Most of us remember the days of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 5 and IE 6. To many those were simpler times. Most people were using the Seattle software giant’s browser exclusively and because of that most people knew nothing else.

Come in the new era of browsers. First the classic Mozilla browser, rising from the ashes of the destroyed and defeated Netscape. Later Firefox would take over as the dominant product coming from the Mozilla Foundation. Apple builds Safari and Google builds Chrome. Oh, and yes, let’s not forget about the little engine that would not die, Opera.

With all of these choices in Web browsers and Internet experiences, people began to explore the different options. Each browser boasted “the best Internet experience” with the hope to gain the hearts and minds of Internet surfers.

Yet with all this choice came a problem. With the increased dispersion of users across the plethora of browser frameworks, the Internet began to look different to people depending on how they were viewing the Web.

Enter the push for standards. As people began to have a more dysfunctional experience on the Web, developers and coders and even law makers began instituting standards to “standardize” the experience of the Web.

But with all regulation some browser makers, mostly Microsoft, refused in one way or another to not implement the new standards. Because of this fight, Microsoft has slowed the adoption of standards.

As a Web designer, I’ve gone through the painful process of making the sites I design work with IE, all the way down to version 6. To be perfectly frank, this is a huge time waster, but sadly it is still needed a wide swath of people still use these antiquated browsers to view Web content. Besides being terribly insecure, it can almost be guaranteed that  the viewing experience is much less than using an updated, secure, standards-driven browser.

Microsoft, though still slow at adopting many of the standards that other browsers already have, is making inroads to incorporate more and more standards into their newest version of IE, version 8.

The point is this. Instead of fighting the push for standards Microsoft should have been embracing them from the start. If they had done so, who knows what the Internet landscape might be like today.

By adopting standards and updating as new standards come out, browser makers are insuring that there will a constant flow of new innovation on the Web that will be supported and viewable to the masses.

What are you thoughts on this? Post them below in the comments.