also used by OE, and WiMP,) which allows installation from the web and such. ActiveX is the single most exploited (and exploitable) thing on the planet. It's security is like a steel sieve.
All other browsers use Java instead, which also can be exploited, but no where near as many or as easily as ActiveX. If you have problems with viruses and adware, about 85% of your exposure will be resolved by simple using a different browser (Firefox: Mozilla, mo' bedda).
And with a few well placed add-ons in firefox, you will have a very quick and useable remedy.
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