Now granted, you can tell your website to stay on the cutting edge of IE rendering by using the “edge” keyword (see what I did there?) in your meta-tag . This will allow your website to be rendered at whatever the end users version of IE is. I like the idea of targeting a website to certain browsers, especially when you work in a web development position where part of the statement of work is a section dedicated to what browsers your work has to run in. This sort of idea makes my job as a website stylist that much easier. Unfortunately, I am opposed to the idea in the end.

The problem lays not in the fact that you can target browser version, it’s the fact that it’s gotten to this point. It’s a depressing thing to think about really; had Microsoft just done things right the first time (or at the very least come out with hot fixes to make the needed changes) we wouldn’t be in this mess to begin with. People are always complaining about IE, more so since browsers like Firefox have stepped into the ring. I’m aware that Firefox is not perfect, but that’s not what I’m arguing. Firefox, along with the other browsers, took far more time to correct CSS bugs than IE ever did. Only now with the eventual release of IE 8 are we looking at IE possibly coming up par.

I don’t work on the team, and I’m truly glad I don’t. These guys are basically the internet pariah group of the century. Everyone can hate IE with little to no effort due to its historic record of screwing up websites. I’m glad to see that they’re working so hard to get the browser up to speed on the compliance front, as well as trying to make it easier for everyone. Sadly, by making it easier for everyone they really hurt further progression in the field.

Allowing HTML writers to slap a version on their site and let it be that, you stifle the drive to improve their craft. You allow the user to literally say “good ’nuff” to their work, and since the Web isn’t going away anytime soon, I shudder to think of what will become of the next generation of web designers. It’s going to be the Geocities site builder circa 1997 all over again.

I guess it would at least look the same in every browser, so that’s something. In the end I’m against the idea from a progression standpoint, but I have to admit – if not begrudgingly – that at least this would stop sites from breaking every release. It’s gross, but it’d work.

P.S. This is the greatest summary of the issue, bar none.