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Today, we are pleased to release the beta of Internet Explorer 9, available now in 33 languages at http://www.BeautyoftheWeb.com. The release of IE9 is accompanied by over 70 top sites, global brands, and web designers from around the world who have created new experiences with IE9 and Windows. These experiences together reach over 800 million visitors, or two-thirds of the active internet users.
Even at this early stage, we are excited to see IE9 help enable a material step forward with one of the most important experiences on Windows, browsing your favorite sites.
In his post on the IE engineering blog, Dean Hachamovitch provides our perspective and approach in building IE9 and highlights some of the significant new areas of investment. This is a great read to get grounded in the IE9 Beta release.
I wanted to compliment that post with a focus on some of the new sites and experiences which build on IE9 that are also releasing today. As Dean mentions, even on the day of a new browser release, what’s really important is the sites and applications we use every day on the web.
On http://www.BeautyoftheWeb.com and indeed across the web you’ll find an array of new and updated websites. Some of these represent the top sites or global brands on the internet, while others are from leading edge designers and artists pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with hardware-accelerated HTML5 and IE9.
One of the most exciting features of IE9 is the ability to promote your favorite sites and applications to first-class citizens right alongside your native applications on Windows. Pinning and Jump Lists allow the sites and content you love to be integrated into the rest of your Windows experience. Today, five of the world’s largest social and information networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Netlog), top news sites (BBC, CNN, WSJ, USA Today) and some of the biggest names in entertainment (Break, Cracked, Hulu, Discovery , Daily Motion, Vimeo, IMDB, and Flixster) have built new Pinned Site and Jump List capabilities on Windows. Many of these have also built exciting new HTML5 experiences that offer increasingly rich, interactive sites for their users.
A richer, standards-based web
Part of the promise of HTML5 is a standards-based web experience that allows developers and partners to create increasingly rich experiences using the same markup across browsers. When you combine HTML5 with a fully hardware-accelerated browser like IE9, you get the potential for something that we haven’t yet seen on the web. There are several new sites that launched today with IE9 that really help demonstrate where the web is going and provide a glimpse of this exciting future.
To start, I’m a big fan of the band The Killers. The Killers' new HTML5 website chronicles the band's career and offers users a seamless browsing experience of the band’s music and video content. It’s a good example of a group reimaging their site experience for their fans with HTML5 utilizing the full power of the PC through hardware acceleration. This site is based on a digitally painted 360-degree panorama inspired by the desert surrounding the band’s hometown of Las Vegas featuring their different album covers. They are using the latest in HTML5 Video and Audio, Canvas, and SVG. It’s all interactive. It’s all fast. It’s all accessible right in Windows 7 with Pinning and Jump Lists which makes it a great example of how sites can really start to shine as we unlock the beauty of what’s next on the web.
Alright, I’m not a total car nut, but if you want to just crack up for a bit with a few guys that are, spend time with BBC’s Top Gear show. It is one of the world’s most famous motoring entertainment shows. On their site, Top Gear presenters, producers, and magazine team regularly contribute to bring that brand to life on the web. The Cool Wall leverages the HTML5 and hardware-accelerated graphics support in Internet Explorer 9 to provide amazingly smooth transitions, deep zoom functionality, and slick video playback.
Rough Guides is a top site for travels and members of their community can use an animated interactive compass to navigate a map of the world, view geo-located photographs pulled from the Flickr database, and explore 200 travel experiences selected by Rough Guides. Members can also submit their own images to the community and share favorite moments from their online travels using Facebook, Twitter, and email. That’s a lot of interactivity and complexity that would have been hard to do on the web before. Today with HTML5 and full hardware acceleration, not only is the site interoperable, but the performance gains from using the whole PC makes this feel more like you are in a Windows application.
One of my absolute favorites is the Endless Mural by renowned artist Joshua Davis. The HTML5 CSS3 site is a beautiful collaborative art website allowing everyone to create their own pieces of art by combining pre-designed icons and elements by Joshua and other leading designers with customizable brush behaviors. You have your own tool set to create a piece of digital art. When you save your art piece, compositions are added to the constantly evolving, “endless mural.” It’s going to be awesome to see what happens as the mural grows with hundreds and thousands of individuals collectively creating a spectacular and ever evolving piece of art.
And finally, when it is time for some fun, you have to play with Jitterbugs, Agent 008 Ball, and WebVizBench. All these experiences and more are up on www.BeautyoftheWeb.com.
As we have said before, the browser is the theater and your websites are the play. I’m excited for the IE9 Beta release, but I also work every day on the browser. So, for everyone else that cares more about their sites and web experiences then browsers, it’s time to unleash a more beautiful web.
Ryan Gavin Senior Director, Internet Explorer Business and Marketing
This is great! I've been following this realese for a loong time ;)
YAY! I've been waiting for this! One small issue I have though, is why has the download speed section been removed from the download dialog? Please bring it back!
officelive.com doesn't work with internet explorer 9
Facebook say "you use a old version" and i need push the compatibility mode, to solve simples things (my upload videos and interface links). Office Live warn about beta. Grooveshark, You Tube and Quakelive, running ok.
For a beta version, running really fast. My simple observations.
@iggim You can send feedback to the IE team through the Send Feedback tool in IE9 Beta. Click the tools icon in IE9 Beta (looks like a gear) and pick the Send Feedback option.
@Flavio Tales I'm not seeing the same issue as you in Facebook. On what page do you see the message? Are you using facebook.com or an international version? Are you logged in or logged out? As with @iggim, it would be great if you could submit the issue you're seeing through the feedback tool.
It's really very disappointing that there is no version of IE9 beta for Windows XP. Most developers still use Windows XP and most companies still use Windows XP for compatibility with older applications. So I can't test my web apps in my clients PCs (a lot of them Netbooks that can't run vista or 7) because MS IGNORES the real world. Ok guys, Opera, Firefox and Chrome live in the real world with millions of PCs still running XP. Thanks MS!
Just download IE 9 and websites are gorgeous. But I am having problems with my Google Mail. I can log in and out, but when I click on an email to read, it does not open. I cannot delete, move, delete. I can move between folders.
OK, I can't seem to get the "Send Feedback" to work... says I don't have Windows Live ID Signin Assistant installed (which I definitely do)... Windows 7 x64, Windows Live Essentials 2011 Beta installed...
I hate the back button.
I hate the still bird egg blue "menu" for the Favorites/Command bar.
I hate the font rendering right now... on smaller text it just looks HORRIBLE!
I wish the Add-Ons Manager had the ability to forcefully REMOVE add-ons, not just enable/disable them.
I've had quite a few sites that render poorly (Microsoft Technet subscription renewal) or don't render at all (Gateworld.net), but 99% works great.
BUT, those handful of negatives aside, the experience overall is quite favorable so far. It's fast... wicked fast! I like the download manager, and the web app concept is awesome! Keep up the great work, you're headed in the right direction! Fast, lightweight, and truly usable! :)
Wow! Now I find that Adobe finally is up with a preview version for its Flash Player to suppor IE9 x64.
But what about Silverlight on 64-bit Internet Explorer?
I can't send Feedback through the Feedback form - it claims my Windows Live ID does not have permission to submit bugs for the Connect form. So here's my Feedback thus far:
1) IE9 cannot display the Statistics page for blogs hosted by Blogger (see bloggerindraft.blogspot.com/.../introducing-blogger-stats.html). All I get is a "Loading..." message and a blank page. The Statistics page is working fine in IE8.
2) IE8 had a handy drop-down menu in the Back-Button that allowed me to select which page I wanted to jump back to. IE9 seems to force me to page back through my history one page at a time. I miss the Jump feature...
Ah, OK, scrap my second feedback point - I see that I need to right-click on the Back-Button to access my Jump list...
Pinning websites to the browser is a very nice idea. The GPU smoothness is clearly visible even in the new tab opening experience. IE9 is great except for a few issues which I hope IE9 team corrects before RTW: I miss the search box where i could see search engines using textual names instead of forcing me to remember their icon. IE always had search from address bar and search aliases since the days of IE5 even before Chrome but it wasn't well advertised. The search box should be optional for those who want it.
Secondly, the download manager has disappointingly lost the default beep sound upon download completion feature, doesn't have the progress bar (hence no progress bar on the Windows 7 taskbar too), and doesn't show the transfer rate in KB/s and completed MB (only % why?). Too minimalistic.
Also if I can move at least the tab bar below the address bar, or preferably move around all IE elements with full flexibility, that would be great. Even the Favorites pane should be movable as it has been to the left for decades, we're used to it being there on the left.
The tab list dropdown button (the one in IE8 to the left of the first tab is also gone!! I've submitted all these issues via Connect. I hope the IE team really listens.
Lastly, let me express my disappointment again for not supporting XP (I have moved to Windows 7 already) but I think such a mass market should not be ignored. Surely, a version can be made for XP minus hardware acceleration (GDI) or one that uses Direct3D. If third parties can support XP, I don't really see why Microsoft can't support their own most popular OS unless they really are desperate for Windows 7 sales and aren't confident enough Windows 7's strengths without IE9 being exclusive to it.
Don't get me wrong, I like IE9; but still I would like to list some features or UI elements which should be improved in my opinion:
1. The Home-Button belongs somewhere next to the adress bar.
2. I would like to be able to add a site to my Favorites with one click. Google Chrome handles this pretty well in my opinion because the interface also indicates if a specific site is already part of my Favorites.
3. It is kind off odd that I have to select a tab first before I can close it. The Close-Button should appear on all tabs in the background, not just the one in the foreground.
4. If I pin the Favorites-Center it switches from the right side to the left which doesn't make sense.
5. The adress bar should be more narrow and leave more space for the tabs but expand when I click on it.
6. The New-Tab Page should be more customizable. I would like to add permanent links to it manually, similar to the Favorites-Bar, or at least I would like to be able to pin the pages that are already there.
7. It would be awesome if the Favorites-Bar would be part of the New-Tab-Page even if I have disabled it otherwise.
8. I would like to be able to pin pages to the Jump-List.
9. I think the Options-Menu needs to be redesigned. Particularly the Advanced-Submenu is really hard to navigate.
The following are the two features that I miss most coming from alternative browsers:
- Spell-Checker!
- Other browser seem to have more and better addons and extentions which are more powerful, easier to find and install and better integrated with the UI than the ones available for IE. Also the addon community seems more active.
Keep up the good work!
Attempted to view movie trailers on IMDB site using the beta IE9. The movies were loading slowly and the audio was choppy. I have DSL supposedly @ 1.5 Mbps. Windows 7 64 bit professional, AMD Phenom II X4 955 Processor 3.2GHz, Nividia Ge Force 9500 GT 1G GPU.
If I remember correctly in IE8, I was able to go back and use a previous version for sites that were not updated. I do not see that in IE9. Am I missing something? I have one frequently-used site that is simply not responding.
I'm trying the new beta and immediately installed the WOT addon. Unfortunately, I can't move the WOT icon to another bar. It's sitting there at the left of its own toolbar. I'd like to be able to move the icon to my favorites bar so I don't have a whole toolbar (virtually empty) taking up space except for the WOT icon. If I try to close the toolbar IE thinks I want to disable the addon. ...sigh...
P.S. Between the virtually empty WOT bar and the similarly empty title bar, there is a royal waste of precious screen space taking place here.
To those who have feedback they'd like to submit on IE9 Beta, please use the Send Feedback tool in the Beta (Tools Menu (gear icon) then Send Feedback.
And to those who have been having trouble submitting through that mechanism, I've asked our engineering team to take a look and see if they can figure out what's going on.
@eaglesnest
@GoodThings2Life
@7flavor
@walltherpaper
@Jerry
@MondayBlues
Please see my above comment on filing issues through the Send Feedback tool. The engineering team use all the feedback to make decisions about what bugs to fix and what changes to make. While submitting feedback through the tool doesn't guarantee that the change you want will get made, it increases the chance that it will! We appreciate you taking the time to send feedback.
@qiziq Do you mean the "Compatibility View" feature that makes websites written for older versions of IE display correctly in IE8? That button is still available in IE9 next to the refresh button but only displays when the developer hasn't been explicit about what version of IE they were written for. If you send the URL for the site, I can take a look and tell you what I see.
James
I would really like to be able to put the tab bar back below the address bar.
Right now when you start opening more tabs the space available shrinks really fast. The only option to have more space for tabs is to shrink the URL box, but then you can't see the full address of the current page.
@ James Pratt Thanks. Here is the URL. www.firstdata.com/moneynetwork. Still not able to bring it up today. Still don't see the compatibility view tab, but I guess what you're telling me is that it will only show when needed.
@qiziq What isn't working for you on that page? It's loading OK for me.
@ James Pratt Simply will not load for me. I have tried from my favorites bar. I have copy and pasted. I just now clicked on the hyper-link in my comment. Always the same result. Site not responding. I have done everything but try on another browser.
@qiziq Can you try running IE in No Add-ons mode for me? In Windows, bring up the Start Menu, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, Internet Explorer (No add-ons). Then visit the problem page and see if it loads correctly. If it does, it's likely an add-on that's causing your issue. If not, we would want to Send Feedback through the Send Feedback menu under Tools (the gear icon).
im having problems watching videos on facebook, and i mean videos people upload (not from youtube), also im having issues with myspace videos and music player. please fix this. also ads are messing up
im also having problems on most video sites they will play but keep blinking i cant see anything tho. =/ (cept on youtube)
@GoodThings2L, @Geoff Coupe
Thank you for installing the IE9 Beta and helping us to make it better through your feedback!
We have identified an issue with the Send Feedback tool for users of the IE9 Beta on 64-bit versions of Windows 7, Vista, and Server 2008 who have also installed the Windows Live Essentials Beta. Enhancements made to the Windows Live Essential Beta prevent the Feedback tool from running – you will receive a message entitled “Please install the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant” with a link to ”Get the Windows Live ID Sign-In Assistant”. When you try to download and install from the link, it will say you already have a more recent version installed. This issue has been reported by users in Connect, and we will update those bugs as we investigate the issue.
To provide the IE team with your feedback, go directly to the IE Feedback Program on Microsoft Connect (connect.microsoft.com/ie). This is the same location where all entries from the Feedback Tool are logged. You can use it to view, edit, and comment on bugs, and to see the results of our investigation. You need to register on Connect to use the Send Feedback tool and the IE Feedback Program. Registering is a quick and easy process described here: connect.microsoft.com/.../content.aspx. Once registered, you can go directly to the Feedback page (connect.microsoft.com/.../feedback), search for your issue, and submit new feedback if it is not found. The Feedback page has additional information on the process.
Your feedback is very important to us and much appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to let us know about your experiences with the IE9 Beta.
Justin Saint Clair
Program Manager, Internet Explorer
@eo31591
You can use the Send Feedback tool in IE9 Beta to send a bug report for the video issues you're seeing. It's under the Tools menu (gear icon).
Also note the instructions above from Justin Saint-Clair if you happen to be using Windows Live Essentials Wave 4 Beta.
yeah I reported that myself, about the send feedback not working (I'm on W7/64 + Live Essentials beta :) ) social.answers.microsoft.com/.../3c598dcd-e26d-436b-9a21-d23347efbee9
I uninstalled IE9 because it slowed down Office 2010 and especially Word. Closing Word took almost 2 minutes!
When I got back to IE8 Office 2010 worked as before! Anyone familiar with this problem?
When using IE9 it sometimes did not start my homepage, in fact it wasn't able to start any page at all....
Great great improvements in so many aspects. This is wonderful piece of work. Two things I wish dev team incorporate in the final release:
1st: decrease the startup-and-ready time - even after disabling all the adons, apparently the UI appears but the first tab gets frozen for a while then regain the consciousness! Surely that behavior exists more badly in IE8 & 7 but we r talking about IE9 (new GUI compared to GoofyChrome, so plzzz..)
2nd: Built-in Spellchecker - Comon that's sooo easy (steal it from your office suite :D) !!!
Like IE9 so far, but.... Where's the search box? I know a-boot the integrated search/address box but with the stand alone search box you could search multiple engines with the same query or modify your existing search.
My favorites star used to work and now it doesn't but when it did work the width of the dropdown was too small and I could not figure out how to make it bigger without moving it to the left side and making it larger there.
Also the 'send feedback' does not work.
@Crusty
There's a known issue in the Beta concerning switching between search providers where it doesn't remember your search query. Thanks for reporting.
@absavino Can you give some more details? What happens when you press the Favorites Button?
You can change the size of the Favorites window by pinning it (button in the top right corner of the favorites window) and then you can change the width. When you unpin it, the new width will be remembered.
What issue are you seeing with the Send Feedback tool? Do you by any chance have the 64-bit versions of the Windows Live Essentials Beta installed ? If so, there's a known issue. See above comment by Justin Saint-Clair.
I noticed that in IE9
1) Flash Player 10 doesn't work.
2) Print command doesn't work.
anybody knows how it works or or slove the problem. Please let us know
i use norton toolbar and in win7-32bit it is there but in 64bit it doesnt show up is there anything i can do to correct this .the problem i am having is if i pin a site to the task bar when i open it from task bar my norton doesnt show therefor i have no identity safe and cant use it to sign into site