by Amir Malik

Created on: November 14, 2008   Last Updated: August 01, 2011

At the first glance Internet Explorer 8 (Beta) does not look any different than IE 7, but it has a number of exciting features that might make it a break through browser for Microsoft.

Features like Web Slice and Privacy mode add a new dimension for the web developers and Internet surfers. Let's take a brief look at some of the features:

• Web Slice:Web Slices are an exciting new technology in Internet Explorer 8. • Web Slices work like RSS feeds; you simply go to sites that are enabled for • Web Slices, like eBay or Facebook. Simply click on the Web Slice button and add it to your favorites bar.

Activities: Activities are services that, to put it simply, normally call for a copy and paste action in IE7 and earlier, in order to access additional information.

Accelerators: Accelerators let you efficiently complete your everyday browsing activities like mapping directions, translating words, emailing your friends, and more in just a few mouse clicks.

Privacy Mode: Browse the web without saving your history with Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Browsing.

Search Suggestions: Search smarter with detailed suggestions from your favorite search providers and browsing history. See visual previews and get suggested content topics while you type in the enhanced Instant Search Box.

Improved Security: New security features help to protect you against deceptive and malicious websites which can compromise your data, privacy and identity.

Favourites Bar: Now there's a better place to keep track of your top favorites. You can save Favorites, RSS Feeds, and Web Slices to the Links Bar that appears across the top of the browser, quickly navigating to the sites and content that you care about most.

History Searching: In Internet Explorer 8, you can search for pages in history by typing keywords, making it easier to locate sites when browsing your history.

All these new features give a fruitful thought to Microsoft's competitors Mozilla Firefox and other browsers like safari, Opera and newly launched browsers like Google Chrome. Despite such severe competition Microsoft has managed to come up to expectations of its user by coming up with new interesting and productive ideas.

Internet Explorer 8 includes new features that will keep Microsoft's hope for capturing most of the market alive. It will make other browsers follow the trend set by Microsoft rather than lead from the front. The new Internet Explorer 8 is faster than its predecessor though its beta is not error free (mostly because all its features are not utilized by most websites). IE 8 still looks to capture the major chunk of Internet users and solve most of Microsoft problems.

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