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Internet Explorer 8 out later today

by on19 March 2009

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Is anyone excited?

We don't want to ruin Microsoft parade, but does anyone still consider Internet Explorer the web browser of choice? As Internet Explorer 8 is set to launch later today (noon EDT, 16.00 GMT) we doubt that Microsoft's servers will be over-run with download requests.

We're not sure IE8 even addresses the major issues with Internet Explorer, as it seems like Microsoft has focused more on adding more gimmicks rather than improving the basics its web browser. According to the press release, Microsoft's users wanted "safety, speed and greater ease of use" from Microsoft's next web browser and we have yet to see if IE8 will deliver on this.

New features include better protection against online threats, accelerators, web slices and visual search suggestions. We're all for the improved protection against online threats, as long as it still means that your browser will function as normally and without your system grinding to a halt. Accelerators is a tighter integration with various web services through third party add-ons that are activated by right clicking on the page you're visiting which will bring up a range of options depending on the specific site and accelerator. Options such as search, email, sharing and map-access are suggested in the press release.

Web slices is meant to make certain services more easily accessible, no matter what site you're browsing and the list of services in the press release includes Digg, OneRiot, eBay and Yahoo! email. We're not quite sure how this will work in praxis, but we won't have to wait too long to find out. Finally visual search suggestions are meant to be a "rich, real-time search" tied in with various popular sites, as well as your history and bookmarks. The advantage here would be the visual element that might actually prove to be a widely used feature in IE8.

Microsoft claims that "Internet Explorer 8 is one of the fastest browsers on the market today, beating other top browsers in page load time on almost 50 percent of the 25 top comScore Inc. Web sites." It will be interesting to see if IE8 can live up to that claim and if all the new features are enough to bring people back to using Internet Explorer. IE8 will be available in 25 languages from the word go, which is at least something for those looking to try out the new browser in their native language.

You can find the press release here and the download link here

Last modified on 19 March 2009
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