Most companies can handle a bit of criticism - after all, not everyone is going to like every single thing you do. I used to use ’s browser for example, but got turned off sometime after Communicator. I used to wear only sneakers when I was younger, but eventually grew to dislike the direction of their newer designs.

But, you know you’re in trouble when your own employees start commenting about how your product is a piece of crap. That’s what is now experiencing. You have to have a good laugh at some of these:

employee Rory Blyth:

I think IE is horribly behind the times. When every other browser on the planet that’s worth a damn supports tabbed browsing, it’s just crappy that I still have to have different copies of IE open to have multiple sites open at once.

As of right now, my favorite browser on the planet is Apple’s Safari.

Windows Live developer and creator of , laments:

We haven’t innovated in the browser for almost a decade. Given that Microsoft views IE as a defensive option to make Windows an enticing product, there is less incentive to make it the ultimate browsing experience as products whose bread and butter is the Web browser. Why do you think there are so many Google employees working on Mozilla?

Microsoft should either cede innovation in the Web browser to Mozilla/Google or make IE more than just “icing on the Windows user experience cake”by transfering the product to a team whose bottom line depends on browser innovation.

Read the rest of the comments so far collected at eMail Battles »