Microsoft Touts IE9 Beta Success
On the 15th of September, Redmond-based software giant rolled out the first Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) to the public. As it turns out, the release of IE9 Beta was a big success. Microsoft announced that in the first 2 days following the release of IE9, more than 2 million people downloaded the browser. The Beauty of the Web site, which Microsoft set up to tout IE9’s capabilities, registered more than 9 million visits and more than 26 million page views.
“All in all, we are encouraged about the very early response to the IE9 release this past week, namely because it signals that the emphasis on making websites shine through Windows is resonating. We are looking forward to more and more partners building great experiences through Internet Explorer 9 to deliver a more beautiful web,” commented Roger Capriotti, Group Product Planner, Microsoft Corporation.
In case this is the first time you’re hearing about IE9 Beta and you’re curious to find out what the browser has to offer, here are the main highlights:
- IE9 Beta comes with a fresh new UI (user interface) that, as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch said, is meant to put the focus on the site, not the browser.
- You can pin websites to the Windows 7 taskbar
- The New Tab Page displays the sites you visit most often (like Opera's Speed Dial)
- All notifications are displayed at the bottom of the page
- Tear-off tabs feature that allows you to snap pages side-by-side using Windows Aero Snap
- Tabs that are related are color coded
- Add-on Performance Advisor identifies add-ons that may be slowing down your browser
- IE9 Beta has a new, faster JavaScript engine
- IE9 Beta provides support for HTML5.
If you would like to get IE9 Beta, you can download the browser from the above mentioned Beauty of the Web site; or you can get the browser in your native language from here.
Please note that IE9 provides support for Windows Vista and Windows 7; it does not support Windows XP. As Dean Hachamovitch explained a while ago, a modern browser like IE9 deserves a modern operating system, which XP is not.
“All in all, we are encouraged about the very early response to the IE9 release this past week, namely because it signals that the emphasis on making websites shine through Windows is resonating. We are looking forward to more and more partners building great experiences through Internet Explorer 9 to deliver a more beautiful web,” commented Roger Capriotti, Group Product Planner, Microsoft Corporation.
In case this is the first time you’re hearing about IE9 Beta and you’re curious to find out what the browser has to offer, here are the main highlights:
- IE9 Beta comes with a fresh new UI (user interface) that, as Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President for Internet Explorer, Dean Hachamovitch said, is meant to put the focus on the site, not the browser.
- You can pin websites to the Windows 7 taskbar
- The New Tab Page displays the sites you visit most often (like Opera's Speed Dial)
- All notifications are displayed at the bottom of the page
- Tear-off tabs feature that allows you to snap pages side-by-side using Windows Aero Snap
- Tabs that are related are color coded
- Add-on Performance Advisor identifies add-ons that may be slowing down your browser
- IE9 Beta has a new, faster JavaScript engine
- IE9 Beta provides support for HTML5.
If you would like to get IE9 Beta, you can download the browser from the above mentioned Beauty of the Web site; or you can get the browser in your native language from here.
Please note that IE9 provides support for Windows Vista and Windows 7; it does not support Windows XP. As Dean Hachamovitch explained a while ago, a modern browser like IE9 deserves a modern operating system, which XP is not.
