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The latest version of Microsoft's web browser, Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), has recently been published as a public beta 2 release. If that wasn't enough browser action Google have also released a new web browser, Google Chrome, as a beta version. I can recall a time not so long ago when it seemed that Internet Explorer would force all the other browsers out of the 'market'; but today there seems to be a preponderance of browsers to take the web surfers fancy. I've been trying out the new version of Internet Explorer as well as Google Chrome and this is a summary of my findings as well as a comparison with some of the other browsers out there.
Internet Explorer 8 (Beta 2)Visually IE8 looks pretty much the same as IE7 so anyone whose managed to find their away around he current version of Internet Explorer should have no problem with the new version. The main differences with IE8 are all under the hood where Microsoft have made the browser much more standards compliant than IE7. For the average end user this isn't going to make one jot of difference until they hit a site that the new compliant browser doesn't render correctly. To get round any problems IE8 has a 'backwards compatibility' mode that can be invoked from the Tools menu.The problem I can see with this is that the average end user isn't going to know if a site isn't displaying properly because it's a badly written site or because IE8 needs to be switched in compatibility mode. I think they're far more likely just to surf off somewhere else that go looking for something on the Tools menu. Having said that I've been around most of my favourite sites and I haven't come across anything that didn't work as it should so maybe compatibility mode isn't really needed. In general rendering speeds are much better in IE8 than IE7 and similar to Firefox. I think you'd need a stop watch to separate them now which is a big improvement on the IE front. The developer tools seem to have been improved too which much better Javascript debugging than in the previous version. The browser also introduces a number of usability features that, in my opinion, are of questionable use. These include: - SmartScreen Filter. This is useful to prevent access to unsafe sites in case you don't know.
- Accelerators. These allow you to select some text on one page and have it mapped into another without having to go through the process of copy, open new page, paste. At the moment there are very few Accelerators available and unless these increase I can't see this feature being of much use.
- In Private Browsing. Also known as 'porn mode' the browser doesn't save any browser history or cookies while browsing 'in private'.Might be useful if you really don't want anyone to know which sites you've been surfing and don't want the hassle of deleting that data yourself.
- Web Slices. Is this channels reborn under a different name? Looks like it. Channels died a rapid death as being one of the most useless ideas to some out of the IE factory. I reckon web slices will go the same way.
- Search Suggestions. This looks to be to be very similar to the sort of thing we've come to expect from Google tool bar search. OK,they've tarted it up a bit with graphics; but basically it's the same thing.
Overall verdict: A big improvement on IE7 in terms of speed; but the usability improvements are of questionable value. Google Chrome (Beta)When I first ran Google Chrome I was surprised by the uncluttered interface. There are no menus; just a big URL box, tabs and a few buttons. Despite the lightweight appearance Chrome manages to include some useful features. The first of these is the address bar that acts as a search box as well. As you begin to type you're presented with options drawn from your bookmarks, browser history as well as Google's search engine (you can change the search engine used). It's one bar for everything. Another nice feature appears when you open a new tab. Instead of a blank page you are presented with thumbnails of your most frequently visited pages, most recently book marked pages and (this is cool) recently closed tabs. So if you close a tab by mistake open a new tab and it should be listed ready for you click on again. Tabs can also be dragged right off the Chrome browser and they automatically create a new browser window. This makes it very simple to group tabs together by dragging them to a a new window. Tabs run independently so if one tab crashes it doesn't crash the whole browser. Neat. There are safe browsing and a porn mode available too for those who are paranoid or reckless respectively. Speed wise I was a little disappointed with Chrome. Initial page loads seemed slower than IE8 or Firefox. I get the impression Chrome is using the 'load everything and then render' model of displaying web pages. This was the method used by older versions of IE and it makes for a very slow user experience as they don't see anything until the entire page has been downloaded from the web. Modern browsers render as they go along which means the user sees something much sooner, even if it isn't the final layout of then page.When running Chrome I was often left looking at a blank tab while I waited for a page to load. Having said that subsequent page loads were very, very fast. Overall verdict: A very nice browser with some great features. However I feel that most people deserting IE are likely to go for the feature rich Firefox with all it's miriad of themes and add-ins than a lightweigth product. If Google creates an extension API then the story may be vey different. |
