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This is why you should use Internet Explorer 9
It's a little bit ironic: I was in San Francisco for the launch of IE9, yet I still haven't written anything about it. A lot has already been covered by Lee, but there are still a few hidden gems and neat details that you might not know about. In an effort to continue our exhaustive and unrivalled coverage of Web browsers, I'm going to give you my take on Microsoft's new, prospective champion.It's hard to describe just what makes Internet Explorer 9 such joy to use. It would be easy to say 'it just works,' but that would be a cop-out. IE9 is like a simple, beautifully elegant dress -- sleek lines, no frills, but masterfully designed with a singular purpose in mind: Web browsing.
The first thing that strikes you with IE9 -- except the fact that it requires a frickin' reboot to install -- is just how smooth your interaction with the browser, and thus the Web, is. The UI has been designed by a genius, and the way tabs and windows whoosh around is reminiscent of Firefox's Panorama. There's definitely been a move towards more tactile interfaces in recent years, and it leaves Chrome feeling positively clunky in comparison.
Moving on (I've calmed down now), the unified tab-and-address bar area, which has received a lot of flak for being too small for power-users, is resizable! You can simply make the address bar narrower, leaving more space for tabs. More space is also dedicated to tabs on wider displays: screen widths over 1280 pixels (i.e., every power-user) have two thirds of that space reserved for tabs -- it's only on smaller screens that the address bar occupies half the width (and it's still resizable!).
Putting the One Box (Omnibox, eat your heart out) on the same line as the tabs also puts IE9 into first place as far as vertical space is concerned. It's about 20 pixels more compact than Chrome, but almost half the size of Firefox 4's bulky address-and-tabs-and-huge-orange-button setup.
The pinned app icon also has a jumplist that can be added with a few META tags in a site's HTML. Right click your Twitter icon and you can jump straight to 'New Tweet.' A site can also notify you of changes to a page through the Superbar -- if you pin Facebook to your superbar, you'll see a red star appear when there's activity on your news stream.
IE9 blurs the difference between the Web and your operating system -- and that's intentional. The average user now spends so much time surfing the Web that the underlying operating system, and downloaded, locally-run apps, have become all but redundant. Remember, too, that Google is working on a browser that is an operating system.
After talking to Microsoft, Google, and Mozilla in San Francisco and Mountain View, I'm sure that this is just the opening salvo in the browser-as-a-platform crusade. All three major browsers have now assembled their forces -- HTML5, standards compliance, fast JavaScript execution, and hardware accelerated rendering -- and it makes me wonder whether Windows 7 might be the last local software-oriented operating system that we'll see. It certainly makes sense for Google to push Chrome OS -- they have nothing to lose! -- but it leaves a huge question mark hanging ominously over the fate of Windows 8.
We're now moving at such a speed that in the next couple of years, Web apps will become so tightly integrated to the parent OS that they will simply become apps. You'll be able to write one app in JavaScript and CSS that looks the same across every browser -- and thus every platform: mobile, desktop, and television. Both end-users and developers should be salivating.
[Internet Explorer 9 download link]
Comments
58
Subscribe to commentsSebastian AnthonySep 24th 2010 6:37AM
Hehe, no arrangement -- I'm as surprised as you are. I haven't used IE since the early Firefox 1 beta.
IE9 really is quite good, though :)
StevenSep 24th 2010 5:37AM
Yes, there is an "arrangement" going on. Not just here. It's happening on multiple sites. Reddit has been hot with discussion over the payments occurring to advertise the "greatest browser".
Sebastian AnthonySep 24th 2010 6:38AM
I don't know about Reddit, but no money has exchanged hands here.
Cougar AbogadoSep 25th 2010 2:51PM
Wow, Sebastian, I was so blown away when I read your review, I decided to take the plunge myself. I find this noteworthy because I usually contemplate a plunger when I think of IE, rather than a pleasant swim.
I agree with most of what you said, especially the seamless app/OS salivation part (which could be because I'm such a cloud dreamer myself).
Please visit my blog for another review: cougarabogado.blogspot.com
Thanks for posting.
P.S. When do you think a) web apps will resurface in Chrome, b) the app store will emerge, and c) Chrome OS will hit the market?
Sebastian AnthonySep 25th 2010 3:15PM
I've opened it in another tab, to read later, but I'm currently away from home -- so I'll get around to it when I get a chance :)
The answer to all three of those is 'soon'. Before the end of the year, AFAIK.
Sebastian AnthonySep 25th 2010 3:15PM
Awesome name, btw -- I hope it's your real name :P
Cougar AbogadoSep 25th 2010 4:08PM
Thanks for reading.
Looking at an article from Information Week, I think we can safely saw October for the web app store: http://www.informationweek.com/news/storage/data_protection/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=227500646&subSection=News
Actually, my real name is Harry Potter. I use a pseudonym because I'm often nervous a death eater could be lurking somewhere in the comments, waiting to imperious me. That's what happened to my friend, Katie Bell, anyway.
Cougar AbogadoSep 25th 2010 4:09PM
Actually, I think sawing October might be a bit unhealthy. Let's just *say October, instead. :)
Don ZeiglerSep 26th 2010 9:04AM
Fanboy reviews suck. IE9 is still a creaking POS and not much faster than earlier versions.
rebohoSep 30th 2010 12:14AM
I'm glad you like IE9 but years late and many dollars short. Why should I jump to a browser that is 2 years behind the curve and has a history of causing all sorts of mayhem on a Windows machine? Why would I use a browser that is only available on one operating platform. Brand loyalty is quaint but I'd have to be insane to want to use a browser that has a history of IE. I'm glad they caught up and all but really, the world is passing Microsoft by. Windows 7 was a good first step but IE is a bridge too far for me. Not much here that would cause me to throw away Chrome or Firefox and it certainly would not be my default.
JTSep 30th 2010 1:35AM
I used the ie9 beta for a couple of days and absolutely loved it. I used to use ie, then switched to FireFox for several years, then to Chrome. I would switch back to IE again, but one major non-feature keeps me from doing so. On Chrome and FireFox I can (via the browser or a plugin) add sites to my New Tab Page. They get pinned there in the order I want. It helps me organize the sites I visit. IE9 not only doesn't provide that feature, but their New Page tab (which shows sites frequently visited and not ones you pin there) does not allow for any user customization. That's a major flaw. The New Tab should allow customization so I can select to view sites their way or Pin sites to the New Tab page and organize them myself. Why would IE9 allow me to Pin a site to the Taskbar, but not to a New Page tab?
That's the only reason I didn't switch back to IE.
IT DonutSep 30th 2010 10:36AM
Well this does look rather tasty doesn't it! I do like the integration with Windows and the blurring between browser and OS, but then IE has been integrated with Windows since what, Windows 95 SP2?
Good stuff though MS!
IT resources for small businesses - http://www.itdonut.co.uk
RMNSep 30th 2010 1:15PM
If i go to the google maps page and drag the map around using IE9, the map jerks around the screen. In Crome the map can be dragged much much smoother and Firefox 3 does it better than IE9 but not as well as Crome.
My point is that in one of the promotional videos for IE9, one of the examples is that GPU acceleration makes looking at maps online a much smoother experience. So why does it still work worse than all the other major browsers?
smg77Sep 30th 2010 5:48PM
I honestly don't see how anybody can use any browser that doesn't work with the adblock plus extension. Advertising has become so out of control annoying that I hate opening up web pages in anything without adblock support.
blogwardOct 1st 2010 9:25AM
I didn't use Windows 7 - which will be great when it's finished - long enough to want to try IE9, sorry.
JimOct 1st 2010 11:19AM
So, can I install IE9 without trashing my AOL 9.5?
Sebastian AnthonyOct 1st 2010 11:22AM
I think so, yes. (If you're using Windows 7!)
SlackerIncOct 2nd 2010 4:35AM
I'm trying it now and finding it buggy, though I understand it's in beta. When I post at TwoP now, bolding and quoting and embedding links is messed up: I highlight the text I want to apply the change to but it kind of "misses" almost like it drunkenly lurches a few characters to the left or something. I am finding some sites are not opening (amazon.com, google); not sure what's going on there.
But those are kinks that hopefully will be worked out. There are a couple of straight-up changes I dislike that don't appear to be bugs (that is, they appear to be intentional, though I can't fathom why). Why can't I click something and see a list of my open tabs? Either of the previous options would be fine: a drop-down list or a page with thumbnails of each tab. But I use a lot of tabs, so the lack of either is not working for me. At all.