What’s new with Internet Explorer version 8?

[nithyasubramanian]

KOCHI: We have a fairly good idea about the new and enhanced features that the latest version of the world's most widely used web browser — Internet Explorer — will finally have, given the release of its evaluation and testing version a few weeks ago.

So what is totally new about Internet Explorer 8 (IE8), going by what we have on the Release Candidate (RC) 1 version? (RC denotes that the software is ready for evaluation by users, while the final testing is on.)

Most users would perhaps look for ease of use, speed and security when they use a browser — not necessarily in that order. What follows is an overview of the improvements and new features the browser's latest (RC) version sports.

One of the new features that adds to the ease of use factor is called 'Web Slices'. This is a tool that keeps users automatically updated with parts of web pages that they would like to track. It does away with having to manually do things like checking for updates on news sites, the weather, stock quotes, prices of items on online auction sites and so on.

If the links to these sites are included in the Favourites bar, users will be alerted about fresh information. But it will not be universally applicable to all sites: it will be available only if the sites that are being tracked choose to appropriately enable this browser-specific feature at their end for the benefit of IE 8 visitors (which is easy, we are told).

"Already, close to 50 web slices exist globally. In India too, we are working with the ecosystem to ensure popular web sites offer IE8 web slices," Rajiv Popli, Director - Windows Client, Microsoft India, told The Hindu.

'Accelerators' are another new feature that comes with IE8. Here again is a feature that helps a user automate the steps involved in performing browser-based tasks like searching.

"There are tasks most of us use the Web every day, such as looking up addresses using a map service, sharing content on a social network, or searching for products from a retail service. Each of these tasks requires numerous steps from start to finish — until now," Mr Popli explained. Using accelerators, which can be downloaded depending on user choice, one can perform these tasks by highlighting text on the webpage and clicking on the related Accelerator icon.

"Over 80 accelerators are already available to consumers. Ranging from blogging, music, shopping, social networking, photos, video etc. accelerators are catching the latest rage, and more are being added every day," he said.

Visual search

Internet Explorer will also incorporate images among the results of search queries made from the browser. This is being done in partnership with search providers like Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo and Amazon. This is termed visual search.

The latest version also promises better browsing when tabs are used — the additional panes that are opened up to view many web pages at a time. The newly opened tabs will be colour coded and grouped together on the basis of content.

Faster browsing

As for speed, the IE 8 folks tell us that the browser has enhancements that contribute to a faster browsing experience — it "starts quickly, loads pages fast and instantly gets you started on what you want to do next with a powerful new tab page." The part of the browser that processes web page scripting components works faster, they say.

Security aspect

And as for security: the browser has enhanced filters to help prevent the installation of malicious software and alert users to phishing attempts and sites that pose a security risk. (Phishing is the stealthy stealing of vital personal information for probable misuse).

It also has introduced the facility to browse web sites privately, without leaving track locally of the sites visited and other browser-based activity, and also to control the harnessing of information by third party sites to track user activity.

These are but some of the enhancements that have been incorporated into Internet Explorer, which are all expected to feature in the final version too. But when will that version be available?

"Microsoft is deliberate in its approach to releasing new products and we feel a strong obligation to our customers to do so in a responsible manner that ensures they are getting the safest, most reliable product possible. I can tell you that the release of Internet Explorer 8 is not dependent on any future release of Windows," Mr. Popli said.

courtesy : The Hindu.

[aswinnandha]

in this internet explorer 8 new has more feature that latest version of the web browser
it for ease of use, speed and security when they use a browser this is a tool that keeps users automatically updated with parts of web pages using  accelerators, which can be downloaded depending on user choice