Internet Explorer 9
With increased speed and improved compliances to W3C standards, Microsoft is working on Internet Explorer 9. Currently, a demo is released which is not a full blown browser but a console in which browser core is running, which you can use for basic browsing purpose.
Internet Explorer 9 test drive is available at
Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview
Some of key features are:
- HTML 5
IE 9 will support HTML 5 including SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Even though IE is last major browser to support it. HTML 5 will help reducing dependence on proprietary technologies like Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight for graphics and multimedia rendering. It will also increase the graphics performance as SVG rendering is handled by GPU and not CPU of your device.
Some of impressive samples available in preview are SVG-oids and Falling balls.
- Increased Speed
IE 9 comes with multi-fold improvement in Javascript processing over previous versions of IE. It still lags Opera and Google Chrome in terms of SunSpider test. On Acid3, the preview scores 55/100 which is well over IE 8’s miserable 20 against Safari’s perfect score and Firefox standing at 94.
- Increased compliance
It has taken further steps in compliance towards W3C’s HTML and CSS standards which is helpful to developers while designing websites running on multiple browsers.