Google Releases Customized IE 7

narramissic writes "Google has released a customized version of Internet Explorer 7 that uses Google as the default search engine and provides users with the Google Toolbar and a Google homepage they can personalize. Perhaps not exactly what Microsoft intended when they released the Internet Explorer Administration Kit, which allows developers to customize IE."

Comments

They're not the first, are they?

[JeremyBanks]

Isn't this what Yahoo already did?

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[Chrismith]

Not only did Yahoo do this first, but when Google first released their version, they blatantly ripped off Yahoo's page.

If you look closely at the pictures, you can even see where they blurred out the "Y!" logo in the IE7 screenshot.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big Google supporter, but someone dropped the ball on this. (It's since been fixed.)

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[Varun Soundararajan]

I m expecting our google fan boys to come out commenting, saying the Google IE7 is far better than the Yahoo one!!... Obligatory Disclosure:(I m also a google fanboy.. :-))

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[Frosty Piss]

Doesn't look the same anymore... http://www.google.com/toolbar/ie7/

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[t0tAl_mElTd0wN]

Sorry. From that same blog entry ( http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/008122.htm l )

Seriously, click those images and look at the full-sized versions. They're remarkably similar. And I've checked with our PR group to make sure that this wasn't just a template that Microsoft gave to all partners. It's not.

Second to last paragraph before the Update:

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[Simon Donkers]

Google noticed the fuss everywhere and has since then changed the page. A very interesting post about this is made by Matt Cutts (Google employee) on his private blog explaining how annoying it is if somebody steals your layout. Very interesting read.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/ie7-promo-page/

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[Jugalator]

Actually, the toolbars in IE 7 can't be moved around, as funny as it may sound.

You can "unlock" the toolbars to resize one of them, but it seems MS didn't listen to all the complaints that were raised about this during the betas.

I don't really understand the logic behind radically changing the UI and at the same time remove customization.

Re:They're not the first, are they?

[gbjbaanb]

Yes, I was really pissed off that the time-honoured menu bar was removed for the sake of it. MS seems to be moving away from menus. Anyway, the good old menu can be restored - but once you do, you'll see its always underneath the toolbar (sigh). Fortunately, this registry key will put it back init s rightful position: "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser " set the value "ITBar7Position" to a dwrord 1 and its back as you'd want it.

To turn the menu bar on in the first place - go to the tools menu/button and select 'menu bar'

(or put this in notepad, save as a reg file and then click it)

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\WebBrowser]
"ITBar7Position"=dword:00000001

Re:just think...

[mingot]

Doesn't seem like they really want to take them to court.

From TFA:

ieblog

Re:And of course...

[RealGrouchy]

Can you say plagiarism?

Yes I can, but I only do so when I have sufficient evidence to believe it happened.

While Yahoo's page may predate Google's page, could it be the case that both came from a template provided by Microsoft in the IE Admin Kit?

If so, then neither is plagiarising, they are simply implementing a tool which they rightfully may.

- RG>

Re:#1 thing that is good about Google

[diskofish]

Correction: Google maps is NOT Flash based. Yahoo! Maps is Flash based and Google maps uses Ajax.

Re:Activation?

[Arctic Dragon]

My IE7 Program File directory is 2.57MB, but since installing it required two reboots, I imagine that additional files are scattered all over the place.

A couple of months ago, I did some quick testing to see which browser uses the most RAM. I checked the RAM usage right after starting the browser with a blank page, and again after opening a total of 3 tabs (of course, YMMV):

Mozilla Firefox 2.0 (default theme, no extensions)
blank page: 20MB
3 open tabs: 31MB

Mozilla Firefox trunk build (default theme, no extensions)
blank page: 20MB
3 open tabs: 30MB

Mozilla SeaMonkey 1.1A
blank page: 17MB
3 open tabs: 28MB

K-Meleon 1.02
blank page: 15MB
3 open tabs: 24MB

Internet Explorer 6.0SP2
blank page: 11MB

Internet Explorer 7.0
blank page: 17MB
3 open tabs: 35MB

Opera 9.02
blank page: 14MB
3 open tabs: 24MB

Re:Activation?

[Anonymous Coward]

I checked the RAM usage right after starting the browser with a blank page, and again after opening a total of 3 tabs (of course, YMMV)
You could have waited a little more longuer to give a fair chance to firefox memory leaks to give their best.

Just to clarify...

[cyberwench]

Mute = myoot. As in unable to speak.

Moot = moot. Little practical value or meaning.

It's one of those things like "another words" / "in other words".

Re:Just to clarify...

[SpectreHiro]

**Off-topic warning**

Language Log coined a term to refer to this type of (near) sound-alike -- Eggcorns. Every now and again, LL talks about new eggcorns they've discovered in the wild. Most of the time, these things are pretty entertaining in a "giggling at people's linguistic foibles" sort of way (foibles that we're all guilty of at some point, I should add). There's also a website dedicated to cataloging them locate here.

Re:Activation?

[csplinter]

Thats intresting but, it's an apples to oranges comparison with IE compared to other browsers. IE is so fused together with Windows that you can't tell were Windows starts and IE stops. Maybe 10% of IE is tangled up in other Windows processes, maybe 50%, theres no telling how much is being offloaded.

Re:#1 thing that is good about Google

[RulerOf]

I don't use Microsoft's products because I want to. I use them (on occasion) because I'm forced to by the standards of others (Word documents, argh) that Microsoft has carefully crafted.

I personally hate Word, but not because I think it's a shitty word processor, but because in the paperless world of today, working in the constraints of an 8" x 11" sheet of virtual white space is beyond stupid. Text documents should function more like a web page (or perhaps more like a user friendly Wikipedia page) and contain automatic printer formatting capabilities... There was a project I read about a couple years back called Transliterature http://www.transliterature.org/ that called for a "revolution" in how we transmit and manipulate written information in a digital medium. You might want to read up on it because it makes a hell of a lot more sense than the emulated paper (with oh so dangerous macros!) that we've been using for the last thirty years. If Microsoft even adopts some of the outlines of that format, I know I wouldn't hate the program quite so much...

Of course, I'll admit, "Paper on a Computer Screen" v11.x is really, really, damn good at what it does. I can't imagine how they can keep adding features to a program with such a bland purpose.

Re:#1 thing that is good about Google

[SanityInAnarchy]

I have removed Google toolbar multiple times from each one. When asked, nobody remembers wanting to install it.

I distinctly remember seeing the Google toolbar included in places like Shockware, and every time, there was an option to install it or not. Just because the user reflexively clicks next-next-next without ever reading or looking at "custom" options doesn't mean they weren't given a choice.