Recently Microsoft announced the newest version of their popular web browser, Internet Explorer 8. After trying the test (beta) versions of this software, I was ready to write this column giving it a big thumbs down. But low and behold, when I tried the finished version, I was surprised to find that it was much improved. In fact, I like it.

In the test versions that I tried, Internet Explorer 8 was flaky and unstable. Its biggest problem was that it displayed many websites incorrectly. In this version Microsoft actually adhered to more web standards than it did with previous versions, which is good. The problem, however, is that most websites were set up to display properly in previous non-standard versions of Internet Explorer and so they didn’t display correctly in IE 8. At one time, Microsoft published a list of websites that were incompatible with IE8, and that list included many large websites like Apple and the New York Times. Believe it or not, Microsoft’s own website was on the incompatible list. In test versions, my Compu-KISS website crashed the new browser. Many websites displayed with broken menus and misaligned text. In fact IE8 had so many problems with so many websites that Microsoft added a compatibility button on the right side of the address bar. This button could be used for any websites that needed compatibility with a previous version of Internet Explorer to display correctly. In test versions of IE8, I used that button a lot.

So I was totally amazed when the final version of Internet Explorer came out and most of the incapability problems were fixed. Not only do the Apple and Microsoft websites display properly, but so did  compukiss.com and other sites that were previously problematic.

Somehow Microsoft pulled off a complete turnaround. The incompatibility button is still there, but in more than a week of heavy use of the new browser, I didn’t have to use it at all. In fact, I only encountered a few minor glitches. What’s more I thoroughly enjoyed this new browser.

Microsoft has improved security with internet Explorer 8 and has also added some useful features. The first new feature is called Accelerators. In IE 8, when you highlight a word or phrase on the screen a small blue arrow appears. Click on that arrow and you can choose what you want to do with that selection. For instance, you can email it, translate it, search for it, and/or map it. This is extremely useful. Highlight an address and you can get a map in two clicks. Or you can search for the highlighted phrase without having to go to your search engine and type it in. Of course, Microsoft Maps and Microsoft Live Search are set as the defaults, but you can easily change that to other services like Google Maps or Yahoo! Search. In fact, you can easily add Accelerators to perform a variety of tasks. You can add one look up any word in a dictionary or in Wikipedia. You can get a stock quote, convert currency, get a traffic report, and much, much more.

Web Slices is another new feature. You can add a web slice to your Favorites toolbar. This allows you to keep track of a frequently updated websites. So you can easily watch any item on eBay or check a stock price. When new information becomes available from the web page you choose, it will be highlighted alerting you to the change. Although there is not a lot of support for Web Slices yet, I’m sure there will be in the future.

Like Firefox and Chrome, the Internet Explorer address bar now functions as an all-in-one location. Put in a search term and it will try to find what you are looking for. Put in an address and it will go there. It is, however, still not smart enough to know when it should add the www and the .com so that you can just type ebay or coke, and get to the right site. This is one of the things that Firefox does much better.

IE 8, however, does have a smart way of handling tabs. When you open a new tab from an existing page (right-click and say Open in New Tab) it opens directly to the right of the page you are on and it’s tab is color coded the same as the page you clicked from. These tabs form an easy-to-identify group. You can also drag a tab to a different group and it will be properly color-coded and become part of that group. Novices may not think much of this, but heavy-duty surfers who research or work with several different subjects at once will find it quite useful.

IE 8 also has the ability to reopen the last tab you’ve closed. Now if you inadvertently close a tab, you just press Ctrl-Shift-T to reopen it. You can also right-click on any tab and pick the web page that you want to reopen in the Recently Closed Tabs choice.

Internet Explorer 8 has quite a bit to offer. But some of its features may not be welcome to some. I am talking about the InPrivate browsing session which will not keep any of your surfing history. This has already become known as “porn mode”, and it is sure to be used by smart teens to cover their tracks when they visit places that mom and dad might not approve of.

I have installed IE8 on several computers including older and newer machines running Windows XP and various versions of Windows Vista. On some computers I had to turn off the anti-virus software to get a good install, other than that, IE 8 has installed and performed seamlessly. You may want to give it a try. It has some great new features and it is a free download that you can find at Microsoft’s website.

NOTE: Since this was written, many people have had trouble with IE8. Please read my article on this:

Internet Explorer 8 Causes Many Problems