IE 9 launches with tool to block marketers
Microsoft launches faster, more minimalist browser, complete with a new feature that can stop advertisers snooping on your web habits.
Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft’s bid to rival next-generation browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Apple Safari, will be available for download today.
For pcworld.com, IE9's signature feature is that it "gets the browser out of the way". The site says ""The large bar of icons and windows and tools at the top of the browser has been reduced to a simple strip of space containing an address bar and little else." The new look reminds NBR a lot of Google Chrome's minimalism. Like Chrome, the browser reduces the space of the window and controls, and combines the address and search box into one area.
For the Wall Street Journal, a new do-not-track tool is key. The feature - which goes beyond the stealth modes offered by Chrome and Safari - stops marketers and advertisers snooping on your web surfing habits - but is reliant on their agreement to co-operate with a message from IE9 asking them to cease and desist.
According to the Journal, Microsoft had previously considered adding a do-not-track feature, but pulled it from an earlier release following ferocious push-back from advertising and marketing agencies. Now, the company seems more concerned with finding a killer feature to fend off Firefox, Chrome and Safari.
Microsoft is launching their product at the SXSW show in Austin, Texas and will make the browser available from their Beauty of the Web site at 9pm, Pacific Time.
The browser reportedly supports many HTML5 features, renders Webpages faster than IE8 and features new functionalities such as hardware acceleration and pinned site buttons for Windows 7.
The final version comes a year after the release of the first of eight Platform Previews of IE9, a beta and a Release Candidate.
Windows XP users will not be able to download the browser later today, ComputerWorld reports, because IE9 does not work on the operating system.
NBR Staff
Tue, 15 Mar 2011
Tue, 15 Mar 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
IE 9 launches with tool to block marketers
13082