Microsoft has delivered four developer previews of World wide web Explorer (IE) 9 so far, but has yet to display off the new interface for its next-generation browser. That is anticipated to occur on September fifteen, in the course of Microsoft;s beta launch occasion in San Francisco.
But maybe consumers won;t have to wait until then to obtain a glimpse of what;s coming. Microsoft Russia;s press web-site, on August 25, posted data along with a photo that appear to get linked to the coming IE 9 beta. (The site has given that pulled their post, but I grabbed the details and display shot within the nick of time.)
The screen shot (previously mentioned) demonstrates a navigation bar and fewer controls. There;s a back button,
Windows 7 Ultimate Key, a combined URL - lookup box at the top. And that;s pretty much it. I don;t see menu objects like “Favorites” or “Suggested Sites” or “Get More Add-Ons” (but perhaps they;re still in there, somehow).
I ran the text of the Russian internet site;s IE 9 posting through the Bing Translator. Other than turning a couple of the references from IE 9 to IE 8 (and IE 7,
Office 2007 Enterprise, in one case), Bing did a good job.
The Microsoft Russia internet site said there will be a new, simplified navigation bar with IE nine that will leave “more room for the (Net) website itself.” There will be some navigation tools for commonly used functions — things like a back button and a mixed address/search bar. But the numerous menu products in older versions of IE have “been consolidated into one,
Microsoft Office 2007,” the website said. “Now the user sees only what you want to navigate.”
The Russian Microsoft internet site said that there will be provisions for “recognized,” or “protected,
Microsoft Office 2010 Product Key,” sites which will allow customers to go straight from the Windows taskbar to these sites without having to open IE first. In other words, recognized, protected sites will be treated more like traditional Windows applications.
Bing translated the instructions for doing this as “(C)lick the pins inside the address bar or click the web site in a new tab and drag it towards the taskbar. That;s all. If the web site is pinned, it displays an icon which is separate from the Net Explorer. Now from the website you are just one click.”
(It sounds like this might be a feature accessible by
Windows 7 consumers only, though I am not sure.)
The Russian web site also mentioned “tear-off tabs” — a capability that will build on Windows;s Aero Snap feature. Snap allows end users to more easily look at two pages, side-by-side by “snapping” them towards the sides of their PC screen. Firefox and Safari both already include tear-off tabs, allowing end users to select tabbed items and turn them into separate windows.
Here;s the description of the tear-off tabs from the Russian web-site, as translated by Bing:
“Often a task must open several Web pages or screens. Advanced tabs in combination with Windows Aero Snap is a quick way to exhibit two or two-page spread. To do this, simply drag the page in different screen and will appear subsequent to each other. Reproduction of content sites and video are not violated.”
I;ve asked Microsoft for comment on the info posted and removed from the Microsoft Russia web site. I will add any comments I get to this post. Update: Not very useful, but here;s the official statement, from a Microsoft spokesperson: “Microsoft is encouraged by the early enthusiasm about World wide web Explorer 9; we have nothing further to share about World-wide-web Explorer nine at this time.”
Microsoft officials first discussed plans for IE nine in March 2010. IE nine will be more compliant with the emerging HTML5, CSS3 and SVG2 standards and will include a new JavaScript engine (code-named “Chakra”). It will consider advantage of PC hardware to accelerate graphics performance. IE 9 will work on Vista and
Windows 7,
Office 2007, but not Windows XP.
Company officials have not been willing to pinpoint a due-date target for IE 9, but many of us company watchers are thinking it will be in 2011
What do you think of the direction Microsoft may be taking — if this facts is accurate — with the user interface for IE 9?