Comments on: IE Team sends cake to Firefox Team - Congrats! http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/ analyzing the business and technology of the web Sun, 07 Sep 2008 18:44:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Andy Brudtkuhl http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2465 Andy Brudtkuhl Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:42:59 +0000 http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2465 Thank you much for the comments Joe. I have built add-ons for IE as well for a few enterprise web apps. I have also jumped into FF extensions just to try them out. It is much easier to do in FF, which is probably why they have such a vast community behind it. One question -- why not do Windows Live Writer as a web service? Thank you much for the comments Joe. I have built add-ons for IE as well for a few enterprise web apps. I have also jumped into FF extensions just to try them out. It is much easier to do in FF, which is probably why they have such a vast community behind it.

One question — why not do Windows Live Writer as a web service?

]]> By: Joe Cheng http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2376 Joe Cheng Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:19:38 +0000 http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2376 Sorry, meant to say "I work for Microsoft but on Windows Live Writer, not IE". Sorry, meant to say “I work for Microsoft but on Windows Live Writer, not IE”.

]]> By: Joe Cheng http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2375 Joe Cheng Sat, 28 Oct 2006 00:17:50 +0000 http://getanewbrowser.com/2006/10/microsoft-sends-a-congratulation-cake-to-mozilla/#comment-2375 (I work for Microsoft but not on Windows Live Writer, not IE) Actually IE has had "add-ons" since at least version 4.0. I'm not sure if there's always been a central place you could go to get free add-ons, but there is now: http://www.ieaddons.com Here's a web developer toolbar: http://www.ieaddons.com/AddOn.aspx?cid=2&scid=70&aid=a9bcc859-8419-4b67-aac3-e1b3e9749414 I couldn't find a Gmail notifier that wasn't part of a larger toolbar, though there's nothing to stop someone from writing one. I've developed quite extensive Firefox extensions and IE add-ons, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each one. With Firefox it's much easier to customize any aspect of the browser UI, whereas with IE you are basically limited to extending the UI in a few predefined points (custom toolbars, command bar buttons, explorer bars at the left or bottom of the screen, context menu additions, main menu additions). On the other hand, with Firefox it's almost impossible to create any new widgets besides the ones they give you in the XUL toolkit, whereas with IE you can easy create custom interfaces. A huge advantage for Firefox is that most extensions are just JavaScript and XML, so you don't have to know [C++ or VB] and COM to create an extension. They did a great job of lowering the bar of participation, something that is generally Microsoft's forte. (I work for Microsoft but not on Windows Live Writer, not IE)

Actually IE has had “add-ons” since at least version 4.0. I’m not sure if there’s always been a central place you could go to get free add-ons, but there is now: http://www.ieaddons.com

Here’s a web developer toolbar:
http://www.ieaddons.com/AddOn.aspx?cid=2&scid=70&aid=a9bcc859-8419-4b67-aac3-e1b3e9749414

I couldn’t find a Gmail notifier that wasn’t part of a larger toolbar, though there’s nothing to stop someone from writing one.

I’ve developed quite extensive Firefox extensions and IE add-ons, and there are advantages and disadvantages to each one. With Firefox it’s much easier to customize any aspect of the browser UI, whereas with IE you are basically limited to extending the UI in a few predefined points (custom toolbars, command bar buttons, explorer bars at the left or bottom of the screen, context menu additions, main menu additions). On the other hand, with Firefox it’s almost impossible to create any new widgets besides the ones they give you in the XUL toolkit, whereas with IE you can easy create custom interfaces.

A huge advantage for Firefox is that most extensions are just JavaScript and XML, so you don’t have to know [C++ or VB] and COM to create an extension. They did a great job of lowering the bar of participation, something that is generally Microsoft’s forte.

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