IE 8 Beta : The First Experience

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gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Internet Explorer 8 reveled

This just in, at Microsoft Mix 08, Microsoft has reveled some of the features of Internet Explorer 8. Seems like IE is again going to win the browser war this time, after years of facing criticism from Firefox, Opera & Safari Users.

IE 8 as it is going to be called will be available for Windows XP, Vista & Server 2008 users soon this year. It is going to be 100% standard complient as said by Microsoft & will feature better integration with Web 2.0 services. Since it is made for Windows, you can be sure that it will run faster & feature a nice integration with the Windows Enviroment.

Here are some of the new features of Internet Explorer.

Activities

Activities are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another. Internet Explorer 8 Activities make this common pattern easier to do.
Activities typically involve two types of scenarios: "look up" information within a webpage or "send" web content to a web application. For example, a user is interested in a restaurant and wants to see the location of it. This is the form of a "look up" Activity where the user selects the address and views an in-place view of the map using his favorite map service.

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenActivities.png

An example of a "send" Activity is a user reads an interesting article and wants to blog about a portion of the article. The user can select a portion of the article and uses the blog Activity. This navigates to the user’s blog site with the selection already available in the edit field.

Activities are services that the user can install and manage. Users can install them from the Internet Explorer 8 Service Guide or through any website that advertises Activities.

WebSlices

WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenWebSlicePreview2.png

Internet Explorer 8 Users can discover WebSlices within a webpage and add them to the Favorites bar, a dedicated row below the Address bar for easy access to links. Internet Explorer 8 subscribes to the webpage, detects changes in the WebSlice, and notifies the user of updates. Users can preview these updates directly from the Favorites bar and click-through to the website to get more information.

Favorites Bar

In Internet Explorer 7, the Links bar provided users with one-click access to their favorite sites. The Links bar has undergone a complete makeover for Internet Explorer 8. It has been renamed the Favorites bar to enable users to associate this bar as a place to put and easily access all their favorite web content such as links, feeds, WebSlices and even Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents.

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenFavoritesBar.png

A user can easily add a link to the Favorites bar by using the Add to Favorites button and selecting the Add to Favorites Bar option.

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenFavoritesBar2.png
Automatic Crash Recovery

Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Windows®Internet Explorer® 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions.

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenCrashRecovery.png


Improved Phishing Filter

Internet Explorer 7 introduced the Phishing Filter, a feature which helps warn users when they visit a Phishing site. Phishing sites spoof a trusted legitimate site, with the goal of stealing the user’s personal or financial information. For Internet Explorer 8, we are building on the success of the Phishing Filter with a more comprehensive feature called the "Safety Filter."

*www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/images/ScreenSafetyFilter.png

The Safety Filter continues to block known Phishing sites and now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computer or steal their information. Beyond this improved protection, the Safety Filter operates more quickly than ever before to ensure that users can browse both safely and quickly.

For IT administrators, new Group Policy options are available to remove the user-override option and fully block access to known unsafe sites.

IE 8 Beta 1 is available for download now. Internet Explorer 8 can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista® Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP® Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server® 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2).
 

victor_rambo

हॉर्न ओके प्लीज़
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Relieved to know that it will be standards compliant.

^Ye, even I am not able to download the beta pack.
 

sabret00the

Youngling
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

wow gx_saurav thanks a lot for sharing this information will try to download it once I get back home from office...:)
 

Vishal Gupta

Microsoft MVP
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Its just a test page. You'll not get the working download links atm. They are setting all the things, so bookmark the page for future. ;)
 

victor_rambo

हॉर्न ओके प्लीज़
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Its just a test page. You'll not get the working download links atm. They are setting all the things, so bookmark the page for future. ;)
Do you have any idea when it will be available for download?
 

Hitboxx

Juke Box Hero
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Good good, finally MS is doing the catchup work with Firefox although Firefox offers lot more, but still a nice start.
 

ravi_9793

TechTin.com
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

I will waiting for a beta drive. Looks very exciting
 
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gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Good good, finally MS is doing the catchup work with Firefox although Firefox offers lot more, but still a nice start.

I stopped using firefox long time back cos it is not native to Windows Vista, means no cleartype for HTML in firefox.

Tell me, what makes firefox better then IE 7? You can include extensions in the comparision cos when you do that, I will show u the same extensions for IE 7/IE 8

hmmm......so we will probably get it in next 2-3 days!

Yes.
 
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Vishal Gupta

Microsoft MVP
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

As I earlier said, links are working now. You can download the IE 8 Beta1, Its 11 MB. :)
 
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gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Already downloaded & using in Windows XP SP2 VM. Can't screw Vista this easily, we just need to test yaar...
 
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gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

I know it is working, but this is a good way to test my Shining new Core 2 Duo E6550's Intel VT technology :D
 
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gxsaurav

gxsaurav

You gave been GXified
Re: Internet Explorer 8 reveled

Using it now in Vista. Many web pages look weird now in IE 8 mode, looks like they will need to be updated. Even digit forum's reply box is giving problems. I am using IE 8 in IE 7 mode as I like the new look & feel but want to keep the old Trident Engine right now as not many websites are made for IE 8 yet.

*img175.imageshack.us/img175/2883/31778712ze8.th.jpg

The interface is more polished now, better icons etc. There aren't many changes yet, but since it is Beta 1 this is expected.

*img510.imageshack.us/img510/3969/mainpagegi6.th.jpg

Menus now have icons, finally.

*img135.imageshack.us/img135/8259/pagemenujq1.jpg

Page rendering in IE 8 mode is very fast though.

The new management center from where you can manage activities & Add ons. IE 7 Pro works fine in IE 8.

*img135.imageshack.us/img135/1184/addonsxo3.th.jpg
 
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