Microsoft launches Internet Explorer
By Peter Omondi
Microsoft Corporation has today launched its new search engine, Windows Internet Explorer 9. The company announced availability of its Beta version of the new Web browser. The new browser delivers a fast, clean and trusted browsing experience that takes full advantage of the Windows 7 operating system, placing the focus on the websites and applications that people really care about.
“Web browsing is one of the most popular everyday tasks for Microsoft Windows customers,” said Louis Otieno, General Manager, Microsoft, East and Southern Africa. “We’re proud to join our partners in releasing the beta of Internet Explorer 9, delivering a more beautiful Web to Windows customers across the continent.”
Internet Explorer 9 takes advantage of the power of modern PC hardware to improve all-around Web browsing performance. It integrates with Windows 7 to deliver a clean visual experience and an increased viewing area, allowing sites to shine. The browser controls are reduced and presented in a way that allows users to see their web content first and foremost.
Additionally, Windows 7’s simplicity and ease of discovery is reflected in IE9 so that website applications will look familiar to anyone who uses a Windows PC. The features include:
· Pinned Sites. With Pinned Sites, a user's favourite websites can be accessed directly from the Windows Taskbar without having to first open the browser, making it quick and easy to view content.
· Jump Lists. Jump Lists offer a quick and easy way to get to common website task without having to first launch the browser.
· Tear-off tabs and Windows Aero Snap Tabs. Web users often need to use more than one website or page at a time to accomplish a task. Tearing off a tab by dragging it away from the browser and using Windows Aero Snap enables users to show two sites or pages side by side.
IE9 presents global businesses with new web-based opportunities.
“Orbitz is a leader in the online travel industry with innovations like our powerful hotelsearch capabilities that make finding hotels faster and easier,” said Sam Fulton, senior vice president of retailing at Orbitz Worldwide. “We are excited to leverage Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 9 features such as pinning, dynamic Jump Lists, and streamlined browsing to further simplify and complement the fresh Orbitz hotel shopping experience.”
Internet Explorer 9 is designed to be the most trusted browser because it has a robust set of built-in security, privacy, and reliability technologies that keep customers safer online. Built on the industry-leading protections in Internet Explorer 8, these features provide the trust people need to feel safer online:
· Download Manager with SmartScreen Filter integration.IE9 provides the first Download Manager with integrated SmartScreen malware protection and introduces SmartScreen download reputation. Users today are often conditioned to ignore generic warnings that are shown for every download. Other browsers show the same warning whether a file is an extremely common program or a piece of malware created literally minutes ago. IE9 is the only browser that uses download reputation to help users make better safety decisions.
· Add-on Performance Advisor. Add-on Performance Advisor notifies users when add-ons are slowing down their browsing session.
· Reliability features. Tab isolation, automatic crash recovery, and the new hang recovery feature in IE9 all help to ensure information isn’t lost and keep users browsing when a website isn’t working correctly.
Internet Explorer 9 will enable a new class of experiences with partners like Facebook, Red Bull, LiveStrong, Twitter and Orbitz. The result is a more beautiful Web experience. IE9 creates the foundation for a wave of compelling, immersive websites and applications that deliver an experience like the one people expect from an application running on Windows. The new browser will also provide a faster and more trusted web experience.