Breaking Down the Gates with Internet Explorer 8

It seems as though Mr. Gateskeeper has decided to join in the fun and unveil a browser that is a little simpler and intuitive than Internet Explorer 7. Microsoft’s new Web browser, Internet Explorer 8, is now available for download in a beta version.

Maybe Bill Gates has decided that it’s time fight back and address some of the hits hurled by Apple’s popular commercials attacking Microsoft’s vulnerability with InPrivate. Internet Explorer 8’s cool feature called InPrivate designed to allow users to browse websites anonymously and keep their surfing activities private seems useful but it has upset advertisers. Mike Zaneis, vice president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, told The Washington Post: "It has the potential to undermine the economies of the Internet."

Some of the other new features include a developer toolbar and Accelerators (which were called Activities in Beta 1. Whenever a user highlights text in a Web page the Accelerators icon is activated and appears next to the highlighted text. By clicking on the Accelerator icon or right-mouse clicking, users can carry out a number of actions, including searches, translations and even finding maps, and these activities launch in a pop-up window rather than launching an entirely new Web page. The Accelerators feature is handy and convenient, gone are the days of ‘copy and paste’ into another window. Additionally, the technology is open to developers so any site or company can build custom Accelerators. Microsoft explains Accelerators or Activities on their website as,

• "Look up" information related to data in the current webpage
• "Send" content from the current webpage to another application

Another new feature called WebSlices provides quick access to data and information previously added to a users tool bar. Microsoft explains the WebSlice feature, users can bring content with them on their links bar wherever they are on the web and receive update notifications when the content changes.

Here comes the intuitive part, IE 8 has improved the use of tabs while browsing. IE 8 color codes groups of tabs all launched from the same Web site, making it easy to identify related groups of tabs. IE8 has also been designed so that tabbed Web sites are isolated. That means a Web site won’t crash the whole browser anymore just that tab.

“In things big and small, it is a better experience,” contends Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer group.