Internet Explorer 8
Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 8 available for download here.
At present, the download is in Beta form and is aimed mainly at programmers and developers, although there is nothing stopping regular browsers downloading and having a play.
Initial impressions: IE8 is quite a handsome beast but it won’t be replacing Firefox or Opera in our hearts (or on our desktops) anytime soon. Basically, this offering appears to be Microsoft playing catch up, trying to offer extensions a la Firefox but not quite “getting it”. The lines are clean, usability is improved from IE7
Some of the more interesting features include
- Facebook integration, whereby you can get your friends’ status updates in the IE toolbar. While the latest figures suggest that Facebook use has peaked and that it’s all downhill from here, this is undeniably a cool feature.
- Ebay integration. Rather like the Facebook updates, you get updates in the toolbar for specific pages. In theory this should mean alerts when something you are waiting for becomes available, and updates on the cost of items you are watching, bidding on, etc.
- Look up on Encarta (remember that?)
- Stumbleupon toolbar.
- Live Maps integration.
One key development in the browser is called Webslices, which allows information from sites (like Ebay, Stumbleupon and Facebook) to be included in the browser. This works a bit like an RSS feed and offers you “highlights” of sites that you are interested in.
Microsoft, being Microsoft, will never release software which can be adapted like Firefox. In reality this means that people with very specific demands for browsers (SEO companies, for example) will continue to use, modify and love Firefox for the foreseeable future.
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Upstream Connections - a Brighton SEO
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Dave said,
March 6, 2008 @ 11:13 am
I do believe that the important battle is not between IE and Firefox, but between IE and all other 3rd party browsers. For heavy internet use, no version of IE has ever proven itself to be worthy of using over its freeware competitors.
Firefox users belittle IE users. Opera users belittle Firefox users. Safari users belittle anybody who doesn’t have an Apple logo on the back of their computers.
I think everybody should try for themselves - sure, IE has come a long way since 4.0, but when compared with the feature-rich alternatives, there’s little to draw the serious user towards it. The IEtab extension in Firefox has pretty much removed the need ever to upgrade from IE6, in my opinion.
But I totally agree - for SEO purposes, the sheer adaptability of Firefox, thanks to its huge selection of add-ons, makes it the best choice for this line of work.
I won’t be downloading IE8, least of all trying out the Beta. I learned that much from Windows Vista.
How about a future post where you talk about some of the best SEO extensions for Firefox, Alex?
Alex said,
March 6, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
I think that can be arranged!
Upstream Connections - SEO » Google Labs said,
March 12, 2008 @ 6:01 pm
[…] development. While Microsoft made a song and dance (of sorts) about the “release” of Internet Explorer 8 while still in a very early Beta, Google’s fantastic Gmail is still in beta after over four […]
Download Internet Explorer 8 said,
March 20, 2008 @ 1:25 pm
Download Internet Explorer 8…
Nice, see also my article about the new internet explorer 8…
Upstream Connections - SEO » Firefox 3.0 close to RC… said,
May 8, 2008 @ 12:38 pm
[…] beta are the same old ones you’ll hear with every release of pretty much every browser, be it Internet Explorer, FF, Opera, Safari or any other: “more secure” - citing the Site Identification button […]