Microsoft has recently recently released Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 for Windows.  I have reviewed it from a blogger’s point of view.

First Impression: Not so Good, Not so Bad

If you are a Firefox fan like me, you may not be interested in Internet Explorer.  This time I am quite interested in Internet Explorer 8 because it comes with a lot of new features. Not sure at this moment, whether Internet Explorer 8 will deliver what Microsoft promises, but let me share some of  its cool new features with you:

• Accelerators: The most interesting part for me is the “Map with Live Maps” accelerator. You can get an in-place view of a map displayed directly on the page. Somewhat similar to Firefox Ubiquity
• Web Slices: I like this one very much. Using Web Slices, you can keep up with frequently updated sites directly from your Favorites Bar. A green Web Slices icon will appear in the upper-right hand corner of the browser if a web slice is available on a page. Then you can  easily subscribe and add them to the Favorites Bar.
• Search Suggestions: You can search with detailed suggestions from Internet Explorer using Instant Search Box. Not a big difference when compared to Firefox actually. But still a very good improvement for Internet Explorer.
• SmartScreen Filter: When the SmartScreen Filter is active and you visit a website that is unsafe, you will see a screen prompting you not to visit that site. This is a good protection against Phishing and Malware.

Conclusion:
Even though there are some nice improvements  in Internet Explorer, I will still be using Mozilla Firefox as a blogger. It is much more compatible for a blogger. Even with its new functionalities, Internet Explorer is still clumsy when compared to Firefox. If you are interested in testing Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, you may download it from here: InternetExplorer 8 Beta 2