The identity of the person behind the ‘IE users are dumb’ survey has been revealed. Tarandeep Gill, a computer programmer based in San Francisco, said he did it to raise awareness of incompatibilities of older versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser.
Gill, who claims to have obtained a master’s in computer science at Georgia Tech and founded price comparison site AtCheap.com, apologised for the hoax and for calling IE users dumb in his original press release.
That may not be enough to stop the lawsuits though, particularly from Microsoft and angry users of IE, who may feel upset at being called dumb for their choice of web browser.
Microsoft told CBR this morning they would not be making a comment on these developments.
While it may not agree with Gill’s approach, the Redmond giant is in broad agreement with the need to move away from older versions of IE. In May last year its Australian operation said using IE6 was like drinking nine-year-old milk.
Explaining his decision to carry out the hoax, Gill wrote: "While adding some exciting new features to my website, it was getting more and more difficult to support IE version 6.0 to 8.0. Particularly IE 6.0. There is no doubt about IE’s lack of compatibility with web standards (not IE 9.0 though). I went on to create a meme that would result in some awareness and hopefully convince a few IE users to stop using it.
"The main purpose behind this hoax was to create awareness about the incompatibilities of IE6 and how it is pulling back innovation," he added.
He set up a fake company, AptiQuant, and created a website by using information copied from Central Test. Gill has apologised to the company and is in the process of removing the copyrighted material.
Central Test, too, may wish to speak to their lawyers about Gill’s actions. The company did not return CBR‘s request for comment this morning, but said in a statement on its site: "Central Test is investigating the issue and we reserve any rights to pursue legal action against AptiQuant, or whoever is behind this."
"This was all meant to be a light-hearted joke. We did not mean to insult anyone, but if we have hurt anybody’s feelings, we apologise for that," Gill wrote. Part of his campaign included a second press released describing how "AptiQuant" had been threatened with lawsuits. That may soon become reality for Gill, even though he claims his intentions were good.
UPDATE: Central Test has confirmed to CBR that it is likely to proceed with legal action against Gill. "The image of our company was damaged by this incident. Despite a public apology of the responsible of this fraud, I still find it unacceptable to infringe the integrity of a company like this and to question the credibility of the press," CEO Patrick Leguide added in a statement.
