Major releases of almost all browsers are planned for this spring. These new versions will bring significant technological advancements to the online world. This competition among browsers is also good for the developers community, as the race for the best browser let them variety of options to play with.
IE8 will be backward compatible with IE7. Though some features like, Process per tab and Private browsing are inspired by other browsers, the release will contain some really cool features like acceleration, enhanced navigation, Instant Search and Improved history management. Let’s talk about them one by one:
1. Acceleration: Do you want to map an address location, define/translate words and email a story to your friend? Now with the acceleration feature of IE8 you can do unlimited activities, as mentioned above, without ever leaving the vicinity of web page you are viewing. Just highlight the text on the web page and a blue icon will appear above it. Click on it and a menu with various options will be presented. More accelerators, in addition to common options, are also available. You can also add your own favorite accelerator by going to more accelerators option and then clicking “Find More Acceleratorsâ€.
An address and a map using an Accelerator
2. Enhanced Navigation: Features included under this title are mostly inspired by Google chrome. One of the most important components in today’s web navigation is tabbed browsing. In IE8 we can see a much better and enhanced tabbed browsing than the previous version. Tabs are now a separate process, each newly created tab contains a list of popular visited links – not preview of previously visited web pages as they are shown in chrome or opera.
Reopen tabs you were viewing if you accidentally close the browser.
Address bar is smarter and by typing keywords, IE can recall sites you have already visited based on your entry. Just like Google chrome, now you can also have a private browsing session in IE8. Named InPrivate, now you can browse the net and your browsing history/cookies will not be maintained during this private session. Third party content providers will also not be able to keep track of your activities without your authorization. Now you can reopen a closed tab incase you closed it accidently and you will also be able to reopen the last browsing session. The rendering of HTML elements in IE8 might not be the same as in IE7 and therefore a compatibility view button is provided to display the current page as it would have appeared on IE7.
Tab grouping allows you to easily keep track of related tabs.
3. Increased Performance: IE8 performance is much better than the previous version. Now the browser/tabs start quickly. The enhanced script engine helps in minimizing load time for web pages based on JavaScript or AJAX.
4. Improved Management for History and Favorites: Now you can add your favorite links, RSS Feeds and Web Slices to the links bar below the Address bar just like you do in other browsers e.g. Firefox and Safari.
The new Browsing History allows you to sort history by a number of options available. Now you can sort the history by site name, most frequently visited pages and so on, making it easier to organize your browsing history. You can also search through history by typing keywords and locate sites in your history.
Use keywords to locate sites in your browsing history.
5. Instant Search: IE8 offers a number of search options: searching through typed keywords, visual search, searching through history and integrated search on page. In the improved search box you can just type keywords in it and the search box will list a number of suggestions for you and as you type more or modify the keywords the list is updated with relevant options. One can click on a suggestion and the search is executed instantly.
The Smart Address Bar offers useful suggestions from your browsing history, favorites, and feeds.
Bottom of the search list contains entries that have a positive match from the browsing history. An incorporated “Find On Page†button has also been added to the instant search box, enabling you to search for text on the current webpage. Microsoft is partnering with Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon and more to bring “visual search†images that provide you with immediate answers.
Instant search provides intelligent search suggestions and visual clues.
6. Web Slices: With IE8, now you can manage to keep track of frequently visited sites for updates or new information. Developers can now add a few lines of code to their webpage enabling users to access their services through Web Slices. Like Accelerators when you arrive on a page that has Web Slices functionality, a green icon appears, click on the icon and you can subscribe to the web slice service.
A Web Slice on eBay.
The subscribed web slices appears in the favorites bar and whenever new information/update is available the web slice becomes highlighted. When you click on it, a preview of relevant information is shown.
A Web Slice preview on the Favorites Bar.
So this was just a sneak peak in to what microsoft has to offer to the online community this year.
Original Post: Let the “browser wars†begin! (Part-1)
IE8 will be backward compatible with IE7. Though some features like, Process per tab and Private browsing are inspired by other browsers, the release will contain some really cool features like acceleration, enhanced navigation, Instant Search and Improved history management. Let’s talk about them one by one:
1. Acceleration: Do you want to map an address location, define/translate words and email a story to your friend? Now with the acceleration feature of IE8 you can do unlimited activities, as mentioned above, without ever leaving the vicinity of web page you are viewing. Just highlight the text on the web page and a blue icon will appear above it. Click on it and a menu with various options will be presented. More accelerators, in addition to common options, are also available. You can also add your own favorite accelerator by going to more accelerators option and then clicking “Find More Acceleratorsâ€.
An address and a map using an Accelerator
2. Enhanced Navigation: Features included under this title are mostly inspired by Google chrome. One of the most important components in today’s web navigation is tabbed browsing. In IE8 we can see a much better and enhanced tabbed browsing than the previous version. Tabs are now a separate process, each newly created tab contains a list of popular visited links – not preview of previously visited web pages as they are shown in chrome or opera.
Reopen tabs you were viewing if you accidentally close the browser.
Address bar is smarter and by typing keywords, IE can recall sites you have already visited based on your entry. Just like Google chrome, now you can also have a private browsing session in IE8. Named InPrivate, now you can browse the net and your browsing history/cookies will not be maintained during this private session. Third party content providers will also not be able to keep track of your activities without your authorization. Now you can reopen a closed tab incase you closed it accidently and you will also be able to reopen the last browsing session. The rendering of HTML elements in IE8 might not be the same as in IE7 and therefore a compatibility view button is provided to display the current page as it would have appeared on IE7.
Tab grouping allows you to easily keep track of related tabs.
3. Increased Performance: IE8 performance is much better than the previous version. Now the browser/tabs start quickly. The enhanced script engine helps in minimizing load time for web pages based on JavaScript or AJAX.
4. Improved Management for History and Favorites: Now you can add your favorite links, RSS Feeds and Web Slices to the links bar below the Address bar just like you do in other browsers e.g. Firefox and Safari.
The new Browsing History allows you to sort history by a number of options available. Now you can sort the history by site name, most frequently visited pages and so on, making it easier to organize your browsing history. You can also search through history by typing keywords and locate sites in your history.
Use keywords to locate sites in your browsing history.
5. Instant Search: IE8 offers a number of search options: searching through typed keywords, visual search, searching through history and integrated search on page. In the improved search box you can just type keywords in it and the search box will list a number of suggestions for you and as you type more or modify the keywords the list is updated with relevant options. One can click on a suggestion and the search is executed instantly.
The Smart Address Bar offers useful suggestions from your browsing history, favorites, and feeds.
Bottom of the search list contains entries that have a positive match from the browsing history. An incorporated “Find On Page†button has also been added to the instant search box, enabling you to search for text on the current webpage. Microsoft is partnering with Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon and more to bring “visual search†images that provide you with immediate answers.
Instant search provides intelligent search suggestions and visual clues.
6. Web Slices: With IE8, now you can manage to keep track of frequently visited sites for updates or new information. Developers can now add a few lines of code to their webpage enabling users to access their services through Web Slices. Like Accelerators when you arrive on a page that has Web Slices functionality, a green icon appears, click on the icon and you can subscribe to the web slice service.
A Web Slice on eBay.
The subscribed web slices appears in the favorites bar and whenever new information/update is available the web slice becomes highlighted. When you click on it, a preview of relevant information is shown.
A Web Slice preview on the Favorites Bar.
So this was just a sneak peak in to what microsoft has to offer to the online community this year.
Original Post: Let the “browser wars†begin! (Part-1)
