Microsoft unleashed the first public beta of Internet Explorer 9 with great fanfare at a Beauty of the Web media event in San Francisco, Calif., on Wednesday. According to Internet Explorer General Manager Dean Hachamovitch, many of the design changes are based on Microsoft’s view that the browser should serve as the stage or backdrop for the web, allowing sites to become the real star of the show.
“Similar to the relationship between Windows 7 and Windows applications, people go to the web for sites — not the browser,” Hachamovitch said. “With IE9 we are unboxing the web-browser user experience by using the whole PC to browse and putting sites at the center of your experience.”
This involves using everything the PC and its hardware have to offer rather than just relying on the browser itself, Hachamovitch observed. With IE9, for example, “users can pin sites to the [PC] taskbar just as they pin applications, and launch web tasks directly in the same way they launch everything else in Windows,” Hachamovitch explained. “Sites can become pinned to the [PC] start bar as well.”
An Apparent Policy Departure
With IE9, web sites will also be able to program jump lists and notifications for pinned sites, which will make common browsing tasks a seamless part of the user’s desktop experience. Hachamovitch also demonstrated how the hardware-accelerated HTML5 built into IE9 makes sites shine by enabling users to enjoy a faster, more immersive experience using the full power of Windows PCs.
“All indications are that IE9 has some solid performance, thanks to great investment in hardware acceleration,” said Al Hilwa, director of application software development at IDC. “And it is good to see Microsoft on board with many HTML5 features at this stage.”
The big publicity pitch around IE9’s beta release appears to be a policy…