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IE Tab has saved me from ever using Internet Explorer on its own again. Now, don’t assume that I’m a rabid anti-Microsoft hater / sheep-like Mozilla fanboy, although you’d have good reason to assume so. After all, this site is about Firefox extensions, something you can’t really mirror with Internet Explorer. My only beef with the big blue E is that there are a lot of web sites out there that force you to use it. I like having one browsing program open, and I don’t really want to have to switch back and forth. That’s just a pain in the ass.

So, IE Tab saves me the trouble of opening multiple applications for one purpose, which is grand. Here’s a sample screenshot:

The icon in the tab lets you know that the Internet Explorer engine is being used on that page. Nice, simple, effective notifications- that’s what makes a great extension great. It doesn’t pop up in your face, yet it lets you know exactly what’s going on.

I first used an extension that would simply open up the current web page in an Internet Explorer window. It was basic, but it got the job done. IE Tab has taken it a step further, and actually embeds IE right in a Firefox tab. The best part is that it is customizable with a whitelist- so every time I go to my school’s web page, which refuses to function in any other browser besides Internet Explorer, it opens without a hitch, showing that little comforting blue E in the lower right of my screen.

It’s a crying shame that this extension should even be necessary, but for some reason, schools, government agencies and banking institutions love to hire designers that are totally clueless about browser behavior, or that there’s even an alternative to Internet Explorer. Until that day comes when all pages are deisgned using strict compliant code, IE Tab can make it a more tolerable experience.

IE Tab