You’ll be able to download Microsoft’s newest web browser, Internet Explorer 8, at 12PM Eastern time today (link here). Microsoft promises that IE8 “is one of the fastest browsers on the market today” and features new goodies like Web Slices, Instant search, and Accelerators – basically right-clicking on highlighted text to bring up a list of routine tasks like mapping, e-mailing, definitions, translation, and more.
The release candidate dropped in January so here’s hoping this new version will amaze us all.
The browser has been in beta for over a year now, so it’ll be interesting to see how the final product performs. What would it take for IE8 to lure you away from your current browser?
We’ll have a full look at the new browser this week.
Microsoft Announces Availability of Internet Explorer 8 [Microsoft.com]
I’m not real sure I could switch. I’m stuck on firefox, just because of all the customizing options…But I pretty much try the rest when there’s an update/release just to see.
The plugins on Firefox make it so much more useable. I even prefer FF to Chrome of Safari. I really can’t see switching.
Chrome and Safari have moved faster to change, improve. The webkit team seems more active compared to gecko. As a result, Firefox seems sluggish, buggy, and behind on many CSS3, HTML5 features.
IE8 adds to the fray for developers. Competition is good and the Firefox team needs to lite a fire and get moving.
AFAIK, they are moving in some very exciting directions. They’re probably gonna revolutionize the web once again — just like they did with Firefox.
Just have some patience.
As a user I have forgotten IE, but I pray that the majority of IE users at least switch to IE 8 and IE 8 is more Ajax friendly and faster.
Its a waste to code for cross browser JS and CSS issues esp with IE 6.
Better question (for me) what will it take to get those still using IE6 to upgrade?
Exactly… this is all well and good but my workplace still has IE6 on all machines by default. This is the same for a lot of organisations… Are IT departments everywhere just lazy, ignorant, or is there a good reason why they’re keeping employees on a sub-standard, insecure browser?
As for IE8 – am sure it’s a lot better but as a web developer I’ve had it with IE, thanks very much. No way will I switch.
Though IE8 will NOT be my default browser, we all as professionals need to make an effort to get every damn person to upgrade their IE. It will make all of our lives so much easier. I don’t use IE much, but I DO have to test and make my stuff work on it. So lets at least get do a decent version of it peoples. :-)
I think the reason many IT departments stick with IE6 is that a lot of corporate web apps “enterprise software” were built for IE6 and either have sniffers that don’t allow for other browsers or, all too often, break completely when using a browser with decent standards support.
Lesson here: don’t ever develop using IE-only code.
Lesson Here: don’t ever develop using ’single-browser-only’ code.
It can be any, not just IE…
Who knows, whom future will blame :)
My employer’s archaic policy means I am shackled to IE, but I can at least download the latest versions. I’ve been using IE8 beta for a while but it crashes often, so I am downloading the final release now to see if it improves.
At home I love Chrome and would never use IE, except for the likewise archaic websites that require its use.
Our organisation is locked into using IE6 because the smartcard authentication used for national web apps only works with IE6. If the guys that developed that would fix it we’d be fine, but it doesn’t seem to be a priority for them.
MS should stop support on IE 6 and relieve developers and users of the pain of using a stone age browser.
MS can take it up as a green initiative to reduce their footprint by saving millions of developer and support hours that go behind fixes silly problems faced in IE 6 & 7. :)
Being a web developer this is just another browser from IE that I’m going to have to design for. :(
I wish they had a way to force ie6 users to go to ie7 at least.
I get big wigs setting the standards and wanting everyone in, but in this day and age, just “ban” ie6 users. Seriously.
Might sound insane, but we would have to block 40% of our users. 15% use FF, rest is on IE7.
Same at my company Jose
Anyone want to volunteer to try out some AJAX-based travel planning sites on IE8? I suggest:
Yahoo travel
frommers.com
http://www.yelp.com
Citysearch (new interface today)
http://www.tripcart.com
After trying FF for many years, i don’t think i will go back to IE, design and functionality and a lot of crash from IE, i will stick to FF.
Nat
http://www.loopcity.com
Prying my mouse from my cold dead fingers is about the only way you’d ever get me to switch to IE. Firefox/Safari/Opera/Camino/Chrome/Lynx ftw ;)
Great stuff for IE8, but I’m still sticking with Firefox3.
Techfilipino
I will use it
i don’t know but it is 11 am and the link is active to download ie8 rc1
That is the release candidate that came out in January I believe. The new link will be posted at noon.
Just keep reloading the page starting at noon. I’m sure it’ll be swamped.
That’s great, but so is Google’s display ad:
http://tinyurl.com/csckf3
That’s priceless
It would take a miracle for me to drop Firefox for IE8. Microsoft has always struggled (ignored) web standards and every browser they’ve released has been a disaster on one level or another.
I hope that IE8 is better than IE7, but I’m not gonna hold my breath.
Not to mention, RC1 had numerous bugs. We’ll see if they addressed them or not.
Install it today? Lots of beer. Or money. IE7 was rubbish when that first came out, with a totally broken phishing filter, so I don’t intend to take risks this time. In 2 months? Much less money.
I think the phishing filter should just be removed. Everyone should be their own phishing filter.
We’d all be doomed. Common sense never existed in the first place, which is why this was developed.
I don’t care who switches from Firefox…JUST GET THE HELL OFF OF IE6!!!
Thank you!
If people haven’t upgraded from IE6 to IE7, I don’t see them moving to IE8 anytime soon.
Maybe Ballmer can do a door-to-door campaign to get laggers to upgrade from Win98 to XP/Vista so they can ditch IE6 ;)
Here’s an idea. Microsoft, offer $10 for every person that upgrades from IE6 to IE8 :) It’s a win/win/win
Looks like the link is active and you can download the final version at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/ (NOT the beta link in the post)
Let’s just hope Microsoft doesn’t break the Internet,… AGAIN!
How many of you actually tried the beta? Its a great browser, it can beat FF any day in terms of speed. I loved it and I am downloading it right away.
Think of all those quasi-computer devices out there (ATM machines, check-in kiosks at airports, vending machines, etc) that are currently using IE6. Wonder what would happen when they get converted to IE8
There is no one reason to use IE8…
Faster?! I tried it – it’s not.
Chrome is better.
FF3 rules.
just because the beta was not faster the firefox does not mean the final version is not. You obviously have not even tried the RC1 and you are talking shitttt…
I’ve been a FF user for about 4 years now I think … plus there is no Mac version.
Another browser to support! Hurrah!
Seriously though, that makes three active versions of IE – definitely time to apply a little more pressure to those who still insist IE6 support is essential..
I know right! Another browser to worry about and because it’s IE, another nightmare to worry about.
I downgraded my support for IE6 on sites I develop and with the release of IE8, I have officially stopped building or supporting for IE6.
Time to upgrade IE users! Whether you like IE7 or IE8 or whatever, it’s time to drop IE6.
meh… Who is really willing to switch from Firefox back to IE? It’s just too damn slow. NEXT!
hey mike have you even used IE8 RC1? let alone the final version for you to claim it’s slow? even the beta was pretty fast… i think it’s premature for you to be making that claim… smells like estreme fanboy to me.
extreme! :)
IE8 doesn’t seem as fast as Chrome, but definitely better than IE7.
The concept of IE8 accelerators seem promising, but the jury is till out on that for now.
I really can’t believe so many people are devoted to FF; personally, I can’t stand FF. Other than the plugins, it is the worst browser, even after Safari 4.
Two things:
1) well, it should run on a Mac.
2) MS needs to get back to their old ways of producing compatibility with competing products: if they made it so IE could install and run Firefox extensions (it’s all just JS and the interface is open source so there’s no guesswork for them), they might stand a chance of regaining ground on FF.
Internet explorer is a really bad Internet Browser, try google chrome!
I dumped Netscape for IE because it crashed all the time. I dumped IE for Firefox because of speed and extensibility.
Opera and Chrome didn’t grab me. I may try Chrome again though,
As a developer, I hate all IEs no matter what the number. It always cause twice as much work doing even the simplest design jobs.
I appreciate what MS has accomplished through the decades, but they couldn’t pay me to go back to using IE or Outlook. Firefox works great, and I no longer have an email/virus issues after switching to Thunderbird.
What the hell is going on over there at MS? Most will agree that Vista was a huge failure, and MS can’t even pay someone to make a decent commercial. It could be time to break the company up into smaller (more functional) teams.
Repackaging old turds didn’t work for the auto industry, and it won’t fly with tech either.
I’m going to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8 shortly but only to check out the Web Slices! Firefox is the one and that doesn’t look like changing anytime soon :)
6 hours of heavy usage with IE8, and I must say I am definitely impressed. It is very fast, and stable thus far. As fast as Chrome and much faster than FF3.
sounds delicious… hope it’s true, unfortunately i haven’t tried it cause i am running windows 7 and won’t move back to XP or Vista ever… 7 is the OS to use…
Give me MORE speed than the other browsers or I won’t even try it out. Speed and security are the most important requirements of a browser right now. It’s amazing that IE still doesn’t realize this.
IE8 is fast, much faster than any browser. Firefox is slow. Try IE8, that is a monster at downloading.
IE has always been the hangover of browsers. Nope, am not convinced. Firefox still does it for me!
Well, I’m a firefox user and i’ve installed IE8 yesterday to try it out, and i must say i was quite impressed. Dunno if i’ll stick with it, but MS certainly have outdone themselves.
See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW
For readers who use Firefox and IE8, I wanted your readers to be aware that Firefox has a version of Accelerators too, it is called “KALLOUT – Accelerators for Firefox” It’s available as a free add-on through Firefox. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW
Selection-based search is really helpful. One GREAT feature of KallOut is BestGuess. The challenge with selection-based search is that the user has to figure out which one to apply to his selection. It’s a little clunky once you get more than two or three. KallOut does a super job figuring out which accelerator you need to use for a given selection-based search request. Kallout — Accelerators for Firefox is actually kind of spooky when it works so well.
Check it out! I agree that it’s a big step forward for the user to have the selection-based search bundled into the browser by default, however.
“KALLOUT – Accelerators for Firefox” is available through Mozilla at http://bit.ly/vJKbW
-JB
After trying FF for many years, i don’t think i will go back to IE, design and functionality and a lot of crash from IE, i will stick to FF.
http://www.mytravelguideposts.com/