Windows Internet Explorer 8 or IE8 is another web browser from Microsoft, which provides innovative new features that make browsing faster, easier, and safer than ever. It succeeds Windows Internet Explorer 7 that was released October of 2007.
The Beta 1 of this new browser was released March 2008, followed by Beta 2 on August 2008. After 4 months, it now (January 26, 2009 to be exact) has a public Release Candidate (RC) ready to be evaluated by users while it undergoes final testing. According to Microsoft, “You may experience minor bugs or compatibility issues with website browsing“ so it’s really up to you if you want to go ahead and give it a try. The final release of the browser is said to be later this year.
The new IE8 uses accelerators, which provide instant access to information like maps, web searches, translation, email, blogging, and more by just highlighting a word or phrase from any webpage. It also makes browsing more organized by the tab grouping feature, which allows you to just close a set of tabs as a group instead of one at a time. This browser also immitated Google Chrome’s Incognito Window of using InPrivate Browsing and InPrivate Filtering, wherein you can surf the web without saving your history, passwords, etc., leaving the computer without browsing traces (But of course, this does not stop your ISP in tracking/recording your internet ‘activities’). These and more are what’s in store for IE lovers.
Windows Internet Explorer 8 is said to be bundled with the Windows 7 OS. Meanwhile, you can download IE8 RC1 and see if it fits your browsing needs. If it turns out the other way, you can always switch back to an older version.
