28 Aug 2008 12:39
Microsoft has released the beta 2 edition of its upcoming Internet Explorer 8 browser. The emphasis of this release is on customer-oriented features. Microsoft is still playing catch-up with Opera, Safari and Firefox, but offers a few unique features as well. The final version of the IE8 browser will be released in November.
As added anti-phishing protection, IE8 highlights the main domain of any website you visit. Thus if something other than ebay.com is highlighted, chances are you are on the wrong website.
To aid users in finding frequently used URLs, Firefox 3 has its Awesome Bar, which displays a dropdown menu of recent web pages culled from your browser history file. IE8 has something similar. Type in any URL and IE8 matches it to any URLs in your browser history file. That way co-workers can't see what you've typed before. Also it allows you to simply eliminate mistyped URLs.
Highlight a word or phrase on any web page and IE8's Accelerator Indicator (the blue arrow box with dropdown menu) offers choices, such as opening a Google search or a blank email using that word or phrase. You can customise the Accelerator Indicator to include Google Earth or any other Web 2.0 service you might frequently use.
Whenever you do open a new tab from an existing tab, the relationship is maintained via colour-coded tabs. In this image, there are three sets of two related tabs colored light blue, blue and green.
Should a web page crash in IE8, the crash is isolated to the tab affected and does not crash the entire browser. Other tabs remain open. To troubleshoot a crashed tab, Microsoft has enhanced the add-on manager in IE8. (See next image.)
IE8 includes a more detailed add-on manager than Firefox. You can use this to troubleshoot problems with individual web pages by enabling or disabling troublesome add-ons.
Like Apple Safari, Microsoft IE8 now provides a way to temporarily suspend automatic browser-caching functions and surf. The scenarios for using InPrivate include when you're using someone else's computer, when you need to buy a gift for a loved one without ruining the surprise, or when you're at an internet cafe and don't want the next person to know which website you visited. While you can currently clear the browser cache with a mouse click, it's an all-or-nothing action. InPrivate temporarily suspends the automatic caching functions, allowing you to keep the rest of your browsing history intact.
The blank new tab page serves many purposes in IE8. To re-open a closed tab within IE8, open a blank tab, then choose among the recently closed tabs displayed on the page. In Firefox 3, while you can restore a closed tab, you are not offered a choice, only the last tab closed is reopened. If you want to restore an entire previous session, the blank tab page in IE8 also offers that choice. And finally, if you want to add or change the Accelerator Indicator choices, the blank tab page provides that as well.
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