Microsoft launches IE9 Preview, takes fight to Chrome

Microsoft today announces the IE9 preview to deliver an awesome new browsing experience.

Our first look at Internet Explorer 9 follows much of the same core features we will see on the Windows Phone 7, mainly hardware accelerated graphics and text plus a new JavaScript engine and support for HTML5.

In what can be seen as a counter to the Chrome threat , the new browser focus on HTML5 works to make the new web browsing experience more like viewing apps than web pages. The combination of operating system improvements with Windows 7 and the new browser will mean that more of the whole computer will be optimised to achieve a sexier, smoother and faster web experience.

Further details on how you can get your hands on the new browser after the jump.

In a continued move to further support the development community, Microsoft also announced that it will contribute to develop new features for jQuery, JavaScript library and share the release of SDK’s and Open Data Protocols. What this should mean for the consumer is faster developments on the new browser and greater synergy with the Windows Phone 7.

Coming soon, is the support for HTML5 video which is tipped as the potential flash killer for online video.

A preview is available is here with the intention to update the preview every eight weeks.  If you are keen to download it, do remember it is not the full browsing experience. No back button, no phishing controls, you have been warned.

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Discussion - 6 Comments/Pingbacks RSS feed for comments on this post

1. 

   Ashutosh Mishra says March 16, 2010

   Reply

   Will Ctrl + L work the way it should on IE 9?

2. 

   Dominic Hetland says March 16, 2010

   Reply

   I just hope that the new JavaScript engine will follow W3C standards, i.e. with handling of event listeners. I also hope they do something serious about their “hasLayout” CSS prop… Maybe this would make me consider writing code that will work properly for for IE users ^^

   Any info of what codec(s) they'll support for the video-tag?

3. 

   Vitor Domingos says March 16, 2010

   Reply

   meh! html5 isn't working at all – http://twitpic.com/18ywrz

4. 

   Rob Bennet says March 16, 2010

   Reply

   HTML 5 is horrible in IE9 test…why is it so hard for Micro$oft to produce a quality browser?!?

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