Screenshot of Microsoft's IE9 leaks to the Web
Thanks to a Microsoft Russian subsidiary, the world now has a pretty good idea of what Internet Explorer 9 will look like.
The Russians briefly posted an image and some details that had yet to be shared about the browser. And although they pulled it down, a ZDNet blogger captured the information and screenshot.
More than anything else, the screenshot shows a browser that offers a minimalistic user interface and leaves as much room as possible for the Web sites. When combined with the browser's hardware acceleration, the hope is to that Web sites that are as application-like as possible.
"The browser is the theater," IE team member Ryan Gavin said in an interview. "We're not the play."
The browser allows people to pin certain sites to the desktop and open them in their own windows without any clear indication that they are using IE at all. According to Foley's Bing translation of the Russian site, there will be certain sites that are "recognized" or "protected" and can be pinned to the taskbar and launched with their own icons.
This raises concerns about the possibility of Rogue Antivirus Trojans becoming even more aythentic looking.
Microsoft plans to release a beta of the browser September 15th, although this latest leak clearly steals some of the thunder. Up to now, Microsoft had yet to show or talk in detail about how the browser would look.
The beta will need either Windows Vista or Windows 7 (no XP) and will also require users to swap out their current installation of Internet Explorer. Among the key features of IE9 is its support for HTML5, an improved JavaScript engine, and the ability to tap a computer's graphics chip to accelerate text and image rendering.
The invitations for the event do mention "the beauty of the Web" and "unlocking the native Web."
Features of the browser's engine, include the hardware acceleration capabilities, improved JavaScript engine, and broader support for HTML5 and other standards. Microsoft first showed those features in March, though it had talked about hardware acceleration as far back as last November.
The details on the Russian site reveal a browser that borrows much from Windows 7, including the ability to tear off browser tabs and have them "snap" to a particular part of the screen, similar to the way documents and applications already do in the latest version of Windows.
There is also a unified search and address bar, like the one in Google's Chrome. However, Microsoft will make the choice of whether to let the bar suggest sites as you type a completely opt-in affair.
credits: ZDNet, CNet