Microsoft's failed internet explorer received a complete makeover and redesign to battle its quick loss in market share. Internet Explorer 7, becoming known by the industry as IE7, has been released to the public still in testing phase Beta 2. I recent bug discovered in IE7 causes the browser to crash when loading certain dynamic HTML pages. Microsoft is quickly looking into the bug to repair the problem.

IE7 sports an all new interface, and includes some of the features found in other browsers such as Firefox. Those features include tabbed browsing, a built-in pop-up blocker, and a new default resolution which displays text with anti-aliasing (for a more smooth display). The resolution reminds me of how text is displayed in the Konqueror browser of SUSE Linux 10, and gives us a preview of what's to come in Windows Vista's new resolutions of its Aero GUI.

The final version of IE7 will be released in the second half of 2006, close to the same time Windows Vista ships.

I've had it for nearly a couple of weeks now and I think I can give you a mini-review:

Things I don't like about IE7

* Maybe I'm just too set in my ways, but I like having the text menu at the top. You can turn on the "classic menu", but you can't place it above the address bar - at least I haven't figured out how to yet.
* Why is the home button way over to the right? I like having it near the forward/back buttons.
* I only want to see the tab bar when multiple pages are open (as in Firefox).

Things I do like
* Tabbed browsing - not a new idea but the "Quick tabs" button is handy for viewing thumbnais of your open tabs.
* RSS
* Search box in the tool bar.
* Anti-Phishing filter (I can't say how effective it is though)
* Seems to be a little quicker loading pages.

Although it has a few improvements (mostly pioneered by other browsers), I don't see anything to be too excited about with the new IE.

I think I'll stick with Firefox for now and just continue to use IE when I have to (ActiveX pages).

to battle its quick loss in market share.

Hmmm..what kind of drop? From 90% to 89%? :)

I realize that FireFox and some others are gaining popularity (for good reasons), but I'm not entirely sure IE's share has dropped that much in practical terms...I mean, we're talking millions and millions of installed IE's vs, perhaps, hundreds of thousands of the others...

if IE's market share is dropping, I'd love to see the numbers..

-SoonerDave

According to Maximum PC, IE's market share dropped from 95% in 2003 to 89% percent 2005. And the decrease continues onthe home desktop.

What sells firefox to me is the customizability. I find certain extensions such as Adblock to be indispensible (I never see banner ads).