While reading about GMail’s new (improved) “New Window” feature, I found the following line to be quite remarkable.

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to make this work in Internet Explorer, so to see the speed-up, you’ll need to be using Mozilla Firefox, Apple’s Safari, or Google Chrome.

So what essentially happened is that Google did not bother finding a fix for the dreaded Internet Explorer browser. Many web developers will agree at how lacking this browser can be when it comes to meeting standards set by the W3C and thus will most likely understand what made Google come to this conclusion. (Note that I have not yet checked the code used, so perhaps the problem causing this lies elsewhere than not meeting standards)

Though understandable, this choice should certainly be seen as significant. I am not aware about how often Google keeps out a feature for a certain browser, but this sure is one of those things that make me hope that Windows will one day come to its senses and accept the fact that meeting standards is indeed very important for the web as a whole.

How else can the web keep up the role of being a vital part of many lives? You cannot accept that different browsers give different or lacking experiences. After all, it is merely a medium to to reach the online content. Things are about the pages, not the browser.