Coming on the heels of Google's release of a new version of Chrome and shortly before Mozilla's release of a new version of Firefox, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) on March 14, indicating that browser wars are not likely to disappear anytime soon. With competition heating up on the cloud computing front, look for the battle over browsers to escalate, as Microsoft, Google, Mozilla, and others all vie to provide the browser used by most people to access the cloud.
IE9 contains some of the most significant changes to the browser that Microsoft has deployed in several years. With IE9 sporting a redesigned user interface, better security features, and improved speed, Microsoft hopes to reverse a long and steady slide in IEs market share. As shown in Figure 1, according to Net Applications, Internet Explorer currently holds 57 percent of the market, followed by Firefox at twenty-two percent, and Chrome at eleven percent.
However, as more users have migrated to Firefox, Chrome, and Safari, Internet Explorer's market share has slipped by almost twelve points in the past two years, as reported by Net Applications and shown in Figure 2.
New Features in Internet Explorer 9
IE9 is loaded with new features designed to enhance your browser experience. First and foremost, you will notice that the Search box and the Address bar have been combined into a single, unified One Box. Whether you wish to type in a URL or enter a search term, you do so from a single location – One Box. Likewise, IE9 streamlines other toolbars into a single Tools icon accessible on the far right side of the window.
IE9 improves upon the concept of tabbed browsing by allowing users to "Tear-off" a tab by clicking and dragging on it to rearrange it within the browser; alternatively, clicking and dragging the tab to the desktop opens that tab in a new instance of the browser. Further, because Tear-off Tabs work with the Snap feature in Windows 7, arranging multiple tabs side-by-side on a screen is accomplished quickly and easily.
In addition to using Tear-off Tabs in conjunction with Windows 7 Snap feature, IE9 integrates with Windows 7 in other ways. For example, IE9 users can now "Pin" web sites to the Windows 7 taskbar by simply clicking and dragging the tab to the taskbar. Once pinned to the taskbar, the website obtains its own Windows 7 Jump List.
IE9's performance is vastly improved over prior versions and users can expect to see websites load much faster in IE9 than in prior versions of Internet Explorer. Further, IE9 provides tools to help you improve the speed of the browser. For instance, the Manage Add-ons tool in IE9 allows users to see how much time can be saved when opening the browser by disabling add-ins to IE9, as shown in Figure 4.
From a security standpoint, new features in IE9, such as Tracking Protection, allows users to stay in control of their privacy as they browse the web. Tracking Protection is a feature that provides users with the ability to control which third-party sites see information about your web browsing sessions. Users can establish Tracking Protection Lists, choosing which third-party sites can receive information and which cannot. IE9 blocks sites that are not on the list from requesting tracking data from the browser. Coupled with other security features, such as Domain Highlighting and ActiveX Filtering, IE9 provides a more secure browsing environment.
Should You Upgrade Now?
Given the features outlined above, along with many not included in this article, should you upgrade immediately to IE9? The answer definitely "maybe." While many users will have no issues at all upgrading and running IE9 on a full-time basis as their only browser, others must wait. For example, IE9 does not run in Windows XP. Therefore, if you have not yet upgraded to Windows Vista or Windows 7, IE9 is not even an option for you (or the other 55% of users continuing to run Windows XP.) Additionally, not all websites render correctly in IE9; accordingly, be sure that any critical website you visit does render correctly in IE9 before making the switch. Likewise, not all applications work properly with IE9. Thomson Reuters GoFileRoom web-based document management system, for instance, is reported to be incompatible with IE9.
Nonetheless, for those users running Windows Vista or Windows 7, IE9 is definitely worth checking out. Improved speed, better security, and a cleaner user interface add up to a very formidable competitor in the latest round of browser wars. For more information, or to download IE9, visit: www.microsoft.com/ie9.