Internet Explorer 10 interview: how Microsoft is bringing touch to the web

It’s fair to say the internet and the way we use it has changed a lot since the early browser wars between Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator. While Microsoft may have won that battle and dominated the web with its proprietary ActiveX technology, things have moved on a lot. Today, it’s all about open standards and accessing the internet through a wide range of devices.

To find out how Microsoft is approaching this more open world, we sat down with Ryan Gavin, general manager of Internet Explorer, and Rob Mauceri, group program manager of Internet Explorer, to find out what’s different about Windows 8 and IE10.

A TOUCH EXPERIENCE

The main challenge with Windows 8 and IE10 was in bringing touch to the internet. This requirement was largely down to Windows 8’s touchscreen interface, but was also driven by the uptake in touch devices, giving people an expectation of how interfaces should work. Microsoft’s research also showed that regardless of the popularity of apps, the web was an incredibly important part of any touchscreen experience.

“Up to 50 per cent of tablet usage is spent on the web,” said Gavin, “but the web is a second-class citizen.”

By that statement, Microsoft means that although touchscreen devices have brought innovative new interfaces, tablet web browsers are largely just a copy of the desktop versions. In particular, tablet browsers render websites as though they were being displayed on a regular monitor, and add no extra touch features. Microsoft wanted to change that with IE10.

“Can the web be as fast, fluid and efficient as an app?” is the question Microsoft asked, Gavin told us.

In order to make websites to suit its vision, Microsoft had to ensure that developers had a set of tools to make their websites touch compatible and get developers to think about new user interfaces, so websites would work well with a touchscreen device.

Rather than creating proprietary technology, Microsoft wanted website touch support to be open to everyone to use.

“We built new APIs for touch events in the browser,” said Mauceri. “We then took our touch APIs to the W3C Consortium and are working with companies, such as Apple, Google and Mozilla, to standardise pointer events.”

NEW WEBSITES

A touch-enabled browser gives web developers a new box of tricks and lets them create new websites with different user interfaces. A good example of this is the game Contre Jour, which started life as an iOS app. However, it’s now available to play for free in the browser, with touch support meaning it’s the same to play on a touch-enabled web browser as it is on an iPhone or iPad.

Touch-enabled games work in the same way as the dedicated app

Touch isn’t necessarily about games and any website can add touch features. For example, with MSN on a touch browser, you can swipe to move to the next story. As with anything on the internet, the important that any site can work on any device, which is something that Microsoft feels it has achieved. All of its new technology means the touch components work as they would on a tablet, but the experience isn’t broken if you have a computer with a standard display.

“It’s what a consumer expects and it feels natural on a touchscreen device,” said Mauceri. “You can still use a mouse and keyboard. It all works.”

Modern browser techniques mean that websites have feature detection, so they can detect what a browser is capable of, as well as working out which operating system and device are being used. Feature detection means a website can show one version of the site for touch-enabled devices and another version for standard computers, where required.

TOUCH ENABLING SITES

With any system it’s important that any website can quickly implement the technology, otherwise it runs the risk that nobody will bother to create touch-enabled sites. This is largely why Microsoft went with open standards, enabling touch through CSS, HTML5 and JavaScript, so that developers could quickly make changes without having to learn a completely new way of doing things.

It’s this attitude and support of open standards that shows how much Microsoft has changed from the days where it was wall about its proprietary ActiveX standard.

“Our commitment to modern standards is very real,” said Gavin.

How much work it takes to build a touch-enabled site, depends on the complexity, but Microsoft believes that it’s not a difficult job, with MSN building a new touch-enabled experience quickly.

“Implementing couldn’t be simpler,” said Gavin. “We did all of the hard work.”

THE NEW IE10

As well as working behind the scenes to bring touch to the browser, Microsoft also wanted to overhaul IE10 completely for Windows 8. In particular the Start screen ‘Modern UI’ version of the browser is designed to run full screen and has ditched a lot of the page furniture that you get on the desktop version.

The new IE10 has a touch version, which drops all of the interface and icons you’d normally find on the Desktop

It was designed this way, as Microsoft doesn’t think that the browser is the important thing, but that the content should be thing you’re concentrating on. In this regard, IE10 does its best to turn the internet into an app, so you don’t think about which application you’re using, but more about the site that you’re on.

“I don’t think that I’m in a browser,” said Mauceri. “I’m in an experience.”

It’s fair to say that Microsoft has significantly changed its browser interface for the Windows 8 Start Screen, while its rivals, such as Google Chrome, merely present the same interface as the desktop version. Microsoft also wanted to integrate the web with its operating system, so it added some functionality for pinning websites to the Windows 8 Start Screen, letting them display more information.

“Sites can have notifications. For example, Outlook.com shows your unread message count” said Gavin. “Sites can’t do what some apps can do with Live Tiles, though.”

This Microsoft video demonstrates the new features of IE10

The full experience doesn’t extend to IE10 on Windows 7, though, as that OS is fundamentally different and doesn’t have full touchscreen support.

“Windows 7 not a touch OS, so don’t have the same touch abilities,” said Gavin.

THE FUTURE OF TOUCH WEBSITES

Internet browsing on tablets has, so far, been about replicating the desktop experience, but Microsoft is determined to unlock touch-enabled features. With open standards and the co-operation of the other big names in browsers, it has a real chance to change the way we use the internet, regardless of whether you use IE10 or not.