Internet Explorer 7: The Name Game

What's the name of Microsoft's next browser? That's not as easy a question to answer as it might seem. Internet Explorer 7 is not one browser, it's two--the Windows XP one that's supposed to show up later this year, and the one that'll ship as part of Windows Vista, which has a few additional Vista-specific features in the areas of security, parental controls, and diagnostics.

Back in May, Microsoft said that the XP version would be known as "Internet Explorer 7," while the Vista edition would be dubbed "Internet Explorer 7+." Now the same Microsoft blog that announced those naming conventions is saying that feedback on them wasn't so hot. And so the two versions will go by these monikers, at least officially:

XP version: Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP

Vista version: Windows Internet Explorer 7 in Windows Vista

Yep--both products have the word "Windows" in their name twice. That first Windows in each name--the one in "Windows Internet Explorer 7"--seems completely superfluous; maybe it's all related to Microsoft's overarching Windows-branding strategy, as seen in the evolution of MSN into Windows Live, and the Games For Windows campaign.

Then there's the fact that in XP, IE 7 is IE 7 for Windows XP, while in Vista, it's IE 7 in Windows Vista. I suppose there's a legitimate distinction to be drawn between a version of IE 7 that's an optional upgrade and one that ships with the OS, but it's one that only a nerd or a product manager, or a nerdy product manager, could love; asking customers to make it seems a tad over the top.

(And it leaves me wondering whether we might someday see versions of IE 7 that were Upside, Alongside, or Slightly to the North of whatever operating system they were designed for.)

I'm also wondering, as are other people, whether Microsoft contemplated calling the products what most normal folks will probably call them: "Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP" and "Internet Explorer for Windows Vista." Maybe, but there's something in Microsoft's DNA that leads the company to come up with names that are confusing in the first place, and subject to revisions that make them even more confusing.

That's yet another way in which Microsoft and Apple are about as utterly different as two technology companies can be. Apple rarely changes anything's name, or even uses modifiers to distinguish between variants; "MacBook Pro" is as wordy as an Apple brand gets. (Operating system names arguably excepted: "Mac OS X 10.4.7 Tiger," which is what my MacBook is running, is almost Microsoftian.)

In its own way, the Apple way can be equally confusing--an array of significantly different music players have gone under the simple name "iPod," and if someone tells you that they own an iMac, you don't know if it's a bulbous CRT-based computer, one with its display on a swiveling neck, or an all-in-one device.

On some level, Microsoft knows it has a problem: The utterly brilliant "What if Microsoft Designed the iPod?" video created by the company itself says that if the iPod had come out of Redmond, it would have been the Microsoft I-pod Pro 2005 XP Human Ear Professional Edition With Subscription.

Anyhow, it'll be nice when IE7 finally arrives...whatever Microsoft, and its users, end up calling it.