The Web Browser War

The massive growth and penetration of internet world makes "web browser" a common term in daily life. Internet user must know web browser brands such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Konqueror, Safari, etc. Microsoft used to have the biggest market share and dominate the web browser world with Internet Explorer. But that is a story from some years ago. Right now, Internet Explorer "fame" is challenged by other browsers such as Firefox and Opera (click this for more information). I, as one of the internet user, am also experiencing this issue, which is so funny that I mentioned in the previous post.

The story is as follow. I entered a photo contest held by Microsoft (see this post). The submission of the photos had to follow some guidelines such as maximum file size, file format, etc. So I carefully followed the guidelines, double checked everything, began submitting the photos, and it was approximately 40-50 minutes left till the submission deadline. Unfortunately the submission always failed. So I with a friend of mine tried to spot mistakes in my submission form. It was stated in the rule that every contestant must have a MSN account to be an eligible contestant. But this rule never asked even once in the submission form. So I desperately changed my e-mail contact with my Hotmail e-mail address (I created this Hotmail e-mail address just for this contest). But this effort was failed also.

Then, I checked again the submission guidelines and tried again to submit. But every time I tried to submit, it was always failed. I began to give up, because it was 30 minutes late from the deadline. I was also surprised that the submission form was not closed even if it had past deadline. I thought Microsoft held this contest half-heartedly, even now I still do so. But at that time suddenly I realized that I was using Firefox browser. Maybe I had to use the Internet Explorer, I thought that time. Have nothing to lose; I tried the submission once again with Internet Explorer. And it was a success.

Click Image to view the original size. The left browser is Mozilla Firefox and the right one is Internet Explorer.

I just couldn't believe this could be happened. I wasted almost one hour just because this silly problem. But it is just my guess. To be sure about this matter I have to asked Microsoft or take a peek at the submission system. Anyway I have a good hunch that it was just a really bad joke from Microsoft.

Side News:

1. My friend mentioned above is Effendy (a.k.a. Pendy). I forgot add him to my credit list in the previous post. It has been corrected by now.
2. Not to be surprised enough, I was surprised again by the fact that the submission form wasn't closed even around 12 hours after the deadline.