# Hoax: Internet Explorer Users Are Dumber, Study Shows



## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

From Fox News:



> A company called AptiQuant, a self-proclaimed "world leader in the field of online psychometric testing," published the results of an online study that tested the IQs of users and grouped the results according to which browser respondents used.
> The study found that users of Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera were all slightly above average in IQ test results, but Microsoft Internet Explorer users tended to be lower on the IQ scale.
> These results aren't surprising because browsers such as Chrome, Firefox and Opera are generally used by professionals and other assorted "geeks," while Internet Explorer is the default option on Windows computers and is mostly used by the inexperienced and those who don't even know there are other options.
> The data breakdown between multiple versions of Internet Explorer further supports this theory. The users of the oldest versions of Internet Explorer, such as IE6 and IE7, scored lower than users of more recent versions, such as IE8 or IE9.
> ...


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

This should make for some interesting conversation :lol:


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> Opera users will be happy to know they averaged the highest IQ scores of all the browsers. Firefox, Chrome and Safari scores were relatively similar to each other, but lower than that of Opera.


I don't know about that. I've used Opera since about v4 when it was still pay-per-view, but I'm generally dumber than a box-o-rocks in most areas. I can't even add 4 digit numbers without a calculator and forget about subtraction.

My opposition to IE was a general hatred of the M$ machine.

But, it's always been my opinion that the vast majority of PC users stayed with IE by default because they either didn't know anything else was available, or didn't know how to use anything else.

I've been playing around with IE8 & 9. While they're far ahead of previous versions, they're still far behind Opera or Mozilla as far as user configurability.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

What about those of us who use 'em all? All but IE, that is -for one reason its availability for the Mac is no more, for another I didn't like it when it was [many years ago.].

Dumb used to mean an inability to make a sound, both for people and bells....


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> I don't know about that. I've used Opera since about v4 when it was still pay-per-view, _but I'm generally dumber_ than a box-o-rocks in most areas. I can't even add 4 digit numbers without a calculator and forget about subtraction.


Don't get a swelled head, but judging from your posts, I wouldn't consider you "dumb". Far from it. I don't understand your continued reluctance to getting HD, but I can kinda understand that having had several HD TVs in the house before I finally made the switch. If I had found this forum earlier, I would have made the switch much earlier. Don't sell yourself short...:lol:



> But, it's always been my opinion that the vast majority of PC users stayed with IE by default because they either didn't know anything else was available, or didn't know how to use anything else.
> 
> I've been playing around with IE8 & 9. While they're far ahead of previous versions, they're still far behind Opera or Mozilla as far as user configurability.


I've never heard of Opera. I gotta download it and try it. Oh goody! A new toy. I've been using Mozilla for a few years and I'm pretty used to it. Tried Bing and Chrome and went right back to FireFox. I just don't like IE, never have. Don't like Safari either.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> What about those of us who use 'em all? All but IE, that is -for one reason its availability for the Mac is no more, for another I didn't like it when it was [many years ago.].
> 
> Dumb used to mean an inability to make a sound, both for people and bells....


One of the most intelligent men I've ever known and I have had many discussions regarding concepts such as intelligence, stupidity and ignorance. Never touched on dumb.

We've reached these conclusions: Intelligence is the ability to learn. Ignorance is nothing more than not knowing anything about a particular subject and stupidity is making the same mistakes over and over and not learning from them, which is a lack of intelligence. Ignorance should be forgivable, but not stupidity.

Dumb. I dunno, somewhat like stupidity, but genetic, perhaps?

Rich


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Opera's pretty good. Tons of user customizations and special scripts available from their boards. I've stayed with v10 so far though since I read about some problems with newer versions.

Never tried FF, Chrome or some of the others. My two staples are Opera and SeaMonkey.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

To me the choice of a browser is similar to buying power tools. I want reliability, good results, and manufacturers support. I always buy top brands, not knockoffs or wan-a-be's. I have never seen power tool companies study the intelligence of their users. Seems like a rather useless study to me.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

I don't know how much they spent on this research, but I could have told them the same thing for nothing.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> Opera's pretty good. Tons of user customizations and special scripts available from their boards. I've stayed with v10 so far though since I read about some problems with newer versions.
> 
> Never tried FF, Chrome or some of the others. My two staples are Opera and SeaMonkey.


Just downloaded Opera, I can see a big learning curve. Damn thing took over my desktop...:lol:

Never heard of SeaMonkey either, I'll download that and try it. Thanx,

Rich


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

davring said:


> I have never seen power tool companies study the intelligence of their users.


Sure you have.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Marlin Guy said:


> I don't know how much they spent on this research, but I could have told them the same thing for nothing.


I've felt that way about many studies. But this is kinda interesting, no? I never gave it much thought, I've just been ignoring IE for years and it's nice to see that hasn't been an act of stupidity...for a change.

Rich


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

rich584 said:


> Just downloaded Opera, I can see a big learning curve. Damn thing took over my desktop...:lol:
> 
> Never heard of SeaMonkey either, I'll download that and try it. Thanx,
> 
> Rich


SeaMonkey is the latest evolution of the full browser suite from Mozilla -- Netscape >> Mozilla Suite >> SeaMonkey. If you ever used Netscape pre-AOL, SM will look very familiar.

O taking over desktop? Hmmmm. Never had that happen.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Marlin Guy said:


> Sure you have.


I used to supervise a carpenter's shop and if the guy who invented that would have come to me and showed me that, I'd have bought it right on the spot. Those carpenters all had missing fingers or fingertips and the whole experience of supervising them was terrifying. I would have been held responsible for any injuries. What a marvelous device!

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

SayWhat? said:


> SeaMonkey is the latest evolution of the full browser suite from Mozilla -- Netscape >> Mozilla Suite >> SeaMonkey. If you ever used Netscape pre-AOL, SM will look very familiar.
> 
> O taking over desktop? Hmmmm. Never had that happen.


It made itself the browser of choice, never asked me if it could.

Rich


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

rich584 said:


> I used to supervise a carpenter's shop and if the guy who invented that would have come to me and showed me that, I'd have bought it right on the spot. Those carpenters all had missing fingers or fingertips and the whole experience of supervising them was terrifying. I would have been held responsible for any injuries. What a marvelous device!
> 
> Rich


It is a good product, quite safe, to bad it is not a better saw.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

davring said:


> It is a good product, quite safe, to bad it is not a better saw.


No matter what the brand of saw is, that idea would be incredibly valuable. Kinda like when GFIs came out. Nobody believed in them at the time.

Rich


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

rich584 said:


> Those carpenters all had missing fingers or fingertips and the whole experience of supervising them was terrifying.


Exactly my point!
The intelligence of the people who use power tools is generally measured on a scale of 1-10.
ER surveys help too.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

Back to the browsers issue....
The other day I was helping someone with a computer.
I wanted to show them some photos in my Photobucket account, so I logged into PB with IE.

WOW! I never knew they had so many annoying ads in that place! :eek2:


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)




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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

One of the big problems with using alternatives to IE is the fact that a lot of web sites are IE centric, and either won't display properly or won't work with other browsers. If I recall, Firefox has a plugin that allows it to emulate IE. The problem used to come up when people used some of Microsoft's web page development software, which didn't follow formal HTML standards.

As to Opera -- I haven't used it for a few years, having standardized on Firefox. I keep promising myself to revisit Opera one of these days.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

SayWhat? said:


> SeaMonkey is the latest evolution of the full browser suite from Mozilla -- Netscape >> Mozilla Suite >> SeaMonkey.


Looked at the screenshots. What is the difference between Seamonkey and just using a combo of Firefox and Thunderbird? Other than the IRC chat and Newsgroups that I dont use...


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Cholly said:


> One of the big problems with using alternatives to IE is the fact that a lot of web sites are IE centric, and either won't display properly or won't work with other browsers.


Or, in the case of trying to watch the live CNN streaming feed at work, having to download and install Firefox because it totally refused to play on I.E.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"Davenlr" said:


> Or, in the case of trying to watch the live CNN streaming feed at work, having to download and install Firefox because it totally refused to play on I.E.


Which version of IE? Too many companies are still on 6.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> Which version of IE? Too many companies are still on 6.


I really dont know, didnt look. Its the one with the tabbed browsing, running on XP. It has the latest flash and Java. I didnt go any further, it was quicker just downloading Firefox.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Well, Mac users are smarter than PC users,  and since IE is not available on Mac's, this is just an extension of that.

PS: I use Firefox. Can't stand Safari.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

Davenlr said:


> Looked at the screenshots. What is the difference between Seamonkey and just using a combo of Firefox and Thunderbird? Other than the IRC chat and Newsgroups that I dont use...


Never used either stand-alone product, so I can't say for sure. During installation, you can customize the set-up and de-select certain components like ChatZilla if you don't want them installed. Composer is a WYSIWYG web page designer that I played around with a few times. I used the Mail & Newsgroups extensively for a while as my default mail program due to the IMAP style. Switched to Opera's built-in mail client later.

Most (but not all) of the FF addons are available for SeaMonkey.

I still find a few sites that don't display properly in one browser or the other, but very few won't work in both. The ones that rely on ActiveX I'd prefer to avoid to begin with.

I have to keep IE available for certain places like M$'s home sites and upgrade pages.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

rich584 said:


> One of the most intelligent men I've ever known and I have had many discussions regarding concepts such as intelligence, stupidity and ignorance. Never touched on dumb.
> 
> We've reached these conclusions: Intelligence is the ability to learn. Ignorance is nothing more than not knowing anything about a particular subject and stupidity is making the same mistakes over and over and not learning from them, which is a lack of intelligence. Ignorance should be forgivable, but not stupidity.
> 
> Dumb. I dunno, somewhat like stupidity, but genetic, perhaps? Rich


I see dumb used mostly in place of stupid, but sometimes in lieu of ignorant.

I like what your friend said. I feel that intelligence also includes the desire to learn, explore, challenge, combined with the ability to do so.

And then, what about those who are willfully ignorant (of things that affect those around them.)?


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Herdfan said:


> Well, Mac users are smarter than PC users,  and since IE is not available on Mac's, this is just an extension of that.
> 
> PS: I use Firefox. Can't stand Safari.


Dutch treat, that site! The video says it's "private"- amusing for a public web page.

There are millions of PC users who're smarter than the average Mac guy, just as there are millions of Mac users who're smarter than the average PC guy. (Guy being impersonal).


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> I see dumb used mostly in place of stupid, but sometimes in lieu of ignorant.
> 
> I like what your friend said. I feel that intelligence also includes the desire to learn, explore, challenge, combined with the ability to do so.
> 
> And then, what about those who are willfully ignorant (of things that affect those around them.)?


Those are the people that usually fall into the, about, 5% of the people you have to deal with. I had to take many seminars about dealing with "difficult" people and all I learned points me to say this. Sadly they are usually people who don't have much of a life and attend union meetings and thereby control the unions. And get themselves elected to high positions, not only in unions, but in political offices. And they screw up everything. It was a rule of thumb in all the classes I attended, "out of every 100 people you have working for you, all the problems will be caused by about five people." And I believe that to be true.

Rich


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

curious - what company footed the bill for this study.....


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

wingrider01 said:


> curious - what company footed the bill for this study.....


Probably a federal grant, so we did.

Rich


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"Davenlr" said:


> I really dont know, didnt look. Its the one with the tabbed browsing, running on XP. It has the latest flash and Java. I didnt go any further, it was quicker just downloading Firefox.


Understood, it just is kind of important in comparison. It theoretically could be IE7, Firefox 2 came out that same month, so in that case isn't fair to IE to say it didn't work when a new download of Firefox did.

Personally, I use Chrome almost exclusively.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> Personally, I use Chrome almost exclusively.


Serious question: Why Chrome and not one of the others? I would use it over IE and Safari. I gather you tried the other ones? I'd be interested in your opinions on the ones you don't choose to use.

And anyone else's similar opinions.

Rich


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## palmgrower (Jul 18, 2011)

Chrome & Seamonkey work for me


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

wingrider01 said:


> curious - what company footed the bill for this study.....





rich584 said:


> Probably a federal grant, so we did.
> 
> Rich


It was a Canadian company study.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sigma1914 said:


> It was a Canadian company study.


Don't understand, is it a Canadian study of company usage of browsers or by a Canadian company that was commissioned to do the study? Did they only study Canadians? You really got me confused with that answer...:lol:

Rich


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"rich584" said:


> Serious question: Why Chrome and not one of the others? I would use it over IE and Safari. I gather you tried the other ones? I'd be interested in your opinions on the ones you don't choose to use.
> 
> And anyone else's similar opinions.
> 
> Rich


Oh sure, I used to be a Firefox fan, still have it installed for times I actually need it, certainly nothing wrong with it.

I like the UI of Chrome, the built in PDF support (though I know Firefox is working on this as well.) it just seems faster as well.Haven tried Opera in a long time, on my Blackberry, I use Bolt.

The new Firefox is supposed to be out in a few weeks (Version 6), I'll download that as well.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

> the built in PDF support (though I know Firefox is working on this as well.)


Not sure what you mean by built-in support, but both O and SM display .pdf pages in browser windows or tabs.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

rich584 said:


> Don't understand, is it a Canadian study of company usage of browsers or by a Canadian company that was commissioned to do the study? Did they only study Canadians? You really got me confused with that answer...:lol:
> 
> Rich


The company who did the study is Canadian. Participants were from different countries.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"SayWhat?" said:


> Not sure what you mean by built-in support, but both O and SM display .pdf pages in browser windows or tabs.


Haven't used Opera in years (still had ads), never have used SeaMonkey, no use to me for a mail app and Firefox works fine for sites that do anything goofy with Chrome.


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## mystic7 (Dec 9, 2007)

They forgot possible reason D. Some of us just don't give a rat's ass about getting "the best possible browsing experience".


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## RasputinAXP (Jan 23, 2008)

SayWhat? said:


> Not sure what you mean by built-in support, but both O and SM display .pdf pages in browser windows or tabs.


Built in PDF support meaning it doesn't load Adobe in a plug-in, it renders it natively in-browser.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Come on, this is silly.

IE comes with the operating system. People who have no curiosity about their computer beyond Facebook aren't even going to know what Firefox or Opera is. So the IQ average drops a few points.

People who fool around with various browsers on average are likely to score higher on IQ tests just because they show a little intellectual curiosity about their environment.

And then there is the whole question about people who have time to deal with "online psychometric testing."


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## Inkosaurus (Jul 29, 2011)

Cholly said:


> One of the big problems with using alternatives to IE is the fact that a lot of web sites are IE centric, and either won't display properly or won't work with other browsers. If I recall, Firefox has a plugin that allows it to emulate IE. The problem used to come up when people used some of Microsoft's web page development software, which didn't follow formal HTML standards.
> 
> As to Opera -- I haven't used it for a few years, having standardized on Firefox. I keep promising myself to revisit Opera one of these days.


Its not that there purposely IE centric, its more or less we have to make sure the sites can still work on IE. Which has been incredibly limiting until some of the recent updates to IE in the past few years. Now that IE is finally starting to catch up to FF, chrome and opera those websites that are "IE centric" are going to be more geared towards better browsers.

IE is pretty much the number one reason the internet has been held back for so long, we couldnt use cool new web dev code because IE didnt support it for the longest time and since it has a large market share alot of site development teams/hobby-ists, ect purposely stuck to using only what IE was capable of running in order to not alienate a large portion of potential traffic.

The only reason i even have IE now a days is just to load up my websites on IE to make sure there formatting correctly and working still.

None the less ive been a Opera user for a long time, its the little quirks like speed dial, mouse gestures <3, awesome user community, and ease of customization that make it very appealing to me. And generally its one of the lightest browsers around, i think only Chrome comes close to how light a browser can be on your pc resource. Unlike FF which with multiple tabs open will usually get a bad memory leak issue going.

Once you give opera a try its very hard to go back ^_^


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> Oh sure, I used to be a Firefox fan, still have it installed for times I actually need it, certainly nothing wrong with it.
> 
> I like the UI of Chrome, the built in PDF support (though I know Firefox is working on this as well.) it just seems faster as well.Haven tried Opera in a long time, on my Blackberry, I use Bolt.
> 
> The new Firefox is supposed to be out in a few weeks (Version 6), I'll download that as well.


Thanx. I've been using FF for so long, I don't know if I could change. I was kinda disappointed when Chrome came out. I thought it would be more like FF, I guess. It is fast. I do use it occasionally. I've read that FF eats up RAM, but I only use my computer as a portal to the Net, so I don't really notice any slowness.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

sigma1914 said:


> The company who did the study is Canadian. Participants were from different countries.


Clear, thanx,

Rich


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## TBlazer07 (Feb 5, 2009)

Davenlr said:


> Or, in the case of trying to watch the live CNN streaming feed at work, having to download and install Firefox because it totally refused to play on I.E.


 While I use Firefox 98% of the time I find a LOT of sites that have problems with it. For example, NJ Horizon Blue Cross doesn't work with FF. Can't even log into it. I've found quite a few others that don't display text or graphic pages properly so having IE8 is still a requirement for me.


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

^^ I've run into a lot of state and federal government sites that only work with IE. I find that kind of annoying and contradictory to open-access and monopoly laws.


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## klang (Oct 14, 2003)

SayWhat? said:


> ^^ I've run into a lot of state and federal government sites that only work with IE. I find that kind of annoying and contradictory to open-access and monopoly laws.


Ran into that the other day trying to pay my flood insurance bill online. IE only. It even popped up a message when first went to it using Firefox saying I needed to use IE. I'm running a Windows VM on my Mac so it wasn't a problem but other Mac users are just SOL?


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## dmspen (Dec 1, 2006)

I don't understand this thread. 

I love IE!

Sorry this took so long to post, my browser crashed.


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## Marlin Guy (Apr 8, 2009)

:grin:


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

klang said:


> Ran into that the other day trying to pay my flood insurance bill online. IE only. It even popped up a message when first went to it using Firefox saying I needed to use IE. I'm running a Windows VM on my Mac so it wasn't a problem but other Mac users are just SOL?


Not at all. Many (most?) browsers are able to spoof others. You might need to add extensions to do that, but it certainly was something I've done in the near past- say two years ago. I know I've done it in Safari, SeaMonkey, and Firefox, but not with current versions. Not sure if it can be done in Chrome or not.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

And to bring it back to the original story, in the words of Frankenstein from Monster Squad...Bogus! The whole thing seems to be fake.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14370878


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> And to bring it back to the original story, in the words of Frankenstein from Monster Squad...Bogus! The whole thing seems to be fake.
> 
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14370878


Kinda like the "Venezuelan White Line" hoax that the Encyclopedia Brittanica bit on in the late '60s, early '70s. That was a real beauty.

Rich


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> Bogus! The whole thing seems to be fake.


Doesn't mean its not still true.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Herdfan said:


> Doesn't mean its not still true.


I think a lot of folks use IE because it's so ubiquitous. Doesn't mean anything more than that. Or does it? Hmmm.

Rich


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## braven (Apr 9, 2007)

People still use Internet Explorer?


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## SayWhat? (Jun 7, 2009)

rich584 said:


> I think a lot of folks use IE because it's so ubiquitous. Doesn't mean anything more than that. Or does it?


People use it because it's there and because they don't know any better. I'd say a large percentage of typical PC users don't even know there other browsers.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"braven" said:


> People still use Internet Explorer?


Better than Safari, unless its IE6 maybe.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

SayWhat? said:


> People use it because it's there and because they don't know any better. I'd say a large percentage of typical PC users don't even know there other browsers.


I would argue that point due to the amount of users of Google. You cannot use Google.com without seeing a download link for Chrome and a tag line to download it unless you tell it to go away.

The bottom line is IE is the standard and current versions work with every web page without thinking about it.

I use IE 9 more than any other browser for the fact that it just works. People can talk security all they want but ultimately most people won't be safe just by swapping browsers. Choices are good because they drive innovation.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

dpeters11 said:


> Better than Safari, unless its IE6 maybe.


Truth. I really am surprised that Apple didn't come up with a better browser.

Rich


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

rich584 said:


> Truth. I really am surprised that Apple didn't come up with a better browser.
> 
> Rich


For PC's? Or do you find it lacking on a Mac? I am sure there are shortcomings, but if I bump into them, I just flip to another browser.

What are its failings?


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> For PC's? Or do you find it lacking on a Mac? I am sure there are shortcomings, but if I bump into them, I just flip to another browser.
> 
> What are its failings?


It usually is the first browser to be taken over in the Pwn2Own contests.

I don't know if it's better on Mac, but Apple software is no good on Windows, such as iTunes.


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## Herdfan (Mar 18, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> For PC's? Or do you find it lacking on a Mac?


Sucks on a Mac too. I use Firefox. Just don't like the way Safari works.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Herdfan said:


> Sucks on a Mac too. I use Firefox. Just don't like the way Safari works.


Any specifics? (I'm not trying to challenge the notion, but understand what deficiencies it has for others).

I use: Chrome- approx. 40%, Safari 40%, and FF about 10% and the balance among Opera, Camino, Mozilla.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> Any specifics? (I'm not trying to challenge the notion, but understand what deficiencies it has for others).
> 
> I use: Chrome- approx. 40%, Safari 40%, and FF about 10% and the balance among Opera, Camino, Mozilla.


Seems kinda lacking, I think. Can't really find the words to describe how I feel about it.

Rich


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