Where better to start our series on web browsers than the well known Internet Explorer, the perceived “king” of the web — at least when it comes to market share. Redman dug into the analytics of over 200 Real Estate sites and discovered IE accounts for a whopping 66% of browser usage.

Despite having the lion’s share of use, IE is famously disliked by web designers and developers alike for its long legacy of broken rules and web standards ignorance. The peculiarities of Internet Explorer combined with its large market share have led to endless problems, including having to develop web applications twice: once for IE users and once for everyone else.

What’s Good About IE8

Web Standards and Compliance: IE8 does a much better job than previous versions of complying to current web standards. IE8 also includes a Compatibility View that can display older websites following IE7 rules, a feature designed to ease browser version transition for users and developers alike.

Speed: IE8 incorporates a huge speed improvement over the notoriously sluggish IE7: when it first came out it was even ahead of Firefox when it came to straight-up web browsing.

ActiveX: Because Internet Explorer is treated as part of the Windows operating system, it can take advantage of ActiveX controls, a powerful set of developer tools that let it distribute application work in your web browser and over the Internet.

What’s Bad About IE8

Web Standards and Compliance: IE8 is falling behind when it comes to the latest in web standards, including new HTML5 and CSS3 features that are being increasingly used in modern web development.

Speed: IE8 didn’t stay out in front of the pack when it came to speed for very long. Numerous benchmark tests show IE8 is currently the slowest of all modern browsers, both at displaying simple static web pages and at running the code behind more dynamically driven websites.

Extensions and Add-ons: When IE8 was first released there were approximately 1,200 add-ons available, but that number has shrunk to less than 600 today, making Internet Explorer one of the least extensible browsers available. Developers have been less than enthusiastic to create extensions for IE in part because of the problematic way IE8 manages them: some sources claim almost 70% of IE8 crashes are due to add-ons.

What’s Ugly About IE8

Security and Updates: While other browsers prompt and often force users to update, Microsoft updates are opt-in. They release patches on a regular schedule rather than as soon as they’re ready, often leaving security holes open longer and delaying upgrades to speed and stability. Major revisions are often reserved for the next big version, but because users aren’t forced to upgrade many continue to use old IE6 and 7 versions abandoned by Microsoft and riddled with security and bug problems.

What’s worse, because Microsoft treats Internet Explorer as an integral part of the Windows operating system, these unplugged holes can leave your computer open to viruses and malware attacks, putting both you and your clients’ data at risk. Using an older version of IE is akin to standing in the path of an oncoming tornado: it’s simply flirting with disaster.

The Verdict on Internet Explorer

All in all, IE8 was a once-decent web browser that has fallen behind its competitors. The next version of Internet Explorer, IE9, is on the horizon and due to start beta testing in September. Estimates put the IE9 release sometime in 2011.

Next up: Redman reviews Google Chrome.