Metropol

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/produc ... itnow.mspx

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?

cdd wrote:[It] passes the Acid 2 test which is exciting!

In light of Acid3, not so much.

It's IE and over the years I've become painfully accustomed to it being just that little worse each major release so seeing as I treat IE7 with a great deal of scorn, IE8 will have to try hard to even get me to look.

i thought it was a bit naff. it's pretty much the same as ie7 as far as the end user is concerned. they haven't sorted the interface out yet which was one of my gripes - so much wasted toolbar space.

i wonder if they implement a firefox like 'awesome' bar? i actually find browsing without this now quite difficult when i have to use ie - the revised bookmarking system in ff3 really changes the way you browse. couldn't be without it now.

I used it briefly and found it rubbish, it crashed more times than anything and seemed slower than IE7.

This beta is aimed at web developers and designers to help them take advantage of new features in Internet Explorer 8 that will enhance their websites.

This beta isn't feature complete, and they haven't finished adding features yet. They've not even finished the renderer, although they said this is why they released this version so that developers can get their sites working with it before it's released.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=58643

I used it briefly and found it rubbish, it crashed more times than anything and seemed slower than IE7.

It's a beta - they are slower than release versions of software.

dosxuk wrote:

This beta is aimed at web developers and designers to help them take advantage of new features in Internet Explorer 8 that will enhance their websites.

This beta isn't feature complete, and they haven't finished adding features yet. They've not even finished the renderer, although they said this is why they released this version so that developers can get their sites working with it before it's released.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=58643

I used it briefly and found it rubbish, it crashed more times than anything and seemed slower than IE7.

It's a beta - they are slower than release versions of software.

Seems light years behind my shiny new MacBook and Safari!

It doesn't even install on my computer. Usually I'm well pleased with IE but I'm very unimpressed with this one.

This beta is really just a technologies release to try and prep developers for some of MS's big upcoming pushes - activities, webslices etc. It's infortunate the tech press has put so much emphasis on it, as if it's actually representative of the final IE8 UX - not that I'd have particularly high hopes for it anyway.

Is it possible to keep the Favourites sidebar always open? If I open it and then quit IE, then restart IE, the sidebar has automatically closed itself. In IE6 it was always there unitl you switched it off manually.

IE7 or IE8b1? In IE7, as long as I've "pinned" it to the side it stays open upon restarting IE. If you're referring to hte beta I don't know, I only tried it in a VM.

the final version has been released ten mins ago. Installed it on vista without a hitch. So far, nothing is broken and this site is working fine (iirc it didn't work in the original beta).

It's a lot faster than IE7 I'll give it that, although nothing compared to firefox.