Microsoft begins work on Internet Explorer 9

"Internet Explorer"? Didn't that used to be some kind of web browser? I think I remember hearing about it back in the 90's. :-)

@lotsamystuff - ""Internet Explorer"? Didn't that used to be some kind of web browser?" Yeah, its still the most widely used one on the internet, I believe. What's your point? --tayme

So far, I haven't seen a need for a browser other than IE-8 on my Dell. I suspect that I will sometime, but not having Firefox here now saves lots of updates.

Internet Explorer is dead. Chrome and Safari are the future. More specifically, WebKit. Also on mobile platforms.

"Chrome and Safari are the future" I wouldn't count out Firefox. I recently spent a month using nothing but Chrome, Safari and IE8. I thought they were all very good, but then I installed FireFox 3.5b4 and it felt like I was back home again. All the browsers have very comparable performance but Firefox has the most functional/usable UI I think - not to mention the myriad of ways that it can be extended and configured.

techfan, are you aware that is you use IE7 or 8's search box, and hit Alt-Enter, that the search results open in a new tab? It also works in the adress bar, type in an address, hit Alt-Enter and it opens that address in a new tab Not the most discoverable thing, but it works. Anyway, it's good to see that they're already gearing up for the next version of IE, plus, as someone pointed out on another post, they're really getting the ball rolling again. It seems like they've lain dormant for an eternity, but they're actually fighting back at last! This can only be a good thing for the entire industry - healthy competition frequently drives innovation.

@techfan: IE7Pro was updated to support IE8 since version 2.2. It is now 2.4.5, last updated Feb 4th of this year. A lot of the functionality is in IE8 already, but if you want an ad blocker, it's a good choice. (Sorry Paul!)

@waethorn: You wish. It will never happen. These companies are not Microsoft. Therefore not evil. Whereas MS is convicted. And hence evil.

rj, even convicted criminals turn to the righteous path after a while, get MS another chance, man :)

It's not IE9! It is in fact IE8.1.

@Lab-Rat, lol! @Darkmax I don't think entirely removing the IE rendering engine would be a wise choice. I believe it is used to actually draw a lot of the windows GUI, as well as things like file previews for html files and such.

Paul, you should really start linking the source, unless you got this in mail or read it in the newspaper..

IE is a pretty good browser. I like the concept of webslices and accelerators. I use a couple of them too. I like Chrome and Firefox too. Don't know about OS X, but Safari is a joke on Windows. If that really is the future, the future looks bleak.

chuckb84 - I've just found one and trying it right now, Adblock Pro. Seems to work so far, though been testing it for just 20 minutes. I don't have huge requirements from a browser, and so far, with this Adblock Pro thingie, I lack only a few. One is the online-sync but I can live without it, some are just usability preferences (like me getting used to Ctrl+T being new tab and not Ctrl+N, and that I have to shift+ctrl+click instead of just shift+click to open link in a new tab). Some just have to be discovered in IE settings, which i was lazy to do untill now. But there are still some annoyances, most notably related to new tabs. When I make a search I want it to open in new tab - but IE8 doesn't do that. Or when I right click link+open in new tab it is opened in background (which I want), but if I ctrl+shift+click than it's opened in foregraound (which I hate, as I want to click serveral links to open 10-15 links in 10-15 new tabs so I can read later on). If anyone knows solution, please tell me! And last one is that "undo closed tabs"/"reopen closed tabs" history is lost once you close that IE8 session. I don't want that! I want my "tab history" so to say to be remembered.. cos sometimes I just want to close browser, as I have to go out in a hurry, but want to undo-close tham later on and so on.. If somoene knows any of these things - please tell me! you can also mail me at pribanic (dot) luka (at) gmail

@Lux: In IE8, the keys go like this: Ctrl+link = open in new background tab Ctrl+Shift+link = open in new foreground tab Shift+link = open in new foreground window Also, if you want to open your previous stuff after closing IE8, do this: 1) Open a new tab 2) Click on "Reopen Last Browsing Session" OR you can find that option in the Tools menu. FYI: All tabs from you previous session are opened in new tabs, so your home/primary tab stays put.

@LuxZg ignoring what Wae said, if you simply want to open links in a new tab, in the background, use your middle mouse button, or on a laptop with a touch-pad, click using both buttons at once (this simulates a middle-button-click in almost any app) glad to be of service :) One of the things I really really like about IE, is that I can tell it to suffix any adress I type with .co.uk instead of .com then, if I want to visit a specific UK page, I can do so by typing in the domain name, then hitting shift-ctrl-enter to complete it. for example, google + [ctrl-enter] = http://www.google.com google + [shift-ctrl-enter] = http://www.google.co.uk Of course, I could have it suffix the adress with anything I want. However, in all other browsers I've tried, the shift-ctrl-enter simply finishes the address with .org, which I almost never use - and this is, as far as I can tell, hard-coded. Still, if anybody knows how to change the behavious of this in Chrome of Firefox, I'd be thankful if you would share it.

LuxZg, I don't need to "start" linking to sources, I always do when it's possible. In this case, the URL woudn't resolve since you can't access the address. It was sent to me via email.

ok, my bad, i thought it was real, didn't hit me until now but it was posted the day before april fools (was the 1st in the timezone of the poster). I just wanted to beleive it that I ignored the facts.