The other major Web browsers - Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome - have been competing lately by launching new versions focusing on speed and features, but Microsoft came with a different approach and that was one of the users’ main concerns – online security. 

 

Don’t get me wrong, the IE8 doesn’t lack new and improved features that make Web browsing easier and faster, but the main thing Microsoft developers focused on when making the IE8 was security and privacy. It’s also the first version of IE that is compliant with some key industry standards such as HTML and CSS, according to Channelregister.co.uk. 

 

In the security field, the IE8 brings InPrivate Browsing which is a private browsing mode which addresses those who want their online browsing activity to remain confidential. Another new feature is SmartScreen, which basically prevents the installation of malware in the PC. 

 

The company’s general manager, Dean Hachamovitch, seized the opportunity when announcing the launch of IE8 to say that Microsoft would continue to work together with the web and the developers on the compatibility issue and said Microsoft is “listening.” According to Microsoft’s Vice President for Windows Mike Nash, who was interviewed by FOX Business, the most important new features that IE8 brings, besides enhanced security and privacy, are about the browser’s overall performance which is better due to the new Accelerator and the Web Slice tools which make life easier for Web surfers. 

 

For instance, one of the Accelerators tools enables users to right click on a word or entire phrase and use it to search, e-mail it or map it. Furthermore, Web slices enable users to have instant access to information they are Web searching the most by showing a portion of the Web page that highlights the info that interests the user. Another feature enables users to group tabs from the same sites using color coding. 

 

As you probably already heard, for the first time since it started developing and selling Windows and Internet Explored, Microsoft will allow users of the next version of the operating system, Windows 7, to turn off the Internet Explorer if they prefer another Web browser. However, with the improvements the IE8 brings, few will probably turn it off. 

 

If you can’t wait to install the new version of the Internet Explorer, you can download it at http://www.microsoft.com/ie8.