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IE8 Review
Posted by: MikeZilla on Apr 30, 2010
Since being shackled to IE7 due to work restrictions on my laptop, IE8 really has a lot to do to change my mind. There are lots of little changes but all in all, I’m hard pressed to call this a new major version rather than a large bug fix with some glitter added.
I think the nicest thing I can say about IE8 is that it is to IE7 what Windows 7 is too Vista. For this reason in many ways this browser is the catch up browser rather than the field leading browser you’d expect from the big brains at Microsoft. Have they caught up though?
Look and Feel
I really really really really really, hate the look and feel of Internet explorer and have done since Netscape was still my browser of choice. It is possibly the least intuitive interface on the market. I know that a lot of people like using toolbars, I don’t mind them myself for certain tasks, but I find it hard to figure out why out of the box IE8 installs with two large and mostly useless toolbars (which to be fair, are easy to hide) which take up probably 20% of your screen real estate. One of the areas that Firefox has done the best work in is in customization. Most serious web users have there Firefox pimped out to the point that it is actually hard to switch to another person’s computer even if they’re running Firefox, let alone if they’re running a different browser. IE8 and future incarnation need to take a leaf out of the Firefox book and allow more customization of the user interface.
The Address bar is much smarter. I like the addition of history and favourites right in the address bar. One thing that had me clawing at my head wishing I had hair to pull out though was the fact the the ferkin address bar doesn’t seem to understand that when I press enter I want whatever I have in the box to load. I often type something in the address bar lets say:
I type: monetizeblog
Now that gets autocompleted to:
http://monetizeblog.info/about-2
so then I click and backspace the end bit to get back to:
http://monetizeblog.info/
Now very annoyingly if this address is in the autocomplete drop down list thing you have to select it with your mouse, you can’t just press enter. When I’m using my keyboard I resent it when my computer tells me I have to use my mouse. Though this might just be me…
Webslices, are a nice touch lets get update content and stick it in a toolbar. *yawn* Never going to use it. RSS works and doesn’t involve me dowloading information each time I log on just whenever I want to things. I would have preferred something akin to Morning Coffee in Firefox where you can set certain sites as your default tabs to open up on various days.
Performance
Performance wise I must say I’ve been suitably impressed. For me the most noticeable performance improvement has been in the way that IE8 handles javascript. As a Wordpress blogger as well, I have been struggling to streamline my site, Monetize your Life for speed (unsuccessfully) for a while now. One of the main culprits has been javascript and one can only streamline javascript up so much, after that it’s all down the way your browser translates and executes said script. Running a couple of quick, very unscientific, tests I could see a noticeable load time improvement on script heavy sites.
IE8 handles multiple tabs decently though I get the distinct impression that it channels more resources to the currently selected tab. Load times for background tabs seems quite pedestrian to me. Even so the speeds are comparable to Firefox as long as you understand that you have to multi task the way IE8 wants you too. I understand the logic of loading the current window faster
The accelerators are a really nice touch and on this one I’ll give Microsoft a very rare tip of the hat. Sure it’s Google gears in Windowed clothing, but it’s geared at the power user and it makes the nuts and bolts work that much quicker.
Overall
So after my little jaunt around the interwebs what is my verdict. (I actually followed the text commentary of the Liverpool vs Atletico Madrid game on www.teamtalk.com last night oh how the footballing Gods hate me) IE8 is an able addition to the browser market and for all the millions and billions of Users out there who get cold sweats whenever they use a non Microsoft product, congratulations you finally have a browser that doesn’t suck. For the rest of us that parted ways with Explorer a long time ago, IE8 just doesn’t do enough to change our minds I would think. IE7 and the constant security patching that a new release of Internet explorer sparks has probably put the development cycle way behind it’s competitors. Microsoft have caught up with a nice stable looking core and good performance. Now if they can just start including more of what us internet enslaved fools want. They can do it. I know they can, I’m writing this blog in windows live writer, hands down the best blog editor on the net for one simple reason, it’s designed to make writing simpler. Now if only their browser did the same.
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