I installed Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 on my PC today, and already I’m irritated. For the most part IE8 is a perfectly serviceable browser. It passes the acid2 test, I like the new source view functionality and the developer tools do a pretty good impersonation of Firebug which I really rather like.
What is irritating me right now is the IE8 implementation of accelerators. Why, oh why, can’t I turn them off completely? That damn little popup icon is driving me to distraction. Google seemingly failed to come up with an answer. You might think it’s a small thing, but I found it distracting enough to seriously consider dropping IE8. Thankfully, some more tenacious searching led to a Channel9 forum posting providing the answer; you can turn off the icon. Will there ever be a Microsoft product that doesn’t require the default settings to be inverted before it becomes usable?
Now it seems to me there are two lessons to be learned from this whole sorry episode. Firstly, Google thankfully hasn’t become omniscient just yet. Secondly Microsoft really ought to remember that a web browser is supposed to be a “window” on the web and the fewer blemishes on that window the better the view will be. And if I might stretch the metaphor to breaking point, if the window becomes too dirty people will simply use another one.