May 26, 2007, at 05:43 PM
Articles /

IEforge

My perspective on a fresh and painful recent experience.

Before -> Better ... nearly the original IS website design.

Genesis

One of my best friend, and long time partner in crime, has been working hard on an extension for Internet Explorer (IE) for web developers for a very long time with disputable success.

In September 2006 I read Paul Thurrott complain about the lack of improvement on the searching front in IE7. I mentioned it to JFR who told me he could quickly put something together, based on the code he had already written for his product, that would do the job. 2 weeks later we had a product, a website (Before -> Better), a cool domain name, and the start of some decent buzz thanks to prominent bloggers posting about it.

The whole experience was pretty exciting and the feedback from users super positive and encouraging. We decided to dwell on the idea a bit more and see if we could build a business on it.

The pain

We both wanted to build on that early success, which, for me meant turning a proof of concept into a first class product and occupy the add-on for IE space with additional extensions answering IE users needs with income potential.

The whole experience was a nightmare. We hadn't done any proper work together for some time (5 years). We were spending more time arguing about all sorts of issues than putting together a cool product. I guess that's what happens, people change.

Despite all that, IEforge and Inline Search were getting some reasonable attention (mentioned in Wired, published in Computer Shopper, Yahoo! Internet Guide, C'T, ...). We even won the grand prize for the best add-on for IE7, granted by Microsoft, a trip for two at MIX07. A trip as awkward as it gets, considering the circumstances!

Conclusion

That's the big problem, I don't really understand what went wrong. Despite all the discussions, all the emails and IMs sessions, I just don't understand how one can decide to give up so early on something that felt so good.

I agree that it is hard to see how to make money with such products but some are persevering. I have everything (domain name, server, sources), I could continue alone but as I told the coder (I am the tracer), I don't even use IE. I was doing it to do something with him not for the product as such.

I guess next time I receive an email like the one bellow, I'll tell the author to check out IE7pro new functionality.

I just downloaded your Search functionality for Internet Explorer and it is absolutely incredible. It's always mystified me why, even in the latest iteration, IE has an awful and bulky search function. The simple and elegant Firefox version of search is so much better that it is almost a make-or-break deal when i decide which browser to use. (I use both, depending on my mood.)

So, in short, thank you so much for improving Internet Explorer with your beautifully elegant search function that rids me forever of that ridiculous pop-up box that appears every time I press ctrl-f , which is quite often. If you were in the same room with me, I'd give you a great big hug!! Since I can't do that obviously, I've been planning on setting up a Paypal account and I will generously donate for your excellent work in modifying Internet Explorer. Microsoft should pay you for this ... but that would never happen :(

Post Scriptum

I received the email 4 days ago. It takes 5 minutes to setup a PayPal account and I haven't received a donation yet :P So maybe my friend is actually helping me get out of some stupid time wasting venture. I realize that the tone of this piece is a bit childish or emotional and not very factual.

Inline Search is downloaded 250 times per day from IEforge which does 60 000 pages views per months. Inline Search has been translated in 29 languages by users in the space of 2 months. Donations have been put in place 2 months ago and we have collected the mind blowing amount of 85 USD!

Maybe it is/was simply amateur work!