Internet Explorer 9 at #FOWA

Microsoft’s Web Product Manager Mark Quirk gives a taste of what we would have talked about if we’d had a session at #FOWA this year…

We weren’t on the FOWA agenda this year; unlike our colleagues at… well, all the other browser vendors.  So, we figured we’d write something that answered the most common questions we were asked at the event.

There’s a lot of overlap in the questions as you might guess, which does simplify things somewhat… they include (the first two represent 90% of the questions):

• So, what’s new in IE9?
• Are you going to implement the latest standards?
• What are you doing to help reduce usage of IE6? (OK, not usually put quite so politely)
• When will IE9 be released?

So, what’s new in IE9?

The good news is that the answer is long, the better news is I’ll try and keep it short here.

One of the core design concepts is to get out of the way of the website – you browse the web to visit sites, not to interact with the browser application, so lets bring the site forward.  For example…

• Clean, minimal UI – firstly you’ll see that by default there are no toolbars or status bars and the tabs and address bar are all on a single line.  The search and address bars are combined into one box where to support ‘privacy by default’, you need to click ‘Turn on Search Suggestions’ to get the full interactive experience, where as well as searching your browser history and favourites, every key press will be sent to your default search engine so it can make, well, search suggestions.
• Site Pinning – a pinned site looks just like an application on the Windows 7 taskbar.  Just drag-drop from the one box to the Windows Taskbar and see it pinned along side all your other applications with support for Jump Lists, thumbnail buttons & icon overlays.  Site pinning helps your website works like a Windows 7 application… and it’s pretty straight forward to implement, take a look at the early documentation.

• Just hit F12 (developer tools) – IE added integrated development tools with Internet Explorer 8, and naturally we’re seeing some evolution in IE9, for example we’ve added a console view and a network inspection traffic viewer.  Check out the Developer Guide.

Fast! – with a new layout, JavaScript & rendering engine IE9 runs your sites really fast.  Back in November 2009 we announced we would be adding hardware acceleration to the browser.  In March 2010 we released the first Platform Preview of IE9, which showed the first fruits of this work.

• Compiled Javascript – the new Javascript engine provides a full compiler.  When a site loads, the scripts are initially run using an interpreter, while at the same time on a different CPU core the Javascript is being compiled.  As soon as the compile has finished the interpreted script is replaced by the compiled version… so the site gets a fast start then accelerates as the compiler hands over its output.
• GPU-Powered – most (all?) modern machines have a graphics processor which has mostly sat idle while the browser does its thing.  Not any more;  Video, Canvas, Text, SVG… IE9 does its rendering through DirectX.  DirectX was originally designed as a solution for games developers to get direct access to the hardware and first released way back in 1995.  Today, it’s what the IE9 uses to accelerate text and graphics.

We tend to talk less about general security features to you guys.  But I think SmartScreen(r) is worth a mention, according to NSSLabs Q1 2010 report IE8 blocks 85% of malware attacks (that’s the highest of any browser tested) and IE9 adds download reputation and malicious advertising protection.

The final area I wanted to mention is the answer to the next question…

Are you going to implement the latest standards?

In summary, yes.  The long answer involves a discussion of working groups, the various states of specifications and likelihood of making it to an agreed final point in a sensible time frame.  So here, lets stick with the short answer and amongst the crowd are:

• CSS3
• Web Open Font Formats
• DOM L2 and L3
• ECMAScript 5
• HTML5
• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
• International Color Consortium (ICC) Color Profiles

As you’d expect, Microsoft is represented through the many working groups that build the specifications.  Beyond the specifications themselves, ideally all browsers implement that standard in the same way – and that’s not a trivial undertaking.  So, a key part of our contribution is in the test cases to check conformance to the standards.  As I write this, the IE team have submitted 487 test cases to the W3C and 2220 to ECMA.  Get the specifics at the IE Testing Centre and in the IE developer guide.

Also, for web developers & designers, take a look at the suggestions on how to build cross browser HTML over on the IE blog.

What are you doing to help reduce usage of IE6?

Fortunately, according to Net Applications in Europe IE6 usage on the public internet is <5% of traffic.  This comes from business users where the businesses typically have legacy applications that use some specific IE6 feature.  Released in 2001, IE6 was advanced for it’s time, clearly that’s not the case today.

We’re actively encouraging businesses to move to a modern browser.  As well as investing in ensuring IE8 and IE9 are compelling propositions for business, there are migration resources to help organisations move away from IE6 (for example see MSDN Compat centre and similarly for IT Professionals) which Microsoft proactively promotes with customers who have legacy applications along with deeper support for those that need it.

When will IE9 be released?

IE9 started its release cycle with the first IE Platform Preview in March 2010, then roughly every 8 weeks to a new preview culminating in the beta released on 15th September 2010, along with Platform Preview 5.  You can download the platform previews, which will install alongside other versions of IE, from the IE Test Centre.

We’ve also committed to continuing the platform preview cycle post the beta… and it’s the feedback from this beta and subsequent previews that will dictate when the final version of the browser is ready.

And finally…

• Visit the IE Test Centre to view the feature tests and download the Platform Preview.
• Visit a more beautiful web to download the beta.
• The developer guide has all the details.
• Do click ‘send feedback’ when you feel the need, to help ensure IE renders your sites brilliantly.