Has Microsoft abandoned IE?

Despite all appearances, Microsoft insists it hasn't lost interest in Web browsers.

It has been years since Microsoft declared victory over browser pioneer Netscape Communications and a long time since it last released a full upgrade to Internet Explorer (IE). Now critics say the company is fulfilling old predictions that it would embrace the browser and extend its capabilities, only to extinguish it.

Redmond rejects that notion, saying instead that the long wait for an IE update is an indication of the work it's putting into the next incarnation of the browser. If Microsoft's plans pan out, it will unveil dramatic new features that will take Web browsing to an entirely new level -- in many ways stepping beyond the browser completely.

Because those features will be available only to people who also use the next version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, currently dubbed Longhorn, browser functions are expected to create a powerful reason for customers to upgrade.

"It's not accurate to say we're not doing work in this space," said Michael Wallent, general manager of Microsoft's Windows client platform and documents team. "My team, which is very large, has been working very hard the last three and a half years....We have not blown off IE at all. We care deeply about this market. It's supercritical."

Web developers and surfers alike might be forgiven for having suspected Microsoft of caring less than deeply about the browser.

Microsoft's last major browser release was in August 2001. The company in the summer of 2003 discontinued its browser for the Macintosh and said it would issue no more standalone versions of IE. Last month, the company released new IE security features in its Service Pack 2 (SP2) for the Windows XP operating system, but said only XP users would get those improvements.

Once praised for its standards compliance, IE is now denounced by Web developers as outdated. Meanwhile, there has been an outcry over the browser's lack of standards support for basic Web technologies like CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the PNG (Portable Network Graphics) image format, and for its lack of popular features like tabbed browsing.

At the heart of the controversy is Microsoft's longtime insistence that the browser isn't a standalone piece of software, as it is most commonly thought of, but merely a feature of the Windows operating system. In future releases of Windows, starting with the long-awaited Longhorn, Web browsing functionality will be embedded deeply within applications, reaffirming the Windows interface rather than the browser as the centre of the computing experience.