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Hands-On: Internet Explorer 8
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Microsoft Declares IE8 Fastest Browser, World Laughs
In the words of Lee Mathews at Download Squad, "IE8 is a dog... A very slow, old dog." In our own completely unscientific testing -- that we then exaggerated for the sake of being jerks -- we were able to draw Web sites by hand faster than IE8 could load any complex pages. Sure IE8 blazed through the Google search page, but we've been able to choke it pretty easily by opening MLB.com.
You can read the entire report here if you're in need of a good laugh. If you're looking for a speedy browser though check out the Safari 4 Beta, Google Chrome, or our recommendation Firefox 3.1 Beta. [From: Download Squad]
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Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Now Available, Still Not Quite Finished
Microsoft is calling this the first release candidate, meaning this could turn into the official release of Internet Explorer 8 whenever it ships. But, the company hasn't quite finished doing all the testing and pre-release work it needs prior to release, meaning there still could be some bugs in there. In other words, if you like to take things slow and steady there's no reason to upgrade at this point. But, if you're sick of IE7 or are looking for an alternative to the always popular Firefox and decreasingly popular Chrome, this may be a good choice for you. [From: IEBlog]
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Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Released to Public (Hands-On)
The first beta was only for developers, but after a number of updates and fixes, Microsoft is opening this new version to anyone. To save you the trouble, we threw caution to the wind and installed it. So far it's looking quite good; stable and noticeably faster in many tasks than IE7, which is looking more than a little dated compared to the recently released Firefox 3.0. At first glance, IE8 doesn't look that much different, but does include a number of tweaks and updates, including:
- Private Browsing - Curious about the darker sides of the 'Net? Don't worry, most of us are, and IE8 is the first browser to realize this, giving you a mode called "InPrivate" that doesn't track where you go in your history, doesn't keep cookies, and doesn't store auto-complete information.
- Accelerators - Highlight a word, and IE8 will display a button that will let you define it through Encarta. Highlight a street address, and you'll see an option to display the address on a map. Highlight words in a foreign language, and you can see a quick translation. There are lots of little context options like this, called accelerators, because they speed up the process of copying a line of text, opening a new browser window, and pasting it in somewhere to look it up.
- Visual Search - This is another area where sites will be able to insert themselves into your browser. Here you can define visual searches for things like eBay, enabling you to start typing your search into the IE8 search box and immediately get results and pictures from listings right through the browser. You can then click directly on what you want. There are visual searches available for other sites like Wikipedia, YouTube, and naturally, Google.
Microsoft Adds 'Porn Mode' to Internet Explorer 8
Worried about your girlfriend, wife, or mom seeing all the dirty stuff you check out online? Well, fear not, perv, as Microsoft's 8th edition of Internet Explorer (IE) will include a feature that lets you surf the Web without a trace of what you checked out.
The new tool, called InPrivate Browsing, will debut later this month in the second Beta version of IE 8. When you, um, turn this feature on, IE will not save your browsing or search history, cookies, form data, or passwords, and will clear its cache when you're, um, done. While Microsoft says it's designed for people using public or shared computers, do we really need to explain why this is being dubbed "porn mode?"
Other new features include InPrivate Blocking, which tells you when content is able to track your browsing history, and InPrivate Subscription, which gives you lists of sites to block. Another change is to the "Delete Browsing History" option, which now lets you keep cookies for certain sites. Mozilla, which was supposed to have similar features in Firefox 3.0, is hoping to have it in 3.1 sometime in the next few months. Stay tuned. [From: Computerworld]
Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 Beta
These days, the Internet browser wars are hotter than they've been since the late-90's (when Microsoft challenged Netscape and, eventually, killed the competition). Today, the battle is between Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's Firefox. Mozilla is currently putting the wraps on its 3.0 version of Firefox, a major update with many stability and usability improvements, but Microsoft isn't sitting idle. Yesterday it released the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8.IE8 promises a suite of improvements, with the usual visual refresh that major releases receive, but of course going much deeper than that. IE8 will now include integration with Facebook and eBay out of the box, meaning you can make and check status updates quickly and keep tabs on a set of auctions right from a browser menu. You can view maps from Microsoft's Live service just by highlighting an address on any page, and the browser can remember its current set of displayed pages so if you close the browser (or if it crashes) it'll come right back to where you were.
As of now, unfortunately, that functionality is apparently especially useful as, according to early reports, the browser isn't very stable at this point. It seems that many of the problems are related to incompatibilities with Yahoo's and Google's popular toolbars. So, like many betas (early and largely untested versions of software), the thing isn't quite ready for prime-time. But, if you're brave and want to give it a shot head on over to Microsoft's IE8 page.
From Digg, Read Write Web, and Washington Post
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