We’ve been reporting recently on the dwindling success of Microsoft Internet Explorer both in the U.S. and across Europe. While there’s little doubt that IE is hurting stateside, the more pressing concern for Microsoft is that they’ve actually dropped to second place in Europe thanks to a mandate that Windows give people a chance to select their preferred browser during system setup. Now we’re getting an official set of responses from Microsoft, both on its current position in the browser market and its upcoming browser innovations.
This comes from the AllThingsD event at the Consumer Electronics Show, where Microsoft’s VP of Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch, discussed the issues with The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg. According to Mashable, Hachamovitch had a clear line he wanted to present. He kept bringing the conversation back to privacy, and he even sported a shirt with the word “private” (as well as the IE logo) across the front. The reason for the focus is Microsoft’s push toward letting users control more of what tracking is allowed, successfully avoiding “creepy-stalking tracking.” This includes through a single-button feature on IE9 which will allow users to block cookies and tracking from any given site. Microsoft seems to be leading the discussion of privacy in other sectors as well, including through an upcoming discussion forum with industry leaders which will be taking place at UC Berkley this year.
IE9 was certainly of note, and Hachamovitch isn’t the first to talk about high hopes for the new platform. In fact, it was the very line used to dodge the actual issue being present by Mossberg from the get-go. When Mossberg brought up the dying presence of IE around the world, Hachavomitch simply stated that the market presence of earlier versions of IE wasn’t something they wanted anyway, since they wanted users to get behind IE9.
