Internet Explorer 8 includes a whole bunch of cool new features. Some of them are quite cool from a
user's point of view, but don't mean too much from the developer side of things. Others will help you
connect with visitors to your Web site like you never could before. For now, I'm simply going to
give you a quick overview of some of the more prominent new features. Stay tuned to 15 Seconds for
more in-depth coverage of the new developer-related goodies in the coming months.
InPrivate Browsing
InPrivate Browsing is designed to allow users to browse the Web without leaving any traces
on the computer being used. Browser history, cahce, cookies, etc. should all be purged when the browsing
session is ended.
SmartScreen Filter
An improved version of the Phishing Filter from IE 7, the SmartScreen Filter boasts
an improved user interface, better performance, better detection, anti-malware support, and
group policy support.
Smarter Search Box and Improved "Find on this Page..." Toolbar
Since searching is one of the most common activities users do in a browser, it should come as
no surprise that the built-in search box has received a number of improvements. These include
AJAX-style auto-complete and thumbnail images.
The "Find on this Page..." function has also been improved. While the changes aren't as
drastic as the search box changes, they're useful nonetheless.
Improved Address Bar
Nothing too drastic here, but you'll notice that the actual domain name part of the address is
darker then the other parts. Presumably so users will notice the real domain to try and
alleviate phishing attacks to some degree.
Accelerators
This is a feature I've been begging for for the longest time. Highlight some text on a web page and a little
blue button appears next to it. Click the button and you can choose to do any number of things with the text
depending on what Accelerators you have installed. By default, you can do things like Blog about it, email it,
map it if it's an address, search the Web for it, and translate it to a different language. And
that's just out of the box... image what's possible once you start building and installing your own
Accelerators.
Web Slices
Another feature that won't really take off until the developers get behind it is Web Slices.
It's part RSS feed and part mini Web page. In the following example, I've set up a Web slice to follow an eBay
auction and by simply clicking on the icon in the favorites bar, I can check on the auction without
leaving the Web site I'm currently reading.
Compatibility View
Internet Explorer 8 is more standards compliant than any previous versions. While this is a
great step forward it does mean that existing Web pages may look different in IE 8 then they do in IE 7 and below.
As a stepping stone, Microsoft has included a compatibility mode that can be enabled either at the Web server
level or via the Compatibility View button next to the address bar.
Obviously the goal is to get your Web pages so that they're actually standards compliant so you won't need
to use the compatibility mode, but we all know that unfortunately that type of thing doesn't happen overnight.
