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IE8 could give Opera and Firefox a run for their feature money

Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) is the king of the hill when it comes to web browsers. That is despite the fact that many computer users feel IE is a much less usable browser than its main competitors like Opera and Firefox.

For instance, Microsoft was way behind its competitors adding features as basic as tabbed browsing, which only showed up in IE7. It appears that Microsoft is intent on making a browser that competes with the newer browsers on a much more complete basis feature wise with Internet Explorer 8.

IE8 will offer a wealth of new features starting with Activities. Activities allow you to open links to external web services within the context of a page you are looking at. If you are looking at the webpage for a store or restaurant, you could get driving directions with Live Maps or send the information to another web application.

Webslices is another new feature that allows users to subscribe and bring content on the links bar as they surf the web. IE8 also comes a long way on standards compliance and offers three different rendering modes -- Quirks mode, Strict mode, and IE8 standards mode. Quirks mode supports IE5 and legacy browsers, strict mode supports IE7 and is accessed through an emulate IE7 button.

IE8 is compliant with cascading style sheets (CSS) 2.1 and offers HTML improvements intended to fix cross browser inconsistencies. IE8's get/set/remove attributes are now compatible with other browsers and default attributes for HTML are supported. IE8 also includes integrated developer tools. This will allow web developers to debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a visual development environment included with the web browser.

CNET News reports that IE8 Beta 1 has some significant new security features. One of the features is a cross-site scripting filter. Microsoft says this is one of the first scripting filters on a mainstream browser. This feature is meant to protect a user from a malicious webpage that tries to execute a script on a user's browser without them knowing. When a page requests a cross-site script to be executed, IE8 changes the content on the web page being viewed with a notice that the script wants to run. When IE8 recognizes a malicious script, it keeps the script from executing.

Another significant new feature is called InPrivate. The feature allows users to browse the internet without having IE8 cache the content being viewed. When the function is activated, you can keep the rest of your browsing history intact. IE8 also adds ActiveX components security, which eliminates drive-by downloads. IE8 has Microsoft malware protection built-in -- a feature that Opera and other competitors feature.

One of the best new features of IE7 was the addition of tabbed browsing. IE8 takes tabbed browsing to the next level for Microsoft. IE8 will also users to reopen the last few tabs that were closed. This is a great feature if you have ever accidentally closed a tab while working. Tabs opened from the same page are also color coded to make keeping groups of tabs easier. IE8 also offers the ability for the browser to suggest new websites similar to the websites you have previously viewed. The option is turned off by default.

IE8 competitor Firefox set a record for the most downloads in 24 hours when its latest version launched recently.

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InPrivate already dubbed
By FITCamaro on 8/28/2008 12:09:49 PM , Rating: 5
Porn mode.

Geeks everywhere are rejoicing.




RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By nvalhalla on 8/28/2008 12:27:30 PM , Rating: 5
I'd have killed for this feature when I was 13!


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By therealnickdanger on 8/28/2008 4:19:56 PM , Rating: 4
I hesitated before clicking on it...

LMAO

Randy is quickly becoming the best character on South Park.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By mikeyD95125 on 8/29/2008 1:28:46 AM , Rating: 2
Good god...he is


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By gligli2 on 8/31/2008 7:48:44 AM , Rating: 2
Agreed.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By daftrok on 8/31/2008 11:25:20 AM , Rating: 2
Butters remains number 1 for me.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By Randy Marsh on 9/8/2008 5:09:24 AM , Rating: 2
Tis


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By heffeque on 8/28/2008 2:54:07 PM , Rating: 3
Interesting, because it's been available in Firefox sense version 2 (probably version 1 also had it)... and it's in Safari (Private Browsing)... and probably in Opera also.
Why is it such immense news when IE adds it? I'm confused.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By tastyratz on 8/28/2008 3:46:44 PM , Rating: 2
in firefox? how?
I'm running firefox 3. Is there a way to make a specific window or tab private?


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By heffeque on 8/28/2008 3:56:50 PM , Rating: 2
You can do "Preferences - Privacy - Always clear my private data when I close Firefox" and choose which data to delete.

Or you can also download an extension called "Distrust" that works just like "Private Browsing" in Safari or "InPrivate" in IE8.
http://www.gness.com/distrust/


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By therealnickdanger on 8/28/2008 4:27:18 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
clear my private data when I close Firefox

Therein lies the difference I believe. IE has had a similar feature "Empty Temporary Internet Files when browser is closed". IE has had it since... at least IE4 I think... maybe earlier.

The "pr0n m0de" described here must must be different than that. "inPrivate mode leaves no trace of what the user was up to from the browser and allows users to set which third-party sites have access to any of the data transmitted during the session."

quote:
download an extension called "Distrust"

Not built in.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By quickk on 8/28/2008 5:39:46 PM , Rating: 2
If you want to browse anonymously without leaving traces of having done so (ie, keep the cookies, browsing history, etc. intact), just start the firefox profilemanager and create a new, temporary profile. To delete all traces of your anonymous browsing just delete the new profile, and all the associated data.

To start the profilemanager, from the terminal type:

firefox -profilemanager

I'm not sure how to do this in windows though, but its probably similar.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By bobdelt on 8/28/2008 8:40:41 PM , Rating: 2
and how is this better than having the feature built in?


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By quickk on 8/28/2008 9:57:45 PM , Rating: 2
I'm not saying it is. I just was pointing out that it was possible to browse privately in Firefox without using any extensions, in case somebody wanted to know. After all, if you have an "anonymiser" extension installed, people may suspect that you have something to hide.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By heffeque on 8/29/2008 4:52:27 AM , Rating: 2
That's the good thing about Firefox, you don't have to have everything built in for it to work correctly. You can personalize it :-) Distrust isn't a huge add-on it's actually pretty tiny. If you really need it, it's just a couple clicks away :-)


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By KCjoker on 8/28/2008 5:49:54 PM , Rating: 2
When I try to clear private data it never works in firefox....it's still there I hate that. BTW I have the newest version of ad block intalled as well.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By mmntech on 8/29/2008 5:04:01 PM , Rating: 2
Download the Stealthier addon. It's a little more user friendly than the manual way of doing it, and you can quickly turn it on and off without having to go into the preferences menu.

Stealth is not just for porn but its a useful security feature if your doing banking or shopping on a shared computer. It's a long time coming. Safari has had the stealth feature for ages. I can't speak for Opera. IE always seems to be at least a generation behind when it comes to browser features. There's nothing really innovative about what's being added to IE8. Then again, the same can be said for most of Microsoft's recent products, with Office being the exception.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By Alpha4 on 8/28/2008 7:29:04 PM , Rating: 2
Its like watching a baby take its first step.


RE: InPrivate already dubbed
By kake on 8/29/2008 1:56:04 AM , Rating: 3
The only clean and foolproof wife-safe browsing method I've found is such:

dual boot your favorite linux distro and Windows. And if your wife can make your linux gui work from command line AND crack your pass, I want to meet her.