IE Feedback: Looking Back, Forging Ahead

Artikkeli
04/20/2011

IE9 users significantly impacted the engineering process and product with high quality,
high value feedback. It is for this reason that we are pleased to announce that
the Internet Explorer Feedback Program will remain open on an ongoing basis. Users
continue to be able to search, reactivate, or log new bugs on
Connect, and the IE team will continue to investigate and resolve them.

We would like to reiterate our
deep appreciation and thanks for the time and effort our users invested
in helping us to make a better product. We provided the specifics on the huge impact
of feedback in our
RC
blog
posts – in this post we’ll take a last look at the feedback data
from IE9 and discuss the ongoing process as we look ahead to the next release.

The Numbers

For the Beta, we received over 17,000 bugs. The earlier Platform Previews and the
RC added over 6,000 more pieces of feedback to that, resulting in 23,376 pre-release
bugs logged on Connect in almost exactly
1 year. When you add to this the over 21,000 comments and 8,000 validations, we
received over 52,000 pieces of feedback from over 10,000 users. This is a huge response,
and we are both proud to have attracted such interest and thankful for the support
of our community. If every user spent just 2 minutes to find an issue, search for
a bug, and then either create a new bug, validate the existing bug, or comment on
it, you’d end up with over 200 business days of engineering assistance to the IE
team.

Perspective

When we launched the
IE8 feedback process, we talked about the overwhelming response of the public
IE7 feedback program leading us to introduce an invitation-only program. As we discussed
when we launched the public
IE9 Platform Preview Feedback program, the
opinions expressed in the
comments were clear on that decision for IE8. For IE7, the public
feedback program generated 10,905 bugs over roughly 16 months, or 681 bugs per month;
it was 1,948 bugs per month for IE9, almost triple the volume. We knew that with
a more connected world, frequent Platform Preview releases, and by making it easier
to log bugs using the Send Feedback Tool we’d receive significantly more bugs than
ever before, but we also knew that only through great feedback would we be able
to deliver a browser that met our customers’ needs.

Maintaining the Feedback Loop

When we started IE8 and over the course of IE9, users
expressed
disappointment over the lack of continuity in feedback loop. With the
start of IE9 we remedied the problem with losing bugs against previous releases
– you now can search across both IE8 and IE9 for bugs. As we wrap up IE9, it is
because we know that great feedback makes a great product that the Internet Explorer
Feedback Program will remain open. Users can go to
Connect to log bugs against IE9 RTM, and we will triage these bugs and resolve
them as they are addressed in future releases of Internet Explorer. As before, we
ask that developers and consumers provide us feedback on the Web platform and the
user experience of IE9:

Do the new capabilities (HTML5, Tracking Protection Lists, etc) function as we’ve
described them?
Do they do what you’d expect?
Do you experience reliability or performance issues when using any of them?

At the same time, now that we have released the final version of IE9, we are no
longer accepting bugs logged against the Beta or Release Candidate. We ask that
users install the IE9 RTM, retry their
scenario, and reactivate their bug in Connect
if it is still an issue.

Wrapping up IE9

While we review and prioritize your incoming RTM bug reports, we will continue to
close down pre-release IE9 feedback. We will be looking at the bugs you have reactivated,
the final bugs that came in over the last week of the RC, and the bugs where you
have added comments or validations after the release of the RTM. Just as we committed
to when we talked about
Product Feedback Systems, every single bug will be reviewed and we will keep
you informed as they are addressed.

Thanks again for your feedback on IE9!

—Justin Saint Clair, Program Manager, Internet Explorer

Comments

Anonymous
April 20, 2011
Why are you closing the IE9 bug reports? Because that is a lot of effort going down the drain. You put the onus on the community to review and reactivate the data in your bug-tracking system. I can somehow understand you want to start from a clean sheet, but this won't endear you to the people you just gave a lig "Thank you."
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
You can only CLOSE a bug when a FINAL resolution has been made. The valid options are: a.) CLOSED - This is a duplicate of {add link to bug ###} b.) CLOSED - This will never be "fixed", it is not a bug, it is a feature {link to article, spec, blog post that describes WHY an unexpected behavior is taking place} c.) CLOSED - This was FIXED in version/release X d.) CLOSED - This bug is not reproducible e.) CLOSED - This is not a valid bug report. If you still feel there is an issue please expand your bug report with full details of how the bug can be reproduced You may NOT CLOSE a bug because you hopefully, maybe one day plan to address this in a future release. Feel free to "SUSPEND" the bug, "POSTPONE", etc. but DO NOT CLOSE it! It is NOT RESOLVED. This is why developers are very frustrated about Connect because it isn't run like a proper bug tracker. Bugs can only be CLOSED if the issue is in some way shape or form RESOLVED.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
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Anonymous
April 20, 2011
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Anonymous
April 20, 2011
My wishlist, and feedback: -Sessions for tabs('Reopen last session' is not a valid option in 2011) -Blank(ugly) titlebar, you can make more place for the real web content if you place something there(tabs and/or address bar) -Customizable hotkeys, and gui -Why the browser's options are in the 'Internet Options'? -More tab options. (I want new tabs open next to the current one.) -Rethink the extension system: easier development, more options for the developers, autoupdating them, etc. -User (java)scripts. -Syncronization of the history, faworits, etc. between IEs(home and work pc, IE on mobile with WP7). -Etc. These are not new features on other browsers! If the IE team wants me, then i want more than a fast browser engine. The platform previews are not less comfortable than the final release of IE9...
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
I think you should use one of those websites where you can post your ideas and everyone has X votes to use on promoting ideas they like.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
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Anonymous
April 20, 2011
Please add an option to disable font smoothing and/or sub pixel positioning. My eyes cannot stand the unsharp blurry text and that stops me from upgrading to IE9.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
I am one of the active Microsoft Connect users during the Internet Explorer 9 Beta. I have watched several bugs being Force-Closed than fixed. Kinds of make you think that filing bugs in Microsoft Connect is not worth the effort anymore.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
In BugZilla, a fix to a bug can be deferred, and can be marked as such. In Microsoft Connect, many bugs are marked as "As Designed".
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
Please add an option to "pin" most visited sites on the new tab page. That way when browsing history is cleared, those pinned sites remain.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
Lets be extremely clear. As noted above, "As Designed" is a special status that means it was INTENTIONALLY DESIGNED a certain way ON PURPOSE and will not be changed because it was done this way for security, usability, or whatever. Unfortunately Microsoft has no clue how to use the "As Designed" status and slaps it on anything they don't want to do or deal with right now. -- this is the problem!!!!! Without a "Deferred" status you are absolutely marking the status of some bugs incorrectly. Like everyone else that ditched Connect due to the unbelievably bad management/design of the tool I don't plan to return anytime soon. However if Microsoft plans to fix Connect, add a Deferred status and update the bugs and reply to comments on a frequent basis I'd be more than happy to return. If I return and see a single "100% reproduce-able, well documented bug in IE" marked as "By Design" again I can assure I will never, ever return to Connect again - Microsoft has cried wolf with Connect 3 times already - we will not stand for a 4th. Mike
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
Great, but can you get in touch with the Connect team and tell them to ease up on the AJAX? Having the navigation view reset every time one clicks 'Back' or 'Refresh' is supremely annoying.
Anonymous
April 20, 2011
The connect site is extremely poor performing and anoying to use so I don't use it anymore. Almost like that for the blog here which is also extremely poor software.
Anonymous
April 21, 2011
IE9 is so close to being my preferred browser except for the lack of extensions. There is no good (stable) AdBlock Plus-type feature. I can't install the Reddit Enhancement Suite. I can't install GreaseMonkey or their scripts. These are things that work in multiple other browsers. Why won't the IE team create a new extension interface that will allow these sorts of amazing enhancements to functionality?
Anonymous
April 21, 2011
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Anonymous
April 21, 2011
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Anonymous
April 21, 2011
@hAl: > The connect site is extremely poor performing and anoying to use so I don't use it anymore. Have you reported the issue directly here: connect.microsoft.com/Connect You can see how they would respond to it then.
Anonymous
April 21, 2011
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Anonymous
April 23, 2011
you are right what you expect from IE. they show you madness by showing their thing and thought everywhere. like in IE video someone joke on Chrome and firefox because they have something. can you believe joke on thing who have something insead of have something not prove which type of mind they have. well can you show me how much time developer get frustrated from chrome or Firefox prehaps their is much developer who make their application in chrome and firefox and only test in IE. because who not know IE6. IE9 is undoubtly have performance but can anyone tell me how much time someone got problem in firefox and chrome. prehaps in firefox and chrome extension have easily avilable to make experience better so their is nothing anyone feel in chrome they not have. when someone move from chrome to IE their is not single problem they have they have much thing they feel they not have.

extension addons personas like customization
instant integration with web application [ minus point of IE] because their is much person on internet have facebook or twitter account and many of application have addons in chrome and firefox to work easily with them. i thing someone from IE can make a big list then me for both products' pros and cons if they write trough free mind not by think only one side thought.

Anonymous
April 25, 2011
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Jaa