With the recent release of Windows 8.1 came a brand new version of the Microsoft Web Browser. Internet Explorer, once seemingly stuck in the mire of version 6, has begun advancing to keep pace with stiff competition from Google and Firefox. Internet Explorer 11 (or IE11) aims to set a new standard for performance and speed, and Microsoft is now imploring developers to keep pace with this innovation.
To that end, today the company announces, “the Internet Explorer team just released new web performance tools to modern.IE and is celebrating by issuing a fun challenge to web developers: Improve your site’s performance by at least 11% and Internet Explorer will send you some 11 goodness.”
So what will you and your team receive if you meet the requirements laid out by the software devices and services giant? Three separate things, all coming in multiples of 11 (of course) — 11 pizzas to feed your team, 11 copies of Parallels Desktop Virtualization, and 11 one-year subscriptions to BrowserStack testing.
Microsoft is also willing to help with this transformation it asks you to make. “We recently tried the new tools with our partners at swish.com – a responsively designed modern site. They were able to improve their page load performance by 40% with some simple steps. We’ve published a complete tear-down on modern.IE so you can try these techniques for yourself,” claims the company’s Justin Garrett.
To top off the news, the company is also announcing that it will be knocking 25% off the price of Parallels 9 Desktop for Mac. The offer is limited to 1,000 copies and perspective customers will need to enter the redemption code found on the modern.ie website — hint to Apple customers: try “ModernIE2013”.
