Fri 29 Aug 2008
Want to know what new features are coming in Internet Explorer 8?
Posted by Mysti under IT Information
Yesterday Microsoft released the second beta (test version) of Internet Explorer 8 for download from their site. This version has a lot of new features which were not available in IE7, so here is a quick list of some of the main ones.
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SmartScreen Filter – This new filter has improved detection of phishing sites and can even help protect you from malicious software. When the SmartScreen filter is turned on it will warn you when you attempt to visit a site that isn’t considered safe, or when you attempt to download potentially unsafe software.
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InPrivate Browsing – With this feature you can launch a private browsing session were no browsing history, temporary Internet files, form data, cookies, and usernames and passwords will be retained by the browser and it will automatically clear the browser cache at the end of the session. InPrivate Blocking is another feature that goes along with InPrivate Browsing, which can help prevent third parties from gathering information on your browsing habits.
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Accelerators – Accelerators allow you to have fast and easy access to a number of popular web services. When you highlight text with your mouse in IE8 the blue Accelerator button will appear next to the text. This button will lead to a menu with a number of options. You could for example select ‘Translate with Windows Live’ and the text you highlighted will be translated into the language of your choice in a small popup box. You could also highlight an address and see a popup of a map to that location. IE8 comes with a number of Accelerators, but there are also over 30 additional Accelerators you can install from the Accelerator gallery.
To see a video demonstration of this feature click here. - Web Slices – Web Slices allow you to subscribe to parts of websites with regularly updated content, similar to the way that RSS allows you to subscribe to the whole site. With Web Slices you could for example subscribe to a single item for sale on Ebay. The Web Slices name will then appear in your Favourites bar at the top of the screen and when it detects an update it will flash and appear in bold type (you can set how often you want IE8 to check for changes). When you click on the Web Slice in your Favourites bar a preview box will open showing you the updated information.
To see a video demonstration of this feature click here.
The final version of Internet Explorer 8 is expected to be released at the end of this year, but if you would like to try IE 8 Beta 2 or just learn more about IE8 and its other new features click here.