IE8 RC1 Released
Microsoft will make the much anticipated IE8 available. Microsoft’s latest attempt to keep its market share in light of some stiff competition from Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera Browser, Apple’s Safari, and even Google’s Chrome Browser looks promising. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer claims,
“With Internet Explorer 8, we are delivering a browser that gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.”
Google’s new version of Chrome is said to be up to 35% faster than the original released in September, Firefox is ramping up its Firefox 3.1 release, and Safari just got updated to version 4 beta, so IE8 is right in time for a browser battle royale!
Here’s a brief rundown of what to expect from IE8:
In addition to offering improved security and privacy protections, 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 also helps people save time while using the Web with easy-to-use new features, including the following:
- Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making Web-based services such as ESPN.com, Live Search and Sina available for use directly from the page people are viewing. Users can simply right-click a word or phrase and instantly map, e-mail, or share it.
- Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites such as Digg, Yahoo! Mail, OneRiot, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the Web.
- Visual search suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites such as The New York Times, Amazon.com and Wikipedia, as well as sites from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.
