And the Browser War Goes On...

We tend to complicate simple things only to realize later that we need to simplify them back. But once that happens, we know that maturity is in the horizon.

Microsoft released the Internet Explorer 9 Beta this week with many positive reviews. Not surprisingly, the browser has been reduced to a simple window for tabbed documents. Although the minimalist design was pioneered by Google via Chrome, Internet Explorer 9's implementation may attract converts back to Microsoft's browser that's specially designed with special features when used on Windows 7.

If we review the history of Internet browsers, Internet Explorer 9 is a back to basics solution to the growing pains of adding more features to the browser. Microsoft's study of user behaviors and habits in browsing the Internet were applied into science to drive the new design allowing them to retain the features that users really use and remove those that are of less value.

In line with the philosophy of Windows Phone 7's Metro UI, content is king! Granted that most of the success on the Internet puts content front and center, this direction is a winning push for Microsoft going forward.

It is correct to say that on the Internet, the websites are the application, not the browser. The strategy is not to let the browser define the Internet experience. Rather, the strategy should be to let the websites define the experience desired for their visitors and users. This also drives more partners to be in favor of Microsoft's browser and we should expect much support from them for Internet Explorer 9.

As started by Google Chrome, the Internet browser of the future is "invisible". The website is the application. As we see less and less of the browser on the screen, but more and more of the content we are interested in instead, the future of the Internet experience is starting to get revolutionized.

As The Matrix movie claims that there is no spoon, in the real world... there is no browser.