Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 Touts 9 Significant New Features
by Darryl K. Taft
IE 8 Accelerators
Accelerators are a form of selection-based search that enables a user to invoke an online service from any other page using only the mouse. According to Microsoft, Accelerators eliminate the need to copy and paste content between Web pages. IE 8 specifies an XML-based encoding that enables a Web application or Web service to be invoked as an Accelerator service.
Address Bar
Microsoft has upgraded the Address bar in IE 8.
Developer Tools
Microsoft provides a host of developer tools to help make IE developers more productive.
Domain Highlighting
Internet Explorer 8 features domain highlighting and tab coloring.
In-Private Browsing
IE 8 features in-private browsing.
Filtering
IE 8 also features in-private filtering.
Search
IE 8 offers search suggestions to users.
SmartScreen
Microsoft offers users a SmartScreen filter capability.
Web Slices
IE 8 supports Web Slices. Web Slices are snippets of an entire page that a user can subscribe to. Web Slices will be kept updated by the browser automatically, and can be viewed directly from the browser’s Favorites bar, complete with graphics and visuals.
