Internet Explorer 8: New Features for Everyday Browsing

A lot is riding on the success of Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft lost 7 percent browser market share in the past year because of users' unhappiness with Internet Explorer 7 and the emergence of the Firefox and Safari browsers.

Slow installation and the addition of tabbed browsing and other features that were already available in Firefox, Safari and Google's Chrome were just some of the criticisms lobbed at IE7.

IE8 - in release candidate mode since January - will likely be the target of similar copy-cat accusations because current browsers offer many of the same navigation features.

That said, IE8 does offer some cool new bells and whistles. Here are seven new and enhanced IE8 browsing features that Microsoft hopes will restore Internet Explorer's market position and cool the buzz on the flourishing Firefox.

Web Slices

Web Slices keep you up-to-date on information that changes frequently such as stock quotes, sports scores and weather forecasts. Web Slices take such information from Web sites that are compatible with the Web Slice functionality and delivers it to your Favorites bar. So instead of continually going to the weather section of your favorite news site, for example, you can opt to be alerted when the forecast changes.

When new information is updated, the Web Slice section on your Favorites bar is highlighted. When you click on it, you see a preview of the latest information, which you can clickthrough to go to the full site for greater detail.

Not all sites have Web Slice functionality, but if they do, slice-enabled elements of their sites will show a green icon when you hover over them with your mouse. A few popular sites that allow Web Slices in IE8 RC1 are eBay, Digg and Facebook. Microsoft is currently working with partners to create more Web Slices.

Tab Groups

Microsoft has been accused of stealing the Tabbed browsing idea from Firefox, which was the first browser to popularize Tabs. In IE8, Microsoft is trying to broaden and organize the tabbed browsing concept with Tab Groups.

Even with Tabs, it's easy to get lost amid too many open windows. Tab Groups organize tabs in relation to one another. For instance, tabs that you open from the same site are placed next to each other and marked with the same color. The tabs can then be closed or moved as one unit.

Compatibility View Button

On sites that are not compatible with IE8, images and text are all out of whack. The Compatibility View button in IE8 allows users to view such sites with the IE7 rendering engine. By clicking the button, misaligned text and images are fixed.

The Compatibility View button looks like a torn piece of paper and is located to the right of the address bar. Users can maintain a list within IE8 for sites that should be displayed in Compatibility View so they don't have to click Compatibility View every time they visit the sites.

Accelerators

Designed to deliver more Web options to users instantly, the Accelerator icon (a blue arrow) appears whenever you highlight any word or phrase on a page. Click the icon and various services related to that word or phrase appear in a list.