Take Internet Explorer 9.0 (BETA) for a Test Drive

Internet Explorer 9.0

As Microsoft nears the fourth release of Internet Explorer 9.0 on September 15, 2010 the jig is up.  The competition for a top performing browser has been on-the-run for some time as powerhouse giants such as Google Chrome, Mozilla FireFox, & Apple’s Safari are dominating the market.  Consumers are in a dying need of a browser that can perform well on the web and mobile devices.  The chances of exceeding those expectations are, well…..not quite there yet sadly to say.  Although Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 claims to deliver industry leading functionality with its official upcoming release of the IE 9.0 on September 15, 2010.  While I was out and about on the web scoping out the hidden potential I came across this good find and thought I’d share with you fine folks (You, the reader!).

About Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Browser

Since the official release of Internet Explorer 6.0 alot of web users became highly skeptical of the browser’s capabilities.  Well, can you blame them?  In case you didn’t remember let me remind of you some of the most common and annoying issues that IE 6.0 had.  Some of them included problems with transparency (a real common one) where PNG images would not display properly.  How about the fact that you had to code your website to meet the expectations of IE 6.0 and otherwise skewing visibility in other browsers?  Did you forget about the constant crashes due to JavaScript/Active X or any other onload events?  Sadly to say it was time someone crucified this browser and put it out of its misery.

In the next two versions of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE 7.0 & IE 8.0) the software giant claimed that certain styling and functionality issues had been resolved.  I’m not sure if you quite recall but the release of IE 8.0 was followed shortly after the release of IE 7.0  If I’m not mistaken it was less than a year between the two public releases.  It truly makes you wonder about the CSS styling issues, JavaScript, and security improvements that actually went into Internet Explorer 8.0 In this particular public release the Compatibility View was introduced to help users browse websites built with older code in its structure.  Although I have to say that this was a great effort to reel in some additional Internet Explorer users.  The problem remains that different builds of the browser would malfunction and the Compatibility View feature would not work properly.

Introducing Internet Explorer 9.0 (BETA) – Test Drive

While the browser hasn’t hit the shelves publicly I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.  I did browse thru the Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 Test Drive site and was really trying to capture the most valuable elements that will be introduced in this new full public release.  If you’re not familiar with Microsoft’s business model then you’d better have your checkbook ready because this may be a browser that you’ll have to purchase.  Don’t quote me on that as I wasn’t able to find enough documentation on that due to the overflow of details on the Internet Explorer 9.0 Website.

Some features and highlights of Internet Explorer 9.0:

  • JavaScript – take full advantage of your hardware and enhance the power of JavaScript with flying images, Flick Explorer, Psychedelic Browsing and more.
  • HTML 5.0 – this new version of Internet Explorer is ready to take on HTML 5 as it claims to deliver truly amazing audio and video user experience.  That’s great news to developers that have been struggling or being stuck on the old HTML 4.0 methods.
  • CSS – Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 claims to handle CSS 3.0 and therefore opening doors to alot more styling capabilities.  Experience images in a whole new way with extremely quality and sharpness.
  • Graphics – Tweet Map, Web Fonts, and more.  Microsoft leans more onto social media and the enhancement of the traditional web fonts that are quite frankly boring at this point.

Even though I’m not a huge fan of Internet Explorer at this point I do see some potential in this particular version of it.  The official public release of the browser goes live on Sep. 15, 2010 according to the Internet Explorer 9.0 test drive website.