IE9: Is it really better?

   

     Everyone who has used a computer has most likely used some version of Internet Explorer. Many versions of IE have gotten different responses since the time its creation. On March 14, 2011 Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9. Since its release it has received many positive responses. With those responses also come a few complaints about some of the new additions to IE9. The developers at Microsoft tried to take the best features of today’s most popular web browsers and make them better. 

     The most visible change in IE9 is its overall look and feel. Like Google Chrome, they used a minimalist appearance to help hide some of the clutter of previous versions. The one thing that users are most pleased about is the speed. Compared to all other current web browsers, IE9 is either equal or slightly faster in loading speed when tested on heavy java sites like Facebook and Gmail, and also flash-based sites like Youtube. This is mostly due to GPU acceleration, which passes on the heavy processing of web animations to your computers chipset. IE9 is more stable and experiences less crashes through the better use of hardware resources and the new HTML5. The new font is darker and more visible and is able to fit more input per line. The web address bar has been combined with a search bar. When you insert something to search, IE9 displays icons of search engines you choose to use. After selecting an icon, IE9 displays the search results from that particular search engine.

     Another new feature IE9 adopted from Chrome is tear-out tabbing. The user is able to drag and drop tabs to create a separate window. Then, the user can drag an open tab in the new window and drop it back into its original window. Pin-able links is a new feature in IE9 where the user can pin links to the task bar creating click-able icons. Finally, major efforts were made to reduce the amount of unnecessary pop-ups and alert messages, while keeping the same excellent browser privacy and security that came in IE8.

     Even with all the good reviews some complaints were made. At the default setting, IE9's interface looks great. When the user reveals the favorites bar and the command bar underneath the address bar, it becomes a bit more crowded. Add on the status bar at the bottom of the interface and its really crowded. Also, the address bar and tabs are located on the same bar. When a user opens multiple tabs, the tabs get narrower and narrower the more you open. IE9 also comes with some weird color coding. Tabs for different sites may come up different colors when having multiple tabs. These colors do not seem to represent a purpose.

     IE developers added a dialer page, made famous in Opera, to keep track of the top 10 sites the user visits. These pages are displayed as thumbnails with bars underneath them. These bars are supposed to be longer depending on how much the site is viewed but this really isn't explained clearly just by seeing it. These bars are also color coded, but do not seem to serve a purpose. The new download manager is a bit of an improvement from the older versions. Although some types of files are not recognized in the download manager. This is particularly common with image files. Like almost every other web browser, IE9 didn't create an easy way of editing bookmarks.

     Probably the one thing that could make or break IE9 is the fact that it is not compatible with any version of Windows from XP and earlier. This is a push by Microsoft to get users to upgrade their operating systems in order to get the newer version of Internet Explorer. This could me a major flaw in Microsoft's plans of keeping up with current browsers such as Mozilla, Chrome, and Opera, which all have versions compatible with XP.

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