For the first time, Internet Explorer now sports cutting-edge support for HTML5, the collection of emerging standards that permit sites to deliver slicker graphics and typography, richer interfaces that feel more like traditional software and video that doesn’t require a plug-in such as Adobe Flash. Like an eye-popping 3-D game, the software takes full advantage of your PC’s graphics hardware, enabling glitzy animation at high speeds. (See pictures of vintage computers.)
This browser is so on top of next-generation Web technologies, in fact, that it has zipped ahead of most of the Web itself. For now, the most impressive evidence of its capabilities are demos that Microsoft and its partners have ginned up. But when better sites are built, IE9 will be ready.
Not being ready for the new Web wasn’t really an option for Microsoft. Research firm Net Applications says that Internet Explorer retains 60% of the browser market, but it long ago lost the confidence and attention of most of the people who care enough about browsers to make a considered choice. (On my site, Technologizer, it’s only the third most popular browser — Firefox and Chrome are No. 1 and No. 2.) IE9 is the first version in eons that gives browser enthusiasts something to be enthusiastic about.
Still, I don’t see Internet Explorer ever again crushing the competition like it once did. Too many excellent options are just a free download away: Firefox, Chrome, Apple’s Safari (available for Windows as well as Macs) and Norwegian underdog Opera. I also like Flock, which is based on the same underpinnings as Chrome, but with built-in features relating to Facebook, Twitter and other forms of online socializing. (See the best social-networking applications.)
While Microsoft has dropped hints that the Internet Explorer brand is going away, the software maker has now confirmed that it will use a new name for its upcoming browser successor, codenamed Project Spartan.
Christian Vasile
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