Rubénerd!

Not that I'm biased or anything, but it seems when we though Microsoft couldn't do anything sillier (aside from naming their search engine Bing) Microsoft Australia has now come out with a contest encouraging people to download and install Internet Explorer 8, or Windows Internet Explorer 8 or Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer 8 Enterprise Edition SP1 or whatever it is they're calling it now.

The gist is, if you install IE8 and find a specially crafted page that only it can view, you'll win a cash prize. Several thoughts on this:

1. Are they so desperate to get people to use IE these days and given they've long since lost so much of the public's confidence that they have to resort to measures like this to promote their software that mention nothing about features, performance or security?

2. The page is disingenuous. Viewing it on my FreeBSD or Mac machines I'm told to upgrade to IE8 when clearly I can't even if I wanted to.

3. What's to stop me modifying my user agent?

4. There's nothing like creating a page that only one browser can view to demonstrate to the world that you're company is finally getting serious about adopting open standards.

5. The exact phrasing is "get rid of [Firefox] or get lost." To be honest, I'd feel safer getting lost!

They have billions in the bank and some talented people; and this was the best they could do? As Todd Tyrtle on Twitter said, who knew I hated Internet Explorer so much that they couldn't pay me $10,000 to use it!

If I've said it once I've said it a hundred times, I'm constantly bewildered and baffled by Microsoft's antics. The Microsoft from my childhood has long since died.

The BBC is reporting Microsoft's opinion of their latest web browser offering: Internet Exporer 8:

Microsoft has stepped up the battle to win back users with the latest release of its Internet Explorer browser.

The US software giant says IE 8 is faster, easier to use and more secure than its competitors.

"We have made IE 8 the best browser for the way people really do use the web," said Microsoft's Amy Barzdukas.

At the end of last year, data from Net Applications showed the software giant's market share dropped below 70% for the first time in eight years to 68%.

I reiterate this one Bruce Schneier quote I've been saying here for years: security isn't claimed, it's proved. Internet Explorer 8 might be easer to use than 7 (and here's hoping the interface isn't as messed up too, for people who have no choice), but real world performance once it's released will be the real test of its security.

Microsoft has a history of delivering the aforementioned claims, but not the results. This is slowly changing, but they've got a very, very steep climb ahead. I'm not Bill Kurtis.

The story was summarised by the BBC in their RSS feed this morning as a question addressed for people who had jumped ship:

Will Microsoft's new browser help persuade users who have flocked to other alternatives come back to Internet Explorer?

A few perhaps, but certainly not me or anyone I advise.