Internet Explorer 8:

Microsoft's Internet Explorer still holds the lion's share of the Web browser market with 72.2 per cent marketshare, followed by a distant second Firefox browser which has 17.2 per cent marketshare. Latest entrant in the market, Google Inc's Chrome browser, holds 2.8 per cent marketshare, while Apple Inc's Safari has less than 1 per cent. 

The application, an integral part of Microsoft's next OS Windows 7, can be downloaded from Microsoft's website from 9:30 p.m. Indian time, for free by users of licensed Microsoft operating systems. 

Here's looking into all that's new in the latest version.

Speed

Microsoft claims that the new browser is faster in almost every respect. It loads faster, switches pages faster, and renders complex graphics and videos faster than in previous versions. 

Seems Microsoft is responding, as it did in Windows 7, to users' insistence that performance is consideration number one when it comes to software. 

Also, IE faces tough competition from Google's which only recently upgraded its Chrome browser. And according to a post on Google's blog, the new Chrome beta loads certain types of Web pages 25 per cent to 35 per cent faster than the current version of the browser.

acceleretor

featureIE8 has a new feature called Accelerators which allows users to highlight text on a website and choose from a variety of functions, including search engines, language translation or map displays. 

For instance, how many times have you found an address on the Web and then proceeded to Google Maps, MapQuest, or Microsoft's own Live Maps to find directions? If the answer is "plenty", then IE 8 will be a boon to your productivity. Thanks to the browser's Accelerator feature users can now highlight an address, right-click, and select Map to get almost instantaneous directions from your location, assuming you've registered your existing address with whatever mapping site you use regularly. 

The same principle applies to email addresses, words you would like to define, words you would like to translate, or email addresses to which you like to send a message.

private browsing mode
The Redmond, Washington-based software maker added some new privacy features, including a mode for Web browsing that doesn't remember what sites were visited nor stores small data files called cookies. 

Google's Chrome calls this Incognito mode. In Firefox, you can achieve something close to Incognito mode by choosing to clear private date from the Edit - Preferences - Privacy dialog box. 

IE 8 also lets people block ads from companies that track their Web surfing habits across a number of sites, a practice known as behavioral targeting.

enhanced security

IE8 beefs up protection against malware and known phishing scam sites. It comes with built-in technology to protect against another kind of threat, "cross-site scripting," in which hackers insert code into legitimate Web pages that compromise peoples' computers without them knowing it. IE 8 disables the bad scripts but in most cases allows others needed for a Web page to run as usual.

Firefox already does something similar with an add-on programme, but Microsoft argues that only the most sophisticated users know to seek it out and install it. IE 8 also helps people who create websites prevent another kind of attack called "clickjacking," where a Web surfer might think they're clicking on a legitimate button when in fact they're activating an invisible, malicious action.

compability

IE8 may not be compatible with all existing Web technologies. Microsoft is aware of that and has incorporated a "compatibility mode" into IE 8, accessible by clicking a toolbar button. 

On clicking the Compatibility mode website will appear as viewed in Internet Explorer 7, which will correct the display problems like misaligned text, images, or text boxes. 

To go back to browsing with Internet Explorer 8 functionality on that site, click the Compatibility View button again.

Web Slices

Another time-saving feature of IE 8 is called Web Slices, which is designed to allow you to subscribe to frequently-updated portions, or "slices," of certain websites. Instead of spending your time visiting three or four websites to get updated information from a portion of each of those sites, you would simply use Web Slices to pull that information into a single location in IE 8. 

IE 8 users can add a number of "Web slices" to keep track of eBay auctions, stock quotes, blog posts, weather forecasts and other information that is frequently updated. 

With Web Slices, you can instead simply subscribe to a section of the auction page by clicking a Web Slice icon that appears when you allow your mouse cursor to hover over a portion of a site that is frequently updated. 

Clicking the Web Slice icon adds a new button to a Favourites bar that appears above your browser tabs. Clicking the newly-created Web Slice button on the IE 8 Favourites bar will pull the latest data from your subscribed page and show it to you in a preview window.