IE 9 Beta : First Impressions

 

In March 2010 IE9 platform preview was introduced.  I was intrigued so I downloaded it and installed it to see how it goes.  The preview indeed was impressive, the browsing speed surpassed my expectations as compared with its predecessors (IE8 and IE7) and competitors.

Just recently, the Beta version of the much anticipated IE9 was released for public testing.  To admit it my first impression was “ay nakigaya na si IE.”  The beta has similarities with it’s competitors but on the brighter side they improved it and added more features, for hassle free browsing in the cloud.

New Features / Pros

OneBox.  The IE9 became minimalist, clean, and simple.  The address bar and search bar was fused together to form the OneBox and a big Back button which is the most used navigational control is located just before the OneBox.

Enhanced Tab Browsing.  In opening a new tab you will see familiar thumbnails (if you know what I mean) of your recently visited sites.  IE9 enhanced this feature by adding site indicators to identify which site is the most frequently visited.

Add-on Performance Advisor.  Identifies add-ons which maybe the cause of the browser to slow down.   With this feature a user can disable a number of add-ons (e.g. Bing Bar, Favorites bar, and Command Bar) to speed up IE9.

Notification Bar.  The new Notification Bar replaced the dialogue boxes that appears every now and then when Internet Explorer needs your attention.  These dialogue boxes can be annoying during the previous versions of IE which can disrupt browsing momentum.

Pinned Sites.  A new feature wherein you can pin your favorite site’s icon such as Facebook and Bing into your Windows 7 taskbar for easier access.  These pinned sites also comes with a Jump List for enhanced browsing experience.

Download Manager.  This is one of my favorite feature.  The new download manager allows me to pause my download and resume it anytime I want.  I tested this feature by downloading a 37MB of file from the cloud, paused it and closed IE9.  Minutes later I re-opened IE9 resume the download and it continued until its completion.

Improved SmartScreen Filter.  Security is the very edge of IE9 from its competitors.  Developers of the IE9 platform invested so much with security to deliver a safe browsing environment to end users.

Cons

I’ve been using the beta since it’s release and I still encounter several crashes and lags while running IE9 despite of some claims that it’s stable enough and seems perfect.  I also miss the old Status Bar, the one that has the green bar indicator while opening or navigating on a website.  Only a few tabs can be opened beside the OneBox and it will be too crowded when opening a handful sites.  A suggestion if I may, I would like the tabs to be on top of the OneBox for better navigation.

Verdict

Since Internet Explorer 9 is still on the Beta stage which still need improvements from user feedbacks, I will be generous with my verdict.  I will give 8.5 (10 being the highest).  I hope that every who finds a bug will submit a feedback to for the improvement of this nice and secure browser.