The final version of Microsoft’s new web browser, IE9, will be available for public download as from early on Tuesday morning.
IE9 was first released to the public in beta form a little over a year ago, and the company claims that the new program’s speed and security will change users’ perception of the web and even foster the creation of a more “beautiful” internet.
Microsoft has spent $10 million to advertise the new browser, hopeful that IE9 will help stem the rise of rival browsers such as Google Chrome.
More than 40 million people have already downloaded the beta version of IE9 and Microsoft says it has had the highest and fastest adoption rate of any beta product it has ever launched.
New features include “Jump lists”, which allow bookmarks to offer enhanced features if they are added to a user’s tool bar. On music sites, for example, you can include play and pause functions on a menu that appears directly above the site’s icon.
IE9 has a cleaner interface, uses a single box for web addresses, searching and users’ web history and there are improvements on how IE9 allows users to protect themselves from tracking.
It certainly is a very fast browser, looking a lot like Chrome in many respects, and is a totally different user experience when compared to other versions of Internet Explorer, but it does have one drawback. It does not work on Windows XP, which is the operating system still used by nearly 70% of the corporate world.