IE9 Beta Release

Internet Explorer 9 Beta is the latest and most advanced incarnation of the Windows default web browser. Microsoft has been touting its speed, upgraded HTML5 capabilities, relatively straight-forward user-interface, and some other features that, while important to the tech-savvy, probably won't help the average user much. IE9 is meant only for Windows computers and was said to be run with Bing as the default search engine.

The first thing I noticed when Beta testing IE9 is the overall slowness, despite Microsoft's claims of speed. Once I booted it up, my whole 64-bit system lagged in a way I haven't seen in the three months I have had this Windows 7 laptop. IE9 provides a "helpful" pop-up on the first boot that suggests my system and browsing will run more smoothly if I disable all the add-ons. In other words, if I take away all the fancy bells and whistles that are supposed to make IE9 so great, then it will work faster than the original version from Windows 95? I haven't added on anything anyway, so I don't think that will help.

The next step was setting up my homepage. I gave my location, interests and background choice, and got a customized homepage that somewhat reflects my personality and needs. I count this in the plus column for IE9 features, as I see this being useful for some people, though I am not sure it's a feature I need personally. There are interesting recipes, good music news and a Calvin & Hobbes© featured, so it is certainly more interesting than a plain search window.

Down the left side of the home page is a list of sites I might want to click, with Youtube and Gmail featured prominently, reminding me, in case I forgot, that it is, after all, an iGoogle-driven setup. This is confusing, since I was not asked to choose a default home page URL and IE9 is supposed to default to Bing. At any rate, it is clear they have taken cues from both Firefox and Chrome for the visual aspects of the browser, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. However, there is also a box for Gmail further down the page, and a clock-and-calendar combo in the middle. Since there is already a link for Gmail across the top and one on the sidebar, plus the clock and calendar Windows already provides, that all seems a bit redundant.

What I am pleased to find are a couple of buttons in the toolbar area that I don't currently have access to in Chrome or Firefox, at least not without a special add-on. The first is a share button, much like those found on many web pages these days, offering the option to share the current page on Facebook, Twitter, and the like. That is a useful feature I have wished for many times when the site I was reading didn't have the link and I wanted to pass it along.

The other is the translate button. I have always used online translators quite a bit, so to me, this button is even more of a time-saver than the share button. In addition, there is a spell-checker for those who don't have the red underlining set to warn them of typos and the "Side-Wiki" button which would speed net surfing for some people in a big way.

This is not the best browsing experience I have ever had, but is it a vast improvement over previous versions of IE? Absolutely it is. Does it have features that trump Chrome and Firefox? Absolutely, it does.

Final Score: B-