Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, beta 1
What's new?
The first interesting addition to IE is 'Web Slices'. It's essentially a Microsoft version of RSS and serves a similar purpose. Web developers can assign areas of their sites to be 'sliceable', so updates to that area are available to the browser in the form of a tab. In a provided example, friend statuses in Facebook can be sliced, adding a pull-down tab on IE 8's new 'Favourites Bar' that displays three of the most recent status updates along with their photo. We're not entirely sure of the point of this, as RSS already works perfectly well.
'Activities' are also new, and add actions to the browser's contextual menus, such as 'Send to digg' and 'Share on Facebook'. It's a handy feature, though only 'Search with Live Search' is included with the install, and every example on Microsoft's site produced Javascript errors for us. But this is a beta release after all, and we can see this being a useful feature, even if similar functionality is already available by using add-ons in Firefox ('Digg This!' springs instantly to mind).
Crash-tested
Microsoft has also integrated 'Automated Crash Recovery'. This lets each IE window or tab be handled by separate Windows processes, so if one tab in a window of ten tabs crashes or hangs, it can be terminated without the entire browser needing to be manually closed and restarted. The feature worked well when we forced IE to terminate its processes in Task Manager, though real-life crash recovery remains to be seen.
Along with improving compliance with Web-design standards, IE 8 is a decent improvement over IE 7. Web Slices may be useful if enough sites adopt it, but RSS is commonplace and isn't tied to one installation of a browser -- Web Slices will only be in place if you're using your home computer, whereas anything subscribed to with RSS can be accessible from any PC in the world if the right services are used. And seriously, where's the download manager? IE needs a download manager.
We do like the lower memory and CPU overheads though -- IE 8 was less resource-intensive than Firefox in our tests, so new computer users or those with less capable machines may be perfect candidates for IE 8.
How it compares
It may save 'company time' being wasted on fixing a crashed Firefox, and it's probably compatible with your corporate VPN software, too, so it's a decent choice in a business environment. There will surely be a beta or two more before the final release, so if you're already using IE 7, keep your office-focused eyes peeled. It's not going to be a crucial download for us, however, if nothing major changes between now and the final release.
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Penguin30
30/03/2008 08:49 PM
IE is still the best dont care what you say
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firefox is better
31/03/2008 07:09 PM
This article is very true 99% of people who have tried firefox and ie say that firefox is better
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presario
01/05/2008 03:59 AM
I have tried Netscape, IE, Firefox and Safari, and I rate them as follows, Netscape 8.1 Because it is built on firefox code, but you can display pages as though you were in internet explorer, or firefox without restarting. Firefox Because of its stability and code, the browser is inpenetrable Safari because there are features in safari that i have yet to find in other browsers IE because even though this browser is fairly good, it is not because of its code. IE has the most leaks out of all the browsers, and till IE 7 came along, you were better off with Netscape 4.0 litterally.
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Opera Wiki
05/05/2008 07:08 AM
i go for Opera, its all in the package. no need to install addon made by who :) and FF always has core problems, too many crash, memory eatting too much... speed hack needed, addon to do the job right... another words it doesnt come standard!
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Fox
17/05/2008 09:23 PM
Opera 9.5 finally has the large improvement of focusing on the tab to the right when you close one rather than the last viewed. They didn't include the ability to focus on the one to the left, though. And if you want to move to a new version, it doesn't even try to take settings from your last install. The article specifically said memory magagement in FF3 was much improved. Either some of you guys are talking about the current release versions or didn't read the article.
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Fox
17/05/2008 10:25 PM
Nevermind, Opera does import settings.
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Patrick
17/06/2008 09:20 AM
I have always hated IE, so that is the lowest for me. Above that I like safari. Then I like opera and Firefox about the same. I use firefox, because, 1 it is open source, and 2, It comes preinstalled with ubuntu. Yes, I am a linux fan
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remy215
05/07/2008 08:02 PM
opera 9.5 rocks
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anonomous
07/07/2008 09:18 AM
i have IE 7 and i think it is great... i dont think that i will be changing to any of the other becuase IE is works for me...
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viper
08/07/2008 03:10 PM
"IE is still the best"? Have you ever used any other browser? It's both ugly, and full of problems
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get2oops
29/08/2008 02:44 AM
Guys/Girls..Firefox is strict browser .whatever tags of styling ie.in css and in javascript also are fix & they r following that..so they follow standard convension which good..IE is papulu browser watever present it accept..even px is not present,tag is outside style it take into considersation which is not good..caz its take more afford with time..now they realse IE8 which is strict support like firefox but they still work on it..so firefox is baap of IE8.
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nk100680
01/09/2008 09:05 PM
IE is good for Corporate but MS has concentrated on other area's than browsing for sometime. I expect IE 8 to do better but I think FireFox is that far in front when it comes to add-ons (FoxMarks, Foxy Tunes etc etc) and performance over the others that it only going to grow. P.S - HATE with a passion that Safari gets installed when you install iTunes even if you uncheck the ****!
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JF
02/09/2008 03:11 PM
Opera 9.5 is great! I have tried FF3 IE7 and Safari, and I could say Opera is quite superior as far as footprint on my system and performance. It is alos very Sleek!
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kiwiweb
03/09/2008 11:13 AM
Am I the only one, another ****** browser to support and design/develop for. It is hard enough now with IE, FF, opera and Safari differences than now chrome. My head hurts!!!!!!!!
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apollo martinez
06/09/2008 08:22 PM
opera 9.5 fastest ever experience than ie, ff, etc.
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Prove me wrong
08/09/2008 08:14 AM
They forgot to mention Opera comes with a built in torrent downloader. I think it's the only one.
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melbournedude22
24/09/2008 06:36 PM
Opera 9.52 the best as it is the fastest and secure then all the others. Safari can be a little fast but it is more vunerable to spyware and viruses.
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kumo
01/10/2008 09:36 AM
I was a firefox user for 2 years now untill it crushes lately for unknown reasons after an update. so I installed Opera to test it, and you know what! Opera is the best..it's faster, and all the addons I used to install in firefox come beautifully integrated with opera.. the fun part is it has plenty of widgets.
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