People often ask me which browser do I prefer to use when searching out garden blogs and anything else I do on the net. A few years ago, I would have answered Microsoft Internet Explorer. That was until a friend put me onto Mozilla's Firefox browser.

At first, the change was slight and I argued on Bill's behalf. And then, I started noticing a few major differences. Apart from the tabbed browsing (which IE now have included in version 7) the number of helpful plugins was extensive, and useful. [Lifehacker have a number of reviews for these].

Furthermore, IE doesn't even conform to W3 standards making life a headache for programmers trying to make their online software work across multiple platforms.

For example, here's a screenshot of what I (and other Firefox users) see when accessing the Garden Blog Directory...

IE users don't see this. So regular visitors wouldn't know if more blogs have been added since they last dropped in - unless of course they subscribed to this feed. Here's what IE users see...

And then there's the very frustrating legend at the bottom of each map which gives a colour code for "gardening Blogs", "Landscaping Blogs" and so on. This is how it looks in Firefox...

IE users just see a list of topics with no images that makes no sense.

So, when will Mr Gates get on board with the W3 specifications and make IE a better browser? Or, does he just enjoy annoying those who have to continue programming for his low-level Internet Explorer?

Well, consider this my silent protest Mr Gates. I shall never include any IE hacks in the code that runs this directory - on principle. If everyone else in the world can aim for best practice then so can Microsoft.