SALON

Wednesday, Sep 15, 2010 8:30 PM UTC

Microsoft releases beta for minimalist Internet Explorer 9

The company targets Google Chrome and its own image with a leaner, meaner Web browser

By

Topics: Microsoft, Internet Culture,

Microsoft releases beta for minimalist Internet Explorer 9

Internet Explorer is like the Volkswagen Beetle of the Web, without the charm. It’s slow, dated, unattractive and doesn’t excel in any particular task … but by God, it’s everywhere! 

Microsoft clearly wants Internet Explorer 9 — available on beta as of this morning — to send those memories to the junkyard. This is an all new, very different Web browser. In fact, ZDNet calls it the most ambitious browser release in the company’s history. The biggest difference, though, is in what you don’t see. Microsoft obviously paid attention to competitiors such as Chrome and Safari and removed as much clutter on the browser window as it could. Internet Explorer 9 strips itself of toolbars, search boxes and — gasp! — the familiar blue “E” logo. As a result, IE9 is much faster than its predecessor, according to Engadget’s review. 

But Internet Explorer 9 also says a lot about Microsoft itself. After years of Vista trash-talking and a strong resurgence by Apple, Minyanville surmises, the boys in Redmond want IE9 — along with Bing, Halo: Reach and Windows Phone 7 — to help their company become a tech competitor again. 

Wired details each of the new features in IE9. Curious how much horsepower your current browser’s rockin’? Give it the SunSpider benchmark test. A leaked video last week shows Internet Explorer 9 in action.

More Christopher Hickey.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations