Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

You read it right, number 8, one after seven. It seems Microsoft is heavy at work on yet another new web browser, Internet Explorer 8. This new web browser is currently released subtly as a beta in it's first testing stages by developers. So far there are only a few listed features, along with proclaimed "Security Enhancements" and a hint of even greater speed. One of the new changes are highlighting the main domain of an address, as seen below. I suppose this is just to clear confusion for people by secluding the home page. The first of the newest features is Activities. Activities are listed on Microsoft's website as quote "contextual services that provide quick access to external services from any webpage." Big words, and yet another big attempt to connect information and add convenience. Basically, as you can see in this image taken from Microsoft's Website, Activities will be a utility to send and compare information and other content to other popular websites. From the picture: Digging, Blogging, and various social networks are some of these websites that you can send information to. Activities also have a mapping feature that when a mouse pointer is placed over, will map the location of the highlighted text. To use Activities, you first highlight content from a website and wait for a little icon. Then select which Activitity you want. For example, to search a word in Encarta you would highlight the word then click Activities then Encarata. I will be interested in seeing other Activities they come up with; Activities have high potential to be convenient with the right features.

Next on their new feature list has caught my eye, WebSlices. This application is simply emphasis on mini feeds and gadgets that are circulating. For WebSlices, you just put your mouse pointer next to a WebSlice compatible area. The little purple icon that you can see below will appear, upon clicking on it you will get a prompt like so. You can test it out on Ebay, who have already implemented these for developers and premature IE8 users.

I wanted to test WebSlices on monitoring auctions on Ebay, which turned out a great success. WebSlices allows you to monitor Ebay auctions flawlessly without opening any web pages or leaving your current website. Ebay has integrated itself so well into WebSlices, that the WebSlice of an expired auction appears red informing you of it's expiration. WebSlices contain the most updated portions of your subscribed content, displayed in a miniature view. Chose the website itself, or just it's content to add as a WebSlice, then from the IE bar you can load them quickly and conveniently to view before choosing to view the entire page. Each WebSlice's content is either set by default or by the content developer. WebSlices are viewed like a mobile web page, with the most essential content fitted into a little box.

WebSlices look the most promising, but Activities aren't far behind in my list. Both new features (and the supposed enhanced speed and security) are attempting put a gap between Microsoft and Mozilla. Each feature adding a little more convenience in navigating and sharing information. If you are interested in testing these features, download Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 here. Note: IE8 is buggy, I experienced problems with the scroll bar and a few other bugs, so it probably wouldn't be best to just use it out of the box. The new features are for the most part functional from my personal testing, but not completely developed. Still, Activties and WebSlices are still very interesting, and display proudly that Microsoft is ready to fight for the number 1 spot against it's competitors. Digg it.