Microsoft has released the beta version of Internet Explorer 9. There are lot many new features added in IE9 to keep Internet Explorer up to the level set by Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. Microsoft has added pin web application option for Windows 7 users and also added few improvements to support HTML5.
Personally, I’m a Firefox user as the web developer toolbar and Firebug is a must-have for a web designer/developer and, also, appreciate what Mozilla does for web.
Right, these tools or similar ones also exist on other browsers like Chrome (which can be my next browser with the performance offered).
There are also other great ones like Opera or Safari and it is very normal not to consider IE at all as every version used to come with its own issues.
Maybe, this can be changing as Internet Explorer 9 Beta is out with serious improvements like:
- new and faster JavaScript engine
- support for HTML5, CSS3 and SVG
- simpler UI
- and multiple features for faster browsing
It is not hard to guess that IE9 is still not a strong option for web designers/developers with the lack of dev-tools and reputation it has.
However, it is a big step forward and hopefully a good-enough product to motivate IE fans to upgrade and end up increasing the “modern browser usage ratio”.
Also, considering the activity on the “web-dev products side of Microsoft”, seeing new IE-compatible designer/developer tools in the near future won’t be a surprise.
P.S. Internet Explorer 9 Beta only works with Windows Vista and Windows 7.