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Internet Explorer 8 Beta Features Revealed

Admodieus writes "It seems as though the veil has been lifted on the Internet Explorer 8 beta. Microsoft has revealed a list of the new features in IE8, including two interesting new additions called Activities and WebSlices. From the site: 'Activities are contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage. Users typically copy and paste from one webpage to another. Internet Explorer 8 Activities make this common pattern easier to do ... WebSlices is a new feature for websites to connect to their users by subscribing to content directly within a webpage. WebSlices behave just like feeds where clients can subscribe to get updates and notify the user of changes.' Also aboard the upgrade train is automatic crash recovery, a favorites toolbar, and improved phishing filter protection. Microsoft has also posted links to download the beta, but none of them are working right now."

4 of 281 comments (clear)

  1. features? by poticlin · · Score: 0, Troll

    First thing to cross my mind -> List of features by M$, aren't they calling them list of bugs? or is it the other way around...

  2. Re:Crash recovery, eh? by purpledinoz · · Score: 1, Troll

    Or not allowing any website or program to install all these components and toolbars onto your browser... The main reason for me switching to Firefox was that it wouldn't get cluttered with all these bullshit toolbars (and tabbed browsing of course). I'm not even sure how they get there, but they always do, and it pisses me off. Firefox only has components that I install myself. I'm never greeted with a new toolbar.

  3. Re:Will someone please... by sm62704 · · Score: 0, Troll

    No way, man. The only "standards" they care about are the pseudostandards they and they alone have. For instance, IE can fade from page to page - but it has to use MS's nonstandard commands to do it, and it only works on IE.

    There are still too many web sites that refuse to let non-IE browsers in, and the list has probably been shrinking since the growth of Firefox, Opera, and other browsers has gone so well.

    Now according to the summary we have "Activities". The term "contextual services to quickly access a service from any webpage" sounds pretty useless to me; what services are they talking about? The Associated Press, or more likely OS (Windows) services?

    "WebSlices" is another. You can bet your bottom dollar there are going to be idiot web designers (or ignorant ones using Front Page that don't know or care that they're using IE-only features) that shut out anyone using Konqueror or Safari or any other non-Microsoft browser.

    Once just for laughs I coded my homepage so that if the user-agent was IE it would redirect to a page that said "sorry, you need to upgrade to a modern browser" with a link to Firefox, even if it was Microsoft's latest incarnation of their pathetic browser. The site was (and still is) plain vanilla HTML, looks pretty much the same on any browser.

    Microsoft annoys the hell out of me.

    -mcgrew

    --
    mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
  4. Really? Insightful? by Bladesonfire · · Score: 0, Troll

    How did this get modded "5, Insightful"? Just because he uses a car analogy to complain about a MS product? I probably would have credited you with something if you at least made some substantial comments, like "where the hell is the refresh button?", but instead, you just fall back on the safe thing to do and just complain about MS generally. Seriously, what the hell do you mean by the analogy that there's no seatbelt?

    I guess I already answered my first question: I mean, you are complaining about MS and you did use a car analogy. I must be new here.