Big Daddy Loads Up

The new Internet Explorer 9 is Microsofts answer to competition.

The new Internet Explorer 9 is Microsofts answer to competition.

Internet explorer might still be ruling the browser world,but Microsofts authority over the World Wide Web has been waning over the years. Newcomers like Chrome and long-time challenger Firefox have eaten into IEs pie with a willingness to do things differently. But Microsoft has never been one to abandon a battlefield,at least not where it has won for over 15 years. What more can you do with the browser,you might wonder. Here is where the company is being innovative. Instead of bringing in flashy applications and gimmicks,the new Internet Explorer 9 will try and exploit the full potential of hardware in Windows-based computers to render graphically rich and immersive Web experiences that are as fast and responsive as the applications installed on your computer. When you are browsing the Net,your computer uses just about 10 per cent of the PCs capabilities. Since most modern PCs have very powerful CPUs along with Graphics Processing Units (GPUs),we thought of leveraging this in-built power to enhance the browsing experience, says Pankaj Ukey of Microsoft India.

IE 9 will also be based on HTML5,which is about to become the global standard for the internet. There are really three core pillars that represent how we re-imagined the role of the browser with IE9 speed,trustworthiness and a clean browsing experience, adds Ukey. Since HTML 5 has in-built video playback and drag-and-drop options,it will make third-party browser plug-ins like Adobe Flash redundant.

Microsoft claims the experience on HTML 5 would be far superior,especially when it comes to videos and games. A simple test on the beta version,which has been available for free download for the past few weeks,shows that IE9 has better frames per second (FPS) when it comes to showing graphics and video when compared with other browsers. This means you will get smoother video,even in HD.

IE9 also has a cleaner interface,which in a way shows that Microsofts biggest threat is from Googles Chrome. With just an address bar,back and forward buttons,there is a lot of real estate,almost like a full screen experience. Then,you can tear away tabs and attach them again,all while a media player is working uninterrupted on the said tab.

This can be a great multi-tasking tool,allowing you to listen to internet radio while you check your mail on another tab. Other features of the browser can also be accessed through the settings button.

Site Pinning also makes its debut,and works with the help of the new document-object model (DOM) and JavaScript engine Chakra. This can be used to create jumplists of your favourite sites. For instance,if you are a regular on Facebook,you can just drag and drop the site icon from the address bar on to the tray below to create an application. The app will then give you regular updates from the site on the tray without you having to open the web page. The One Box feature of the address bar lets you open a site,switch between search providers in the drop down,access browsing history and favourites,or see intuitive suggestions from search providers all at one place. The browser also features an integrated download manager with a smart screen filter that shows you warnings for suspect data. In order to make the browser warnings less disruptive,they now appear at the bottom of the tray.

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The Add-on Performance Advisor tells users when a certain application is slowing down their browsing experience and lets them take an informed decision on whether to continue or terminate the function. In case a certain tab fails to respond,users have the option of isolating just the affected tab for recovery and continuing to browse on the others. But IE9,at least the full experience,will be limited to Windows 7 users. The beta version is available for download,but a launch date for the final version has not yet been announced.