Cloud (Browser) wars: Introducing Microsoft’s weapon Internet Explorer 8

in Tech News by Francis Simisim — March 19, 2009 at 7:35 PM | 2 comments

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Internet Explorer 8 has now been released, it has some really promising features that might get users back to IE. As cloud computing (Using more online applications) is becoming a big trend, it is a lucrative market for browsers to win users to their browser applications. I believe browser wars have been waged…

… Safari just recently released Safari 4 which I’ve covered here and is proud of being the fastest browser in the world, until Google Chrome released a new version of their Beta which claimed otherwise. IE 8 claims to have the speed that is not much different with the 2 browsers, claiming that the difference is just microseconds which is not noticeable. Significant partnerships with Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and other websites will enhance their visual search and with links to their own products (Accelerator) like live maps, live mail etc. , it claims to make life easier for users.

– Screenshot Accelerator –

 

IE8 also have added a crash recovery (about time they do it), and more security features that was lacking in older versions. There’s also been a rise in interest in Private browsing which a lot of browsers have. Safari 4 and Google integrated in their functions and for Firefox to have added a plugin on this, IE8 have made it (finally) possible to do so in their browser. What I believe IE8 has that others don’t have is the web slices:

Web Slices allows you to be updated on certain parts of the website using your toolbar. I find it great when buying items online and probably for browsing specific news websites, availability is only to those who partners with them (not so much yet). Plug-ins is also another feature that IE8 has, which will make it more customizable and more powerful as a browser to compete with others.

Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox 3, Safari 4 and IE8 will all be fighting for dominance in this field, the one who comes out on top will gain a big step for the future of their company, as computing is moving to the cloud. IE8 has done a great job of finally listening to the end users and start making their browsers better and more developer friendly. I personally, however, will stick to Firefox 3 still. I still don’t trust IE8 that much and it would take a great deal of marketing (Windows 7) and a lot more for me to switch to them.

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4. Online Social Network Wars: MySpace’s New Weapons
5. Online Social Network Wars: Features (new vs proven) vs Monetization (Conversion vs Quantity of visitors)
6. Online Social Networking Wars Update: It’s all about User Interaction and Time spent

Tags: IE8 News