IE7 Gaining Momentum with Smartsheet Users

Our users have always had choices in deciding what operating system or browser the use when accessing Smartsheet. We have supported Internet Explorer (PC) and Firefox (PC, MAC, Linux) since inception, and in recent months started support for Safari (MAC). With an increasing number of people accessing frequently used web apps from multiple locations – this freedom to choose has become increasingly important.

When we launched Smartsheet in August of 2006, we strongly recommended people use Firefox. People cared (and still do) about speed and it was the fastest browser on the market. It wasn’t just a little faster…it flew relative to Microsoft IE6. Smartsheet, which utilizes JavaScript extensively, performed nearly twice as fast with Firefox. Problem was that even though Firefox was free to download, many of our customers were hesitant to install another browser. It’s one thing to ask a web savvy developer to use Firefox…quite another to ask a business user who has never considered using anything other than the PC’s native browser.

In November 2006, we had the opportunity to work directly with the dev team at Microsoft responsible for improving IE’s performance. They benchmarked Smartsheet on Firefox, IE6, IE7, as well as on an early build of IE7’s successor. In addition to being responsive to our requests and making useful recommendations, it was clear to us that Microsoft was making big strides in delivering a better browser experience. Their dev team took the performance challenge against Firefox very seriously.

Fast forward a little more than a year and the browser battle has become more interesting. While Safari only represents a blip on the radar compared to IE and Firefox, it does deliver a fast user experience. As someone whose business benefits from improvements to the browser platforms – I welcome Apple’s latest moves.

How has Microsoft done with IE7? Users of Smartsheet have taken to it quite well – exceeding the global browser share percentages by a healthy margin. With the performance gap between IE and Firefox closed and IE7 actually outperforming Firefox in a few areas, it’s no surprise. Now if we could only get that remaining 20% of IE6 users onto a modern browser!