Our Favorite IE8 Add-Ons

[dhilipkumar]

Our Favorite IE8 Add-Ons

As Internet Explorer 8 graduates from its beta phase, we look at some of the best add-ons, accelerators, Web slices, and toolbars.

When you think of browser extensions, you probably think of Firefox, and Firefox fans have long touted its ever-expanding catalog of extensions as a reason to switch from Internet Explorer. Handy Firefox add-ons like Morning Coffee and AdBlock Plus make for a more pleasant browsing experience.

Of course, Internet Explorer has a catalog of third-party add-ons as well, and one of the most visible changes in Internet Explorer 8 is the browser's new approach to extensions and add-ons. IE8 users will be exposed to new terms like "Web slice" and "accelerator" and will notice a further shift away from the Firefox extension model.

In fact, you may have to shift the way you think about browsing altogether. The new IE8 add-ons put an incredible amount of resources within one or two clicks of the Web page you're on. For instance, instead of opening a new tab to look up an unfamiliar term on Wikipedia or Google, just highlight the term and click on the Wikipedia or Google accelerator for a quick definition. And as an alternative to visiting Digg five times a day, bring Digg updates to your Favorites bar with the Digg Web slice. IE8 makes these one-click actions easy to set up and use.
There's simply a difference in strategy for the different browsers, according to Joshua Allen, Microsoft's Internet Explorer "evangelist." Allen said that the emphasis for Internet Explorer is to offer a seamless Web experience for Windows, since IE is essentially a Windows feature. Obviously, it isn't the overarching goal of Firefox to make the Windows experience better, and Allen says Microsoft's different approach to add-ons reflects that difference in philosophy.

"From our point of view, it's simple: people spend much of their day visiting their favorite sites and searching, and we want to make those activities kick ass on Windows," said Allen in an e-mail. "These are two of the most common activities people do on Windows. We make 'favorite sites' better via accelerators and Web slices, and we make search better through visual search...."

As Allen explained, IE8 add-ons come in several flavors:Web slices automatically check your favorite Web pages or pieces of Web pages for updates and notifies you of new stuff in your Favorites bar. The Digg Web slice keeps track of top stories for you; the Live Search Weather Web slice keeps tabs on your local weather forecast. To add either of these Web slices, simply go to an enabled Web page and click on the green Web slice button in your IE8 tool bar (shown above).

Visual Search presents you with visual search suggestions from different Web services, using the search bar. Search for "iPod," and the Amazon Search Suggestions tool will present you with images of different iPods for sale on Amazon, while the Wikipedia Visual Search offers previews of Wikipedia entries.

In addition to these new types of add-ons, there's still the classic Firefox-type extension, though it isn't as much of a priority for Microsoft, according to Allen.

"The fourth type of add-on is what we categorize as 'toolbars/extensions,'" he said. "These are ... most analogous to Firefox extensions. Competing with Firefox in this space hasn't been a big priority for us in the past five years. We have a mature extension model that has been around for 10 years, and the companies that want to build toolbars for IE are generally able to do so."

Allen said that 30 percent of IE7 crash reports originated from third-party toolbars, so the company has purposely shied away from encouraging developers to build more of them, instead leaving that space to the big, trusted developers like Google and Yahoo.

Web slices and accelerators are deliberately made easy for developers to build, and work with IE8 and Firefox (if you install the appropriate Firefox extension; WebChunks for Web slices or IE8 Activities for accelerators).

"When we launch IE8, the most popular Web sites in all the major geographies will have slices, accelerators, and visual search available," said Allen.

But even now, there are plenty of great add-ons for IE8, and we've collected 10 of our favorites for you to check out. Get them and hunt for other useful browser add-ons in the Internet Explorer 8 Add-ons

pcmag.com