Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft has released its newest version of Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer 8 has some nice new features designed to make your browsing experience more enjoyable and productive. Let's take a look at what's new.

TABBED BROWSING

If you like to have multiple tabs open at once, Internet Explorer 8 makes that possible. If you open a new tab from an existing page, it opens just to the right of the current tab. Both tabs will be color coded the same so that you know the two tabs are related. You can also move a tab between groups just by dragging it over to the new group. By Right-clicking on any tab, you are presented with a number of tasks you can perform on the tab.

New to Internet Explorer is the ability to reopen tabs. For instance, to reopen the last tab closed, press the CTRL-SHIFT-T keys at the same time. If you want to view a list of recently closed tabs right-click on any tab and select "Recently Closed Tabs".

Another plus, unlike in the past, IE8 will not crash if one of the open tabs crashes. So you can reopen the crashed tab, and it will pick up where it left off.

ADDRESS BAR

The address bar has changed a bit. Like some of the other browsers, it has become an all-in-one web search tool. Just type in a word or phrase and Internet Explorer 8 does a search using your default search engine. If you start to enter a URL address you'll get a list of results from your History and Favorites folders. To go to one of the results shown, just highlight it in the list and press the Enter key.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY

IE8 has several new security and privacy features, which includes "InPrivate Browsing". When you turn on InPrivate Browsing, all traces of your browsing session will be deleted when you close the IE8 browser. That would include any cookies, temporary Internet files, history, form information, user names, and passwords.

InPrivate Filtering lets you block the site you're visiting from sending information to a third-party website. You can tell it is on by the small arrow icon on top of a lock in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. If the icon is gray, it's off, if it's colored, it's on. To turn it on, click on Safety>InPrivate Filtering. By clicking the arrow to the right of the icon you can use the Custom Settings option to allow or deny website content.

ACCELERATORS and WEB SLICES

Two more new features in IE8 are "Accelerators" and "WebSlices".

An Accelerator brings information from another Website into your current web page. For instance, if you are on the Web page of a local department store and the store's street address is shown. You can highlight the street address and choose a "maps accelerator", which will then show you a map of the address displayed in a "flyaway" (like a pop-up) window.You can now interact with the flyaway map just as if you were on the map's website.

Web Slices can help you monitor changes on another website from your current page. Helpful for keeping an eye on streaming news headlines or stock quotes. When you visit a Web page that is capable of providing a Web Slice, the Web Slice icon on the Favorites bar turns green. By clicking on the down arrow, a list of all Web Slices on the page will appear. Click on one, and a listing for the Web Slice then appears on your Favorites bar. When the content changes, the title will become bold. Click the Web Slice listing, and it drops down and displays the content. You can click on the listing to go to the Web page hosting the slice, or just view it in the drop-down.

COOKIES

The new Internet Explorer 8 has changed the way you delete cookies. In the Delete Browsing History screen, you can delete all cookies and temporary Internet files except those that reside in your Favorites folder. Click Safety>Delete Browsing History. Check the box next to "Preserve Favorites Website data", and you won't delete those sites' cookies and temporary files when you delete other cookies.

IMPROVED SEARCH BAR

The new Search Bar can now deliver thumbnail pictures to you depending on your search term, and even suggest specific matches as you type.

A NEW SEARCH BOX

In Internet Explorer 8, the search box can display pictures and headlines as well as search results. In addition, all of your search providers appear as icons beneath the bar as you type. Click any of the icons, and you'll see a preview of the results, which you can then click on without having to actually visit the sites.

The new search box also has the "Find on This Page" feature. When you type a search term in the search box and press Enter, then click in the search box again and click Find, the page that appears will have your search term highlighted in yellow wherever the term appears.

COMPATIBILITY VIEW

Because IE8 is relatively new, many sites that were built for IE7 may not run properly. As a result, IE8 has a "Compatibility View" that is designed to display a website as if you are running IE7. IE8 is set to automatically switch to Compatibility View if IE8 cannot display it. A balloon window will appear briefly on the tab, telling you that the browser is now in Compatibility View mode.

If you think you would like to try Internet Explorer 8, click on the link.

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