Posted on 07/31/2011 6:36:07 AM PDT by KyGeezer
Results from an online IQ test taken by over 100,000 people have been reported as indicating the users of Internet Explorer have low IQ and have provoked some IE users to threaten legal action. But the study's findings are valuable ammunition for web developers.
A Canadian company that designs, validates and publishes psychometric tests for recruitment, career guidance and staff development, released its report Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Browser Usage and found itself at the centre of a storm.
The survey findings were reported by Jared Newman on PC World with the headline "Internet Explorer Users Are Kinda Stupid" and as his story spread AptiQuant started to receive hate mail from IE users.
In an attempt to defuse the situation Leonard Howard, AptiQuant's founder and CEO said,
"I just want to make it clear that the report released by my company did not suggest that if you use IE that means you have a low IQ, but what it really says is that if you have a low IQ then there are high chances that you use Internet Explorer."
And if a quick look at the chart below shows that this is indeed the case. There are three clusters - a below average one comprising all the versions of IE, one that is slightly above average comprising Firefox, Chrome and Safari, and a final one that is again significantly better with three minority browser choices, IE with Chrome Frame, Camino and Opera.
(Excerpt) Read more at i-programmer.info ...
For me it’s two things. First, a visceral dislike of anything related to Microsoft. I was married for many years to one of the smartest guys who ever graduated from MIT—and that’s saying something. After listening to him talk about Microsoft with dripping, ***dripping*** disdain, I have done what I can not to rely on their products.
Secondly, I have a friend who is extremely tech savvy. Some years ago he raved to me about Firefox, and offered to install it on my computer. I jumped at the chance, and have loved it ever since. It’s just a very good browser, but I can’t compare it to IE because I have never used it.
Correction. I did use IE twice at the public library. It seemed clutzy and irritating, but then, I’m used to Firefox.
clutzy = klutzy
More caffeine, please.
Firefox just works better than IE. That’s the bottom line. It’s free, so there’s no reason not to download it and try it for yourself to see if you agree. If you don’t like it you can dump it.
Obammy uses IE.....just saying...
I use IE 9. More stable than Firefox.
Been a Firefox user for years, and currently run the latest version on all my computers, except this one. I also use the IE Tab 2 addon when visiting sites that display correctly only with Internet Explorer.
(For those who don’t know, IE Tab 2 allows you to switch to the IE rendering engine, effectively running IE from within Firefox.)
It’s Hip to be square - so sez Huey Louis & the News.,br>
Sent VIA FIREFOX
The only problem I’ve had with Firefox is it won’t import my Opera bookmarks. The motherboard power supply in my laptop died a couple of months ago and I got a bargain on a Lenovo at Best Buy.(Love it! And made sure it had an AMD processor. I put up with a piece of shit Celeron for years.) I had saved Opera bookmarks on a flash drive and was able to import them.
My major irritation with Win7 is Windows Explorer. I’m sure I’ll end up paying for Total Commander. I want to be able to see a damn directory tree.
One common problem with “studies” is the prescence of “confounding variables” that have not been accounted for. I skimmed the article and ran across the following:
The results would look very different if one labelled the browsers not by name but by date. IE6 which has the worst IQ performance is now a very outdated browser and IE7 is also out of date. Chrome, is well up to date and users of IE who also use Chrome Frame are in the top group which tends to confirm the idea that users who take the trouble to upgrade their browsing experience are brighter than those who put up with a below par browsing experience.
My next purchase may be a state of the art tablet. But I will also keep hold of my old Apple IBook running the ancient system 9, even if I have to buy another through EBay. I run system 9 because it runs system 9 applications that Apple orphaned. (Don't try to "educate" me on this, I've been through this before, and there's lots you don't know.) So, with new and ancient browsers, will I be "smart" or "dumb?"
Yes, same here. Firefox and Windows 7, and no problems.
And, I think the results of their “study” are really easy to explain: those with less intellectual curiosity don’t feel the need to understand and find the “best” ie system, especially if they have to go out of their way to do so; researching the options and how to install and individualize them. They just use what’s already on there. And, it’s almost always IE.
MSIE is THE target browser for every crack pot in the world. Look at the zillions of security updates for MSIE. I only use MSIE for microsoft updates. That’s it. For everything else I use Firefox or Chrome. I have a household network of 7 XP Pro computers and they all run Firefox flawlessly. Only loaded Chrome 3 weeks ago on one of my machines and it has been fine so far.
>>>>Obammy uses IE.....just saying...
Post of the thread! Nuff said!
Another Mozilla program you might like is Eudora OSE which is a really good email client. Mozilla recently took it over from Qualcomm after Qualcomm quit supporting it back in ‘06.
Qualcomm got 40 bucks for it with the first iteration for Win3.1.
If you really want to start a flame war
Rejigger the stats by OS
/duck
Firefox won’t let me install it in any drive other than C:
I can download the install package into the drive I want, but it insists on installing into C: and won’t let me change the destination drive no matter what I try.
I decided to let it install into C:, knowing the drive was full, and got error messages (imagine that!).
I suppose I’ll have to learn a new browser, since my fave won’t co-operate...
Anything from Google is out, though. I don’t trust them as far as I can throw their headquarters building. I suppose I will try Opera next. IF it’ll let me choose its destination.
I finally took a chance with FF5.
FF has had a back and forth history. Some updates created massive havoc; others were great.
With FF5 I lost a couple of add-ons that weren’t that important. They seemed to have cured the severe memory hogging problem. I do like the SYNC feature — as now, I can sync passwords and bookmarks with my desktop and two laptops.
Also, Firefox 5 does load faster than previous versions.
It's the "I'm cooler than you" syndrome.
Closely akin to "Mac users rule" complex.
Back in the 60's it was Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge.
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