Has anyone else tried this new version of IE? Overall I'm rather disappointed - I was expecting find-as-you-type page search and a nice download manager but got neither. However it is definitely an improvment and it passes the Acid 2 test which is exciting!
In my view it's rather short of new features - there are lots of tweaks, for example the way the domain is in black in the address bar and the rest is in grey, and the new (and better) way the Delete Browsing History feature works (using checkboxes like Firefox rather than individual buttons) - but neither of those can really be seen as new user features that makes browsing more enjoyable.
However it does have a couple of new features which are:
Web clips - old news really, since Firefox introduced it in Fx2, but it is basically the same as Firefox Quick Bookmarks or whatever it's called. RSS Feeds appear as bookmarks and can be browsed without leaving the page. All in all I'd actually say it's a slightly better implementation, since it makes the feed bold when it's been updated, and knows if you've read articles. It also goes one step further as you can see mini web pages in a balloon with one click if the site supports it. That will definitely be useful for things like weather sites and watching ebay items, I already have a nice facebook one set up. Of course note many sites support it present but I expect that to change! ANNOYINGLY, it does insist on displaying a ghastly "favourites bar" which wastes screen space... so I'll have to decide if it's worth it.
Activities - these are actually rather good, you can right click a selection and do useful things like search, define, map, translate etc. These are a bit like the myriad of Firefox extensions offered, although especially good as for many actions you can just point on the action and the result (e.g. map/translation/search results) appear in a balloon so you don't actually have to leave the page. Very spiffy.
Nice though those two features are I must say I did expect more from IE8. Worse, features I used appear to have actaully vanished, for example the session saver that appears when you close multiple tabs has been replaced with a dialog asking if you want to close this or all tabs.
What are your impressions?
