Microsoft wants to rename Internet Explorer to shed negative associations

boing
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Google–

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Voyager

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You Want Another Browser, But Your IT Department Won’t Allow It* Because Shitty Bugware Guarantees Their Jobs

*But You Can Install Chrome Anyway, And They Know It

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Technical bigotry experiment: Take the Chrome or Safari icon on a Mac (where IE can’t natively run) - replace the icon and text with “Internet Explorer”… now ask people to try it. What would people say? What age group would they be?

Even though it is actually not IE - because it can’t run (except in Parallels etc.), I bet they’re 30-65 with an axe to grind.
Research has shown that OS / browser wars don’t matter as much to “younger kids” unless something gets in the way of their activity.

Now that developers optimize sites to support WebKit (not a web standard) http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-is-fixing-ie11-on-mobile-because-web-developers-arent-following-standards-7000032216/, nobody hates on Apple / Google.

But, people still hate on IE as though it’s IE6 (when web developers did the same thing for IE6).

I guess sometimes you have to try polishing the turd yourself when you don’t have a community to do it for you?

So, guess what Microsoft is doing? Trying to fix an unfixable problem…
Funny story: Windows Phone 8.1. Update 1’s IE browser actually calls itself Chrome so web sites won’t abuse its users by degrading site functionality (i.e. getting in the way of its 10 users).

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For the benefit of those who routinely use it, shouldn’t it be called “The Internet”.

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Interscape Explorigator.

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As far as they know, it is.

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Microsoft ANUS Explorer.

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Bing Cherry. I was going to go Bing Crosby, but that might not work so well…

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Do we go with silver or gold glitter on the logo?

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I bet they’ll just drop the “Internet” bit, make the version match the year of release, and change the acronym to something like EX or just X. So you would have “eXplorer 14”, shortened to X14, with a nod to XBox for bonus points.

Suddenly, tons of negativity would stop showing up in Google (pardon, Bing) searches, but enterprise-IT types wouldn’t be freaked out by a completely new product/name.

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The Reddit AMA this is based on is pretty interesting too. http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2dk60t/we_build_internet_explorer_i_know_right_ask_us/

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Turdblossom

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The note at the top of that page, about “If you are having suicidal thoughts…” is probably just coincidence, but it’s funny nonetheless…

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Microsoft NSA Informer

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In United States Internet Explores You

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I actually think they should rename it. Nobody will take it seriously while it’s still called IE even if they make it the best browser.

But, now is not the right time to rename it. Today, IE is as good as its competitors in most cases, worse in quite a few, and better in a very few. They need to make IE lead the pack, not follow it.

They should also go multi-platform like Chrome and Firefox are. They can still have IE work better on Windows, but they won’t attract developers until it works on the same platform the developers use (which is Mac or Linux in many cases).

Then, I agree with @toyg the should keep it similar to the old name, and make it a one word name. “eXplorer” is perfect. Or maybe just “Explore”.

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V-Ger!

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How about Open. Crash. Repeat.

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How about the WOW Browser for “Works Only (on) Windows”, I think they have other issues to address besides thier branding.

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