Microsoft's latest browser can be downloaded in a few hours.Microsoft announced yesterday that Internet Explorer 8 will be available for public download today, Thursday. The browser then made available in 25 different languages on this page.
- Customers have made it clear what they want in a web browser - security, speed and easy use. With Internet Explorer 8, we deliver a web browser that people quickly get to the information they need, and that IE8 offer better protection than any other browser, "said Steve Ballmer, head of Microsoft, in a press release.
Microsoft writes in a press release that IE8 blocks two to four times as many malware attacks as other browsers. This assertion is based on a survey done by NSS Labs.
The company also claims, based on another test, that 15 of the 20 most-read sites in the world loads faster in IE8 than other browsers.
IE8 is characterized also by it is equipped with two versions of the presentation engine Trident. One should follow W3Cs webstandarder far better than previous versions, while the other should be sufficient that it exists in Internet Explorer 5.5 and provide back compatibility with systems that require IE-specific code.
With IE8, Microsoft has also introduced what the company calls Accelators and Web slices.
Accelerators are an extension of the context menu in Internet Explorer. When you right-click on a highlighted word or phrase, it gets up a number of options. Highlights Monday, for example, the address of a company on a Web page, you can choose to display the address in a map. A view of the map appear on the site if you just let the mouse rest over the name of the map service. Highlights in place a name, you can choose to search within a selected search for the name.
Web slices are similar RSS feeds related to individual items on a Web page, for example, an ad in an online or forecast for a given location. IE8 users can subscribe to these feeds, which are called Web slices. They will then be available to the user in the Favorites toolbar. By moving the mouse over the favorite, the user will be able to see when content was last updated and get a preview of the content without having to go to the website where the item is published.
Web slices are only available on websites that actively supports this functionality.
