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IE7 Will Have Tabbed Browsing

loconet writes that early yesterday morning, "Dean Hachamovitch, IE product unit manager, confirmed that IE7, like Opera and Firefox first did years ago, will have tabbed browsing as one of its new features. Asa Dotzler,from Mozilla, points out that Dean reminds IE users who have not upgraded to XP that tabbed browsing can be added to IE through 3rd-party add-ons." cryptoz adds a link to this InformationWeek story which says that the tabs will be very "'basic' due to fears from Microsoft that tabbed browsing might scare off too many users. The feature is only being included because IE is slipping in the browser share market."

41 of 748 comments (clear)

  1. Scared? by mfh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Average IE User:

    "My God! TABS! Eeeek!"
    (runs away from computer)

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
    1. Re:Scared? by Aero · · Score: 5, Funny

      Of course tabs are scary. Look at which browsers use tabs:

      Mozilla -- Symbolized by a big red carnivorous lizard. Large carnivores are scary, and red things scream "DANGER!".
      Firefox -- Symbolized by...a burning fox. Burning things are scary.
      Opera -- Opera scares a lot of people, and many of those who aren't scared outright just plain don't understand it.

      And then there's IE. Either a big blue E or a harmless little butterfly. Non-threatening. But they're doing some eeeeevil genetic manipulation and taking something out of those scaaaaaary browsers to put into our harmless little IE!

      Of course it'll scare people.

      --
      We can believe in you for 3 minutes, but beyond that, even the King of All Cosmos can't be expected to wait.
    2. Re:Scared? by DenDave · · Score: 4, Funny

      And in other news... Longhorn will have a file system, we don't know what exactly or when but we are sure it will have one....

      sorta sounds like...

      this old joke

      --
      -if at first you don't succeed, stay the heck away from paragliding.
    3. Re:Scared? by hostyle · · Score: 5, Informative

      Firefox - Ctrl Tab

      --
      Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
    4. Re:Scared? by Masami+Eiri · · Score: 4, Informative

      Ctrl+tab between tabs, alt+tab between windows. Easy enough for you?

    5. Re:Scared? by trezor · · Score: 5, Informative

      If I have 20 Internet Explorer windows open, I can navigate between them using the Taskbar's "(20) Internet Explorer" collapsed button or with the ALT-TAB window switcher.

      Ever heard of CTRL-TAB? for switching windows inside a browser? Or any other standard-compliant application for that matter.

      Personally I prefer to be able to switch to another application when using ALT-TAB without having to go trough my 20 tabs before I get the app I want. But that may just be me. And my window-management is not thrown off in any way. On the contrary tabbed browsing has enhanched it.

      --
      Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
    6. Re:Scared? by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 5, Funny

      They don't scream "Eeeek". They scream "Ieeeee"!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    7. Re:Scared? by justforaday · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's why I like how OS X handles this. Cmd-Tab to switch apps, Cmd-` to switch between windows within an app.

      --
      I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
    8. Re:Scared? by Golias · · Score: 4, Informative

      Um, you do know that you always have the choice available to open a page in a new window, right?

      So what are you bitching about? If you want to pull it directly from your task bar use a window, if you would rather nest it with one window with some other pages, use a tab. Once you start using tabs, you will find that they are very handy.

      Congratulations, Microsoft! With this new feature, IE users will at last be dragged, kicking and screaming, to the cutting edge of three years ago.

      --

      Information wants to be anthropomorphized.

    9. Re:Scared? by ASkGNet · · Score: 4, Funny

      Yes, it switches between open tabs.

      Would you like cheese with that whine?

    10. Re:Scared? by jridley · · Score: 4, Informative

      Microsoft is saying that tabbed browsing is inconsistent with other parts of the OS. In fact, it's only inconsistent with what Microsoft is saying is proper design this week; they keep changing their minds.

      Microsoft itself in the design specs they wrote years ago stated that MDI (multiple document interface) was the way all apps should be designed. Tabbed browsing is just a form of MDI. It's no different than if you had multiple documents open in a word processor; if you want to get to a specific one, you alt-tab to the word processor, and then ctrl-tab to the right document (or use the view or window menu item).

      Microsoft has been backpedalling from MDI for a couple of years; the new versions of office open multiple windows when you open multiple documents. I find this quite irritating. I'm sure they did it because of the taskbar's collapse similar items thing, but I'd rather have MDI.

    11. Re:Scared? by geordie_loz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I always thought this was the point of the tabs. The task bar now separates "Tasks" i.e. "Tasks I am doing, like writing documents, browsing the internet, listening to music".

      Now I switch between those tasks. If I want to reference a page while I write a document the ALT-TAB still works, so I can jump back and forth. Then if I want to reference another web page, I switch my task over to "browsing the web" find the tab (sub-task) in the browser window and the ALT-TAB back to the document to continue.

      Clear separation of user's view of tasks (things I have to do) rather than the os view of tasks (processes I am running).

      Now contrast that to having 20 browser windows, 4 documents and a media player. All of a sudden I can't see the wood for the trees.

    12. Re:Scared? by pomakis · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Why do we need two methods of "show me the hidden window" just because some of our windows are in firefox and some in the explorer? What do we gain again from tabbed browsing?

      It's called a hierarchy, and it can be quite important. Let's change your situation around a bit, shall we? Let's say you wanted to switch from Word to Outlook. How would you do it without this hierarchy?

      alt+tab Excel - no.
      alt+tab Firefox - no.
      alt+tab Firefox (tab 2) - no.
      alt+tab Firefox (tab 3) - no!
      alt+tab Firefox (tab 4) - NO!
      alt+tab Firefox (tab 5) - NO!!!
      alt+tab Outlook - yes, finally!

    13. Re:Scared? by sconeu · · Score: 4, Insightful

      MS Apps that use tabs:

      Excel
      Visual Studio

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
  2. Allow users to uninstall and reinstall as needed by cOdEgUru · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If M$ is listening (and for the sake of IE, I hope they are) the biggest need to save IE right now is an ability in XP to uninstall IE cleanly. I mean, one should be able to uninstall and install IE at his whim. No strapping it down to the OS crap!

    My brother had his PC infected by a smart viral strain of CoolWebsearch, a nasty Browser Hijacker. I ended up spending a few hours trying to clean it and every time I thought I did, it would pop back up. I gave up, installed Firefox and asked him never to touch IE again. If I had the ability to go to the Control Panel, and nuke IE altogether, thereby getting rid of any unsavory plugins that might have been installed along with it, and doing a fresh install back again, I wouldnt have forced him to move to Firefox. I understand that Browser Hijacker has aspects outside the realm of the browser, but providing the ability to uninstall and reinstall gives power back to the user.

    And this is totally understandable for a bad product. Obviously you want to strap it down with hooks in to the OS as deep as you could, preventing anyone from removing it, since if the user realizes that they could remove it, the first thing they would want to do is nuke it.

  3. I am just so floored... by Pao|o · · Score: 5, Funny

    Pop up blocking, tabbed browsing and Anti-virus software. What will MS think off next?

    1. Re:I am just so floored... by Joseph+Vigneau · · Score: 4, Funny
      Not sure.. Let's see:
      • RSS aggregator
      • Bookmark search (probably not 'til Longhorn)
      • Privacy Mode^W^W (I don't expect MS to copy this one)
      And maybe:
      • Better extension support
      • Better theme support

      MS innovation, at it's best!

      Opera fans can chime in here too, if they want.

    2. Re:I am just so floored... by Dr.+Evil · · Score: 5, Funny

      Just to nitpick, Netscape didn't stagnate, version 4 just sucked.

    3. Re:I am just so floored... by hankaholic · · Score: 5, Funny
      Opera fans can chime in here too, if they want.

      I'd assumed that chiming in when browsers are mentioned was part of Opera's EULA.
      --
      Somebody get that guy an ambulance!
  4. Love the spin by JebusIsLord · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah the old Slashdot spin machine... actually if you read the IE Blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/default.aspx the developers are clear that they made the WRONG decision in avoiding tabs the first time, and the tabs will be basic only at the time of beta, but they will be adding more features afterwards.

    --
    Jeremy
  5. Office next? by Malfourmed · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "Initially, we had some concerns around complexity and consistency - will it confuse users more than it benefits them? Is it confusing if IE has tabs, but other core parts of the Windows experience, like Windows Media Player or the shell, don't have?"

    How soon until MS Office gets tabs? I for one often have up to a dozen Word and Excel documents open and having them all in the task bar is a pain in the UI.
    1. Re:Office next? by thegameiam · · Score: 4, Interesting

      My complaint is the different behavior of all of the office apps:

      In Word, clicking the outermost "close" button closes the document you're working on, but leaves other documents unaffected. In Excel, doing the same action closes all documents. Some of the apps treat indiviual documements completely independantly, and some of them treat them as cascaded windows inside the same instance of the application.

      I would LOVE to see a robust tabbed implementation in Office, especially if (like Firefox) you could run multiple instances of a tabbed application.

      -David Barak

      --
      Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
  6. Cancel button after download by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why the hell is it that right after I download a huge file in IE ... A dialog box pops up with a huge cancel button saying "copying from temp directory"?!? It's common I'll be typing something and press the spacebar by accident and it kills the moving file. Why the hell would I download a massive file and suddenly want to kill it at the last minute while it was being copied from the temp ?? Who wants such a feature??

    This is really a stupid "feature" of IE. I doubt they'll fix it cause well quite frankly I won't be surprised if IE developers use FireFox.

  7. Share slipping... by bluprint · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The feature is only being included because IE is slipping in the browser share market.

    Umm...and? I think there is some implied meaning in the above statement, but I'm not sure what it is. Isn't that what companies do? If they see trends in the market shift towards certain features/needs/wants of consumers, they respond with providing consumers with what they want.

    --
    A modern day witchhunt.
    1. Re:Share slipping... by ssj_195 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the implication is that Microsoft are lazy and arrogant (having previously dismissed tabs as being useless, and stating that "their customers did not want them"). Microsoft have allowed their browser to languish horribly, to the detriment of the users that they apparently hold in high-esteem, and the only thing that has gotten them to actually make any improvements is the threat of losing market share. Microsoft will now, of course, crow about their revolutionary new Tabbed Browsing(TM) feature that they have provided to enhance your browsing experience, and the unknowing masses will fall for it hook, line and sinker, praising Microsoft as an innovative company who puts the needs of its customers first. This is what, I think, gets most people's goat.

  8. Somewhere in the future by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Hey, look! This funny browser has tabs, just like in Internet Explorer!

  9. Re:Allow users to uninstall and reinstall as neede by darkonc · · Score: 5, Informative

    When MS came out with the 'un-removable' IE4, my roommate discovered that if you used the IE3 uninstaller on IE4, it uninstalled cleanly...
    Yep... technical necessity.....

    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  10. whoopdy doo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Where the hell is CSS2.1? or SVG? Or fixes for the problems which keep causing web developers to spend longer hacking their sites for IE than actually developing it in the first place.

    And they're working on tabs?

  11. Re:I don't Comprendo. by fullcircleflight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Corporate branding is one reason marketshare is desirable for Microsoft. When using MSIE, "Microsoft Internet Explorer" is displayed on the top of the bar, along with a Microsoft logo in the top right corner. People can then associate "using" the Internet, with "using" a Microsoft product.

  12. The real question by ceeam · · Score: 5, Funny

    Will it support CSS1? Is CSS2 support scheduled for IE8.0 or should we expect that later?

  13. Re:Allow users to uninstall and reinstall as neede by Tim+C · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you remove IE - specifically, if you remove MSHTML.dll - all sorts of things will break. In XP at least (if not 2k) Windows Explorer will break. SQL Enterprise Manager (v7 was the last I used, I believe) will break. The Help Centre will break.

    Lots of stuff, both MS and third party, uses mshtml.dll for rendering of HTML because it is guaranteed to exist.

    What could be useful is the ability to return IE to an "official" condition, eg base OS install, SP 1, etc, in a single step. That would either require a read-only medium, or some particularly impressive voodoo magic to ensure the integrity of the installation files (whether cached or redownloaded).

    Never forget that a machine infested with spyware is compromised. If you're sufficiently paranoid, you can't trust *any* data or executable on it any more.

  14. My non-technical Father LOVES Tabs! by PenguinBoyDave · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My father can hardly install his own software and calls me all the time with *simple* questions. When I moved him to Firefox and showed him the tabs, he thought that was the best thing about the browser. Once again Microsoft demonstrates that they are very out of touch with the average computer user.

    --
    I'm not a troll, but I play one on Slashdot.
  15. Re:I don't Comprendo. by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why is the "web browser" even considered a "market"? It's not like I pay any extra for IE. For that matter, most of these browsers are free, right?

    From a consumer/end-user perspective, you're probably right. From a content-creator/geek perspective, the "market" is dominated by a browser that doesn't play nice with other browsers, leaving the web-content people with a choice: (1) support IE and ignore everything else, (2) ignore IE and code to standards, or (3) code to standards, then hack until it works on IE. I "choose" option 3, but I live for the day standards-compliant browsers like Firefox, Opera, Konqueror and Safari dominate the market.

    So... long story short: it's only folk like me who consider there to be a web browser market... probably!

    --
    This is where the serious fun begins.
  16. Re:Allow users to uninstall and reinstall as neede by jyoull · · Score: 5, Funny

    The reason its 'part of the OS' is that the back-end http protocol handlers are reused by every application (well, those that don't want to reinvent the wheel) to connect to the internet. 'Remove' IE (and I guess you don't mean remove 'just the GUI') would cripple a great many programs out there.

    Why, back where I come from, we used to call that a "library" and it wasn't something we'd keep all warm and idling and share-y. Back in the day, every app could load up its own copy - they ain't so darned big that it matters a whole lot - and everyone goes away happy. This whole IE approach of tryin' to lash application code to this newfangled live executing library-like-but-not code reminds me of the time Poppa Burke was down at the mill and thought we oughta try to power the grinders from the engine on that old junk Chevy he kept settin' out around back. Sure it looked like a good idea, but when he got outta the hospital later that year, he admitted it didn't make no more sense than what yer talkin' about with this IE and "helper objects" and "registry" and stuff. Me? I'm a simple kind a feller and I'll settle for muh libraries the old fashioned way, thank you very much.

  17. Now that THAT'S out of the way... by bujoojoo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe they'll starting working on standards compliance.

    --
    This space for rent
  18. Lucky you! by trezor · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If I ever tried to remove MSN Messenger, delete the files and everything, like dark fucking magic everything would reappear and launch if I ever visited a MSN-site with MSIE.

    I had to insert dummy-executables in the MSN Messenger directory to get rid of it. However, editing the registry to tell Windows that MSN Messenger wasn't there would also magically cause a reinstall just out of nowhere.

    So I let Windows believe the dummy executables were MSN Messenger which were still techincally "installed". That and only that did it for me.

    Seems like you got off easy, you lucky bastard!

    The way windows constantly tries to battle the user, if he actually dares to defy the devine intensions of Redmond... *shudder* It's really all you need to know about the OS and the vendor.

    --
    Not Buzzword 2.0 compliant. Please speak english.
    1. Re:Lucky you! by FlynnMP3 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      To completely excise MSN from a windows computers, type in this command from the run prompt:
      rundll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection %windir%\inf\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
      I've done it, and it works spendidly. Voila! No more trace of MSN and it doesn't try and re-install itself.

      -FlynnMP3
      PS. I got this little tip from some reader on this site.
  19. Re:Allow users to uninstall and reinstall as neede by Perl-Pusher · · Score: 5, Interesting
    The reason its 'part of the OS' is that the back-end http protocol handlers are reused by every application (well, those that don't want to reinvent the wheel) to connect to the internet. 'Remove' IE (and I guess you don't mean remove 'just the GUI') would cripple a great many programs out there.

    Why then can Solaris,Linux,BeOS, QNX access the internet without a integrated browser installed? Why could you uninstall IE 3 without serious harm?

    You mean, you tried to remove some spyware app, but because you couldn't it's therefore IE's fault.

    Well since ActiveX component technology is what allows these programs to become part of IE, I say hell yeah it's IE's fault, to an extent. A burglar is not the homeowners fault per say. But if you place a note on the door saying "no one is at home the key is under the mat", your doing everything short of asking known robbers to steal from you. The back-end http protocol handlers are reused by every application (well, those that don't want to reinvent the wheel)

    A shared library is not a program! A DLL that cannot be changed or written over by any program would not allow a virus or malware and still provide your code reuse.

  20. Re:IE, Idiots Explorer by Mind+Booster+Noori · · Score: 5, Insightful
    I cannot believe that people still download and use it with so much other competition around.
    Unfortunately most people use it because:
    • It comes bundled with the most used OS;
    • The are shitty^W poorly-writen sites that can't be viewed with other browsers
  21. What IE7 needs is a better security model by Gopal.V · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Isn't that what companies do? If they see trends in the market shift towards certain features/needs/wants of consumers, they respond with providing consumers with what they want.

    If you think the lack of Tabbed browsing is reducing IE's popularity, then I want whatever you are smoking. IE is getting unpopular due to spyware and drive-by-installs of malware. Why people are switching to firefox is to avoid those porn popups and phishing sites.

    Security and geeks tired of fixing their in-law's PC's is the reason for IE's market share dipping. Oh, and faster PC's capable of rendering XUL fast.
  22. Prediction! by bigbigbison · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm predicting right now that IE7's new tabbed browsing feature will come complete with IE only HTML code for webpages to open links in new tabs. Which, of course, means that it is only a matter of time before we have pop-up tabs!!!

    --
    http://www.popularculturegaming.com -- my blog about the culture of videogame players