Mossberg: Internet Explorer 8 Would Be Best Browser if Faster
If web browsing was solely based on speed, Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer would be last in line. Aside from that key item however, it’s solid, offers better usability and greater security than any prior version. At least that’s what I’m hearing from Walt Mossberg’s review of IE8, which comes out of beta today. Here’s his bottom line in the review:
“Internet Explorer 8 is a well-done advance on an important product used by most people to surf the Web. If it were faster, I would say it was the best browser currently available for Windows. But even so, it will be an improvement for current Internet Explorer users, and might even tempt some folks to switch.”
Whether you read about them in the review or find out for yourself, you’ll see new features in IE8 that resemble some of the best in Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox browser. And that’s not a bad thing. I love how Chrome treats each tab as a separate process so if one crashes, the remaining stay intact. That approach arrives in IE8. Firefox extensions are another differentiator. While IE8 doesn’t have nearly the same amount of flexibility, Microsoft does implement useful web accelerators and slices. IE8 is looking like a meld of what I like in competing browsers but with the Redmond view of trying to make one product work for all.
In the end, I’m unfortunately only giving IE8 a cursory glance. Why? If the “Achilles Heel” is speed, I have to pass. I simply live way too much in a browser, so speed is a premium that I have to have for productivity purposes. Likening the browser to an OS, I need to move through the environment so that my tools don’t get in the way. Perhaps I’ll do some speed tests for comparison and then change my mind because I do like some of the unique features Microsoft is bringing to IE8.
We always say to use the right tool for the task at hand: the tool I need has to deliver speed as it’s my number one tool requirement. Coming in after that is security, compatibility with web standards, cross-platform support and customization. What are you looking for in a browser today?
It took me 3 hours and 4 reboots (one a forced power off by sliding and holding the power switch) to go from IE7 to IE8 on my Vaio P. I was googling for how to invoke the system recovery partition when it finally calmed down.
So far for me it’s all about Ctrl-+, which is to say Safari 4 has it and IE8 doesn’t. Which makes all the difference for me in exploiting that 2:1 aspect Vaio P screen.
I installed IE8 on my laptop about an hour ago to have a play. It installed first time and only required one reboot. CTRL-+ works fine and zooms as expected. IN fact, the zoom finally works as it should – this was one of the problems that forced me away from IE in the first place so I’m glad to see it sorted out.
I have to say I’m not overwhelmed by the performance. It’s not necessarily terrible but it’s not as snappy as I’d like.
I don’t know if I’ll switch back to IE just yet. The tablet support is better than any other browser but I can get by with extensions in Firefox.
Kevin, I’d recommend you install it yourself and see what you think rather than relying on Mossberg.
Actually, I may have spoken too soon. Opening new tabs seems a bit sluggish but once they’re open site loads seem REALLY fast. For instance, loading a Digg comments page with 100s of comments (reasonably javascript intensive) is instantaneous – seems much faster than Firefox.
I think this warrants a closer look.
Jake, I don’t make decisions solely on what someone else writes. I actually don’t recommend anyone do that and I’m disappointed to have you imply I’m relying on Mossberg for my decision.
I’ve used beta versions of IE8 for months and I wrote this post prior the IE8 launch, so it wasn’t possible for me to use it. As I said in the post, I’ll likely speed test it. For my needs, it will have to exceed other browsers. Unlikely, but possible and if so, I’ll find out.
Sorry Kevin. That came out wrong and wasn’t meant as an attack on you. No offence intended. I also missed the bit where you said that you intended to test it yourself so I apologise again.
No worries Jake. I wasn’t sure how you meant it, so I might have read into your comment too much. It actually raises a good point worth reiterating: reading reviews and opinions of others is a great start to understand if something new will or won’t work for you. In the end, we should all make our choices based on personal experience.
If you want an ie based browser don’t waste your time with ie8. Just load up Avant Browser and get speed and more features than any other browser.
First impressions are good. Fast, less buggy than IE7, accelerators a good idea, coloured tab groups too.
There’s a proper search function now, better than firefox 3.0′s which doesn’t update hits when you change page.
I have been using this IE8 for a couple of hours and I have to say that MS has done a fine job. However, I can’t realy say it’s better than Firefox 3. Open new tabs is a bit sluggish. It’s not as somooth as Firefox and it still a memory hog when compared to firefox. It’s pretty clear to me that MS has a long way ahead before it releases a really competitive browser. Firefox and its add-ons along with its faster engine makes it the best browser available.
Using IE8 for some days now and i must admnit that its 2x better then IE7.I find it even faster then FF3 (wich i never have liked). Love it and i’m going to stay with IE8 for a while.
Kevin,
See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW
For readers who use Firefox and IE8, I wanted your readers to be aware that Firefox has a version of Accelerators too, it is called “KALLOUT – Accelerators for Firefox” It’s available as a free add-on through Firefox. See: http://bit.ly/vJKbW
Selection-based search is really helpful. One GREAT feature of KallOut is BestGuess. The challenge with selection-based search is that the user has to figure out which one to apply to his selection. It’s a little clunky once you get more than two or three. KallOut does a super job figuring out which accelerator you need to use for a given selection-based search request. Kallout — Accelerators for Firefox is actually kind of spooky when it works so well.
Check it out! I agree that it’s a big step forward for the user to have the selection-based search bundled into the browser by default, however.
“KALLOUT – Accelerators for Firefox” is available through Mozilla at http://bit.ly/vJKbW
-JB
I found a cool contest Microsoft is running for Internet Explorer 8 – much better than their other videos promoting the browser. Users get to submit their own and the winner gets $2,500! http://www.brickfish.com/MSFTInternetExplorer8