How do you search the Web?

Internet browsers wars are starting to truly heat up. With browsers all touting that they have the fastest and best browser. Over my next few post I will be doing a basic review of the four biggest browsers right now, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome and Safari. I use all four browsers believe it or not and I test out all of my browsing sites on them. It is a lot of work to sync up all of my browsers but after using all four there are certain advantages and disadvantages to each browser and I will be highlighting some of them in my post. Up first Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) and Internet Explorer 9(IE9).

Internet Explorer 8 was released in March 2009. The main new features added to the program are:
Accelerators, Web Slice, Search Suggestions, New Tab Features, Tab Isolation, InPrivate Browsing, and SmartScreen Filter. 

Accelerators allow for quick access to web servers, ie on a webiste, you can click within the page to get news, maps, information or share it on a social networking site. Web Slice allows you to keep with with changes made to your favorite websites. Search Suggestions allows for suggested context as you type it out. New Tab features allow you to reopen accidentally closed tabs, and group related tabs together. Tab isolation allows you to closed a crashed tab without closing the rest of your tabs. InPrivate browsing lets you browse the web without saving any data. SmartScreen Filters protects you against installation of malware. IE 8 has full support for CSS 2.1. This is important because not all sites look the same on all computers. Some sites have fonts that may not be installed on your computer so if the web author sets up a CSS sheet they set all the default fonts and colors and information for the site so you can view it properly.

If you are using Internet Explorer there are some limitations with the browser. Most people are using a Windows OS (operating system) on their personal computer(that is changing with Mac OS becoming popular) which means you less of a choice in choosing which IE browser you would like to use. Internet Explorer 9 is the newest version of IE but only works on machines with Windows Vista and Windows 7 installed on your computer. If you are running Windows XP and below it means that the newest IE will be IE 8 and that will be your only option for browsing the internet. IE 8 is not a bad browser. Most users are familiar with this option seeing that it comes embedded with your OS. IE8 will be the first browser you will use when connecting to the internet, unless you have some type of external memory with exe files to another browser. IE 8 has rather archaic look to when you are looking at modern browsers today. It doesn't process pages as fast as you would like it to but it does get the job done if all you are trying to do is just browse. It you are checking sports scores, looking up a recipe or just reading news this browser will work for the basic user. However when it comes to processing images and watching videos from Youtube or living streaming broadcast the browser may not perform as well but will still perform. It has large back and forward buttons, with large tabs, and with the menu bar attached to the browser. It is a great browser for those just looking to surf the web.

 

Screen Shot from My IE 8 Browser running Windows XP Pro

What saddens me as Windows XP user is that I will not have the option of running IE9. Although I own Windows Xp and can not use IE9 on my os I also picked up a copy of Windows 7. Here is the IE9 information.

Internet Explorer 9 was released in March 2011. IE9 new features include: Brand new Interface, allowing for just basic controls and leaves more space for viewing. Hardware acceleration, making website perform like native apps to your computer, and IE9 is the first browser to use video card to speed up browsing. Pinning websites to your Windows 7 Taskbar. Unified address bar for navigating the site or to start a search. New tab page management, letting you restore your last browsing session, reopen closed tabs, and provide quick access to the sites you visit more frequently while displaying stats, sites icon, and title. You can also tear a tab off and make it its own browsing window as well or combine it within another browsing window. Better add-on management, which adds an adviser letting you know which add-on's are slowing your browsing and allows you to remove it. New Privacy features, you can limit sites that can track your information. Full HTML5 support just means FULL HTML5 support.

IE9 loads pages almost instantly and has simplistic design. IE9 has a large back button and a small forward button. The search bar is about 1/3 of the screen while allows for a lot of tab space if you are browsing multiple sites at once. The browser also got rid of the menu bar and is available if you needed but not directly in your browsing view. Most of the screen is dedicated to your browsing experience. It reminds of you the browsers of now, Firefox and Google Chrome.

Screen shot of IE9 on Windows 7

This browser also has hardware acceleration built into the browser. Hardware acceleration is  important for those who want their web pages to perform like apps. IE 9 adds this option to this this within the browser. Overall IE9 is great browser with great options and a great choice for your internet browsing needs. If I had to chose between the browsers I would suggest IE9. It has great functionally and streams video, music, loads images from sites with great pace. If you had a choice of IE browsers this is the one you want to use. If you really want to see what IE9 can do check out this video of Mike Tompkins.

Below are videos from YouTube about the announcement of IE9 to the world.