The newest version of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has major improvements.
By WALTER MOSSBERG
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
March 22, 2009
The Web browser is arguably the most important piece of software on a computer. No longer just a tool for perusing or searching for information, it has become, for many people, their principal communications medium, their photo album, their newspaper, social club, bank and shopping mall.
And, among Web browsers, by far the most popular is Microsoft's Internet Explorer, or IE, which comes on every new Windows computer. So when Microsoft changes Internet Explorer, those changes affect vast numbers of people, and the Web itself. This week, Microsoft is changing its browser in a major way. On Thursday, the company released IE8, the biggest overhaul of Internet Explorer in years.
I've been testing IE8 for months, first using its prerelease versions and, more recently, the final version. I've found it to be a big improvement over its predecessor, IE7, and a much closer competitor to its main rival, Mozilla's Firefox. IE8 is more stable than IE7, more compatible with industry-wide Web standards, and packed with new features that improve navigation, search, ease of use, privacy and security.
Some of these features can't be matched out of the box by its main rival browsers. For instance, related tabs are color-coded, the search field can show images along with text, you can get instant fly-out maps of place names in Web pages, and you can easily hide your tracks online from the prying eyes of advertisers.
He does say that he found it to be slower than Firefox, but it may be that I’m using Win7 and so either Firefox doesn’t run as well, or IE8 runs better.