5 Reasons To Upgrade To IE7

Windows Internet Explorer 8Image via Wikipedia
It’s Just Better

I’ve been a Firefox fan for a couple of years, so I am a bit jazzed about the new 3.0 release. But as good as it is, the majority of readers here, about 50%, are using something else. In the stats I see everything from Safari to Opera to words I can’t pronounce, but on any given day about 25% of you are coming here in that old beat-up jalopy, IE6.

It’s not just that it needs a new paint job. There are some really good reasons to trade it in. So, without any fancy crap, here are 5 reasons to go ahead and upgrade to IE7.

1. Wordout doesn’t look good in IE6.

IE6 doesn’t render standard CSS correctly, resulting in a drastically different page layout. Luckily, the main content area appears where it should. Still, if Wordout doesn’t look right, what else doesn’t look right? Don’t you deserve to see what everybody else is seeing? Upgrade to IE7 and see the web the way it really is.

2. Tabs and Quicktabs

One of my favorite features in Firefox is tabs. Well, now IE has them. And, they have all the functionality you’d want. Open multiple web sites all in one browser, one window. Jump from one pane to the other at will. The Microsoft implementation of tabs gives you lots of choices.

3. Anti Phishing

Phishing is when you go to a website and it looks exactly like the one you’re expecting but it’s really owned by guys out to steal your identity. Even if you don’t do any financial transactions online, you need to worry about this. IE7 phishing protection is similar to what you’d find in any other modern browser. I won’t go on the web without it.

4. Reduced Chance of Drive Bys

In addition to the anti-phishing features, security enhancements to the code in IE7 helps protect you against ‘drive-by’ downloads, which occur when you visit an infected site on the internet. Many of the sites infected are run by reputable people who don’t even know they’ve been compromised by hackers. These hackers install a small script on popular pages without the owners’ knowledge, and the scripts run when the page loads on your screen, even if you don’t click on anything. Although it won’t work 100% of the time, the protection features in IE7 are as good as any other browser.

5. Built In RSS Feeds

IE7 has one of the best in-browser RSS management tools I’ve seen yet. You can customize it in many ways, and it’s one of the reasons I like IE7 as much as I do. RSS is a way to get information that you choose sent to you inside a specialized reader. You can get news, sports, video, business, climate, comics… Whatever you can think of, there’s probably an RSS feed for it. And if there’s not, you can create one using tools at Google and other places.

So there you have it. I could easily have written 10 reasons or 20 reasons or 101 reasons. I could have told you that IE7 is finally customizable, just like Firefox, with add-ons that add real functionality. But the bottom line is this: It’s just better than IE6, and you should get it.

You can grab IE7 the next time you go to get your Windows Updates. Or you could just go ahead and turn on the Automatic Windows Updates and it should be offered to you sometime next week.

I am Jon, oops… hit the publish button… guess I won’t edit this too much. heh. ;^)

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3 Replies to “5 Reasons To Upgrade To IE7”

  1. Better yet, skip the Internet Exploder and get Fire Fox.

    You’ll never go back, unless you need to stream clear channel radio stations.

  2. Now now, folks… even if you don’t use IE, you should still upgrade to IE7. Without becoming too technical, don’t forget how deeply integrated IE is with the Windows operating system.

    I use Firefox almost exclusively, but even I upgraded.

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