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A Closer Look at Internet Explorer 8

Posted May 6, 2009 By Janis Gonser |

On March 19, 2009, about 2.5 years after the release of Internet Explorer 7, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The new and improved version adapted some of the features we are already familiar with in other browsers, added some new functionality, and improved the overall security.

Below I list some of the features worth mentioning and provide some findings that I discovered during browser testing on some of our own sites.

Advanced Tab Features

When you open a new tab from a previous window, the related tabs are grouped together and color coded.
You can recover previously closed tabs by right-clicking a tab and choosing “Reopen Closed Tab” (Ctrl+Shift+T) or view a list of all “Recently Closed Tabs.”
The tabs run independently, so if one tab crashes, the other tabs stay intact. When recovering a crashed tab, previously entered info (e.g. form information) is reloaded as well.

Improved Address Bar

You can now perform searches with your search provider of choice. View all search add-ons at http://www.ieaddons.com/en/searchproviders.
The main domain of the URL is highlighted for easier identification.

Security: InPrivate Browsing

Under Tools, activate the InPrivate Browsing and all of your data, including browsing history, cookies, usernames and passwords, etc., is deleted after you close your session.

Security: Smart Screen Filter

This feature warns the user before entering a site that is known to contain malware. The list of sites with malware is updated frequently, although without having any evidence, I am a little bit skeptical how reliable the collection of sites is.

Compatibility View

Microsoft states that the compatibility view is useful when viewing sites that are designed for older browsers. In between the lines this might be more of a safety net for IE8 itself. (Attention: Tech Talk starts here.) I came across various instances where list items of an unordered list (main navigation) were pushed to the bottom of the ul. This can be fixed by setting the li to display block and float left or right. The list showed up fine when the compatibility mode was enabled. Also, there is no default padding to the left and right on inputs (type=submit), although this was an easy fix.

Overall, the support for Web standards has improved and after years of disapproval from the standard driven Web community, Microsoft’s latest browser is finally moving in the right direction. That said, I still prefer using Google Chrome or Firefox 3 over Internet Explorer 8.

About the Author

Janis Gonser is TradeMark Media's developer. Janis implements client Web site designs in XHTML/CSS and handles site maintenance requests.

Learn More about Janis »

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One Response to “A Closer Look at Internet Explorer 8”

Posted May 15th, 2009 at 7:12 am, by The StyleSheet » Archive » A Closer Look at bInternet Explorer/b 8 « Windows 7 Live Info

[...] Janis Gonser wrote an interesting post today onThe StyleSheet Â» Archive Â» A Closer Look at bInternet Explorer/b 8Here’s a quick excerptOn March 19, 2009, about 2.5 years after the release of bInternet Explorer 7/b, Microsoft released bInternet Explorer/b 8 for bWindows/b XP, bWindows/b Vista, bWindows/b Server 2003 and bWindows/b Server 2008. The new and improved version adapted … Also, a full list of CSS support, not only for IE8, is available at http://www.quirksmode.org/css/contents.html. The browser itself is available for bdownload/b at http://www.microsoft.com/bwindows/b/binternet/b-bexplorer/b/. « Return to current issue … [...]

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