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Microsoft Drops IE8 Beta 2 - First Impression
As a longtime Firefox user, I didn't pay too much attention when Microsoft announced the impending release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Still, after using the first beta and not running into the kind of horrible issues some of our readers reported, it warranted a download.
After a brief test drive, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Installation was almost totally painless, though I wish Microsoft would figure out how to pull off a reboot-free install. Pages rendered quickly and accurately, the Firefox import worked very well, and my LastPass toolbar worked without asking for an upgrade. The Google toolbar, however, failed to work.
I also appreciate that IE prompted me to disable an addon - the Acrobat toolbar - when I closed it's toolbar. It's a small but useful feature. Slices and accelerators are showing a lot of promise, and the two I tried - Stumbleupon Buzz and send to GMail - worked nicely. You can see the Stumble slice at work in my screenshot.
I'm not sold on SmartScreen yet. I expected Web of Trust-like funcionality, but it's just not there. I ran around several keygen sites that make WOT cringe and didn't get a single alert from IE. That needs adressing. I like the idea of InPrivate as well, but would like to be able to mix tabs instead of running two separate instances of the browser.
If you do install the new version, be sure to check out the IE 8 Gallery, a new website that provides one-stop access to accelerators, slices, search addons, and toolbars. It's much, much less annoying than the IE7 addon site.
Let us know your thoughts if you've demoed the new beta!
After a brief test drive, I'm pleasantly surprised by it. Installation was almost totally painless, though I wish Microsoft would figure out how to pull off a reboot-free install. Pages rendered quickly and accurately, the Firefox import worked very well, and my LastPass toolbar worked without asking for an upgrade. The Google toolbar, however, failed to work.
I also appreciate that IE prompted me to disable an addon - the Acrobat toolbar - when I closed it's toolbar. It's a small but useful feature. Slices and accelerators are showing a lot of promise, and the two I tried - Stumbleupon Buzz and send to GMail - worked nicely. You can see the Stumble slice at work in my screenshot.
I'm not sold on SmartScreen yet. I expected Web of Trust-like funcionality, but it's just not there. I ran around several keygen sites that make WOT cringe and didn't get a single alert from IE. That needs adressing. I like the idea of InPrivate as well, but would like to be able to mix tabs instead of running two separate instances of the browser.
If you do install the new version, be sure to check out the IE 8 Gallery, a new website that provides one-stop access to accelerators, slices, search addons, and toolbars. It's much, much less annoying than the IE7 addon site.
Let us know your thoughts if you've demoed the new beta!
Comments
23
Subscribe to commentsJenniferlaurenAug 28th 2008 1:16PM
If you're checking out the gallery, check out Me.dium while you're at it. (Shameless plug!) I'm Jen, part of the team at Me.dium, and yesterday, we joined EBay, Amazon, Facebook, Digg and Yahoo as a featured partner for IE8's Beta 2 launch.
We are so thrilled to be part of IE8, as our goal is to make the internet a more social place. We've got a lot of exciting things going on like our What’s Hot WebSlice, Me.dium Discovery Accelerator, and Visual Search, (you can check out our search homepage at http://me.dium.com/search.)
For all the details of Me.dium+IE8 take a look at http://blogme.dium.com/content/2008/08/medium-makes-hot-stuff-for-ie8/
Thanks, and feel free to email me with any questions or thoughts on Me.dium: Jboyle@me.dium.com
MarkAug 28th 2008 10:01PM
Much faster than Beta 1 but still noticeably slower than ff3. Try this: open a standard site such as google and open ur gmail account in a new tab. Go to All Mail. Swtich from one to the other really fast. Ff3 keeps up, no problem; Beta 2, not so much.
So many great features look very promising but if they can't match ff3's lightning speed, they're not going to get my vote.
JustinAug 29th 2008 9:15PM
I hated it, pure and simple. I used it for 3 days before just giving up on it. Too many issues, compatability wise. Coloured tabs look ridiculous too. Graphically, it's crap, the start page is ridiculous.... I would write out a list if I thought it would do any good, but once MS makes up it's mind about something, it's too late... the horse has bolted.