Microsoft Launch Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft have officially launched the finished version of their newest web browser, ‘Internet Explorer 9’.

Internet Explorer has been the most popular browser for many years now, however with the emergence of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, internet explorer has been slipping year on year, and now hold around a 40% share – a majority, but a decreasing one.

Microsoft claim that Internet Explorer 9’s improvements mean they can out-compete Chrome and Firefox in many areas, and open up a larger majority once again. The main points microsoft have been playing up about the new browser is the improved graphics, speed and power thanks to the use of HTML5, and hardware acceleration, meaning the browser can draw on processing power from the PCs graphics processor as well as from the central processor.

The improved security is also being highlighted by microsoft, after years of criticism from users and competitors for the security flaws and the prominence of viruses on past versions of the browser. New features include the ability to stop the browser from tracking your usage from site to site, and also ‘seperate tools’ which keep an eye on downloads and spot any trojans or viruses which try to sneak onto the computer.

Whilst the Beta version of the browser was reportedly downloaded 40million times, and all the talk from Microsoft makes it sound like an IE revival, this still remains to be seen, and only time will tell. One notable point however, is that IE9 is not compatible with the operating system Windows XP – the most popular operating system in the world. Microsoft claim they chose to ‘push the web forward’ rather than restrict the browser so it could work on the ‘lowest common denominator’, which is why they could not make it comptaible with XP, however, how they plan to extend their majority market share with a browser that cannot be used on 40% of the worlds computers, remains to be seen.

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