From the IE 8 blog

# re: Part II: Better Everyday Browsing

Friday, August 29, 2008 5:35 PM by Justin

I can't believe this is Beta 2.  It is very unstable, and some of the features don't work at all.

For starters, what is going on with the iexplore.exe processes!?!?  When I open IE8, I have 2 by default.  If I open a second tab, I get a third process, then a fourth when I get to four tabs, etc.  If you end task a process that is not the main process, it will re-spawn others, thus almost duplicating the number of processes running.  Is that the answer to "browsing faster", create more processes and use more memory?

The favorites bar is WAY to big.

Caret browsing?  I don't get it.  There is a cursor in the browser that I can tab around to links on pages.  Don't do it too much though, because if you reach the end of the page, IE8 will crash the second time around.  Couldn't you tab to links on pages before?  Am I missing something with this feature?

I had Google set as my default search provider in IE7, but that didn't carry over to IE8, so when I click on the search bar, if crashes IE.

I have the default "Accelerators" installed, however, when I highlight text and click on the pretty blue arrow that pops up, I get no menu.

I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but it is annoying.  Sometimes, not always, when you search in google, you will only see 3 or 4 results, but if you right-click on one of them, magically the rest appear.

When I right-click on the address bar, I see that I have the option to "Open IME".  I'm not sure what it does, but I can then right-click again and "Close IME".  I did check the help, but it didn't return any results.  After it didn't return any results, it also brought the window I was in prior to opening IE8 to the forground, unselected.  If you do this just right, and IE isn't maximized, you can drag your IE window around the back of the other window, and back to the forefront.  Look, it's behind, now it's in front.  Again, you have to have your windows set up just right to do that trick, but reguardless, closing help will bring a previous window to the forefront and unselected.

Did anyone TRY to run the ACID 3 test on this thing?  This is the MOST incompatable browser right next to the HotJava brwser as far as web standards are concerned.  PLEASE, for the love of all that is good in the world, PLEASE stop re-inventing standards!!!  Why does each version of IE go farther and farther from internet standards, and force web developers all over the world to re-design their sites to be compatable with the new browser?  IE8 couldn't even complete the ACID 3 test.  The first time I ran it, it stopped at 12 of 100 tests.  The second time I think it reached 15.  WooHoo!  I can't use Dell's support site anymore.  Thanks.

I have to admit, the emphasis on the base url in the address bar threw me at first.  I wasn't sure the point of it, but I guess I understand now.  Not a bad feature, but not a jaw dropper either.

It is nice to see some basic features making it's way into IE.  For instance, recover where I left off after a crash is nice.  And believe me, I used it alot!

Re-open a closed tab is good, and about time.

The tab grouping/coloring is nice.  I will give cudos there.  However, if you start with one tab, then open a second, close the second, then open another second, you get a different color.  It would be nice if it kept the same color as before.  A very good idea/feature though.

"InPrivate" browsing?  I can only imagine what that will be used for.

I guess that's all for a brief trial run.  This appears to me to be more Alpha then Beta.  Sorry to be so negative.  I'm sure the IE team put a lot of effort into this, but I think it falls far short.  Some nice ideas, but still needs some work.  I look forward to Beta 3.

# re: Part II: Better Everyday Browsing

Saturday, August 30, 2008 2:46 AM by abhinov.k.s

@Justin

"I can't believe this is Beta 2.  It is very unstable, and some of the features don't work at all."

-> IE 8 beta 2 is unstable to a certain extent but definitely better than beta 1.

"For starters, what is going on with the iexplore.exe processes!?!?  When I open IE8, I have 2 by default.  If I open a second tab, I get a third process..."

-> I think it is mentioned that it is a feature of IE 8 beta 2. Didnt you read the blog??

"The favorites bar is WAY to big."

-> you can turn it off if you dont want it

" I had Google set as my default search provider in IE7, but that didn't carry over to IE8, so when I click on the search bar, if crashes IE.I have the default "Accelerators" installed, however, when I highlight text and click on the pretty blue arrow that pops up, I get no menu."

-> I didnt have any problem with these.

"Did anyone TRY to run the ACID 3 test on this thing?  This is the MOST incompatable browser right next to the HotJava brwser as far as web standards are concerned.  PLEASE, for the love of all that is good in the world, PLEASE stop re-inventing standards!!!  Why does each version of IE go farther and farther from internet standards, and force web developers all over the world to re-design their sites to be compatable with the new browser?  IE8 couldn't even complete the ACID 3 test.  The first time I ran it, it stopped at 12 of 100 tests.  The second time I think it reached 15.  WooHoo!  I can't use Dell's support site anymore.  Thanks."

-> IE 8 beta 2 gave 21/100 in acid 3 which is pretty bad. firefox 3 gave 70/100. Opera 9.52 gave 83/100. Safari 3.1 gave 83 /100. I guess IE is the worst of the lot here.

"InPrivate" browsing?  I can only imagine what that will be used for."

-> they have clearly mentioned its use in the blog. cant help it if you have something else in your mind.

# re: Part II: Better Everyday Browsing

Saturday, August 30, 2008 2:53 AM by abhinov.k.s

sorry, safari 3.1 gave 74 /100 in acid 3

# re: Part II: Better Everyday Browsing

Wednesday, September 03, 2008 8:47 AM by Justin

"For starters, what is going on with the iexplore.exe processes!?!?  When I open IE8, I have 2 by default.  If I open a second tab, I get a third process..."

"-> I think it is mentioned that it is a feature of IE 8 beta 2. Didnt you read the blog?? "

* A feature?  I certainly hope you're not serious.  No program should have to spawn that many processes!  I did read through most of the blog, and even used the nifty new find feature, but I must still be missing where this is mentioned.

"InPrivate" browsing?  I can only imagine what that will be used for."

"-> they have clearly mentioned its use in the blog. cant help it if you have something else in your mind."

* I'm thinking it will make it hard to investigate potential fraud or malicious activity in a corporate enviroment, that's what I'm thinking.

# re: Part II: Better Everyday Browsing

Saturday, September 06, 2008 12:23 AM by abhinov.k.s

@Justin

"For starters, what is going on with the iexplore.exe processes!?!?  When I open IE8, I have 2 by default.  If I open a second tab, I get a third process..."

"-> I think it is mentioned that it is a feature of IE 8 beta 2. Didnt you read the blog?? "

* A feature?  I certainly hope you're not serious.  No program should have to spawn that many processes!  I did read through most of the blog, and even used the nifty new find feature, but I must still be missing where this is mentioned.

-> http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/03/11/ie8-and-loosely-coupled-ie-lcie.aspx

It says here that tabs are isolated from the frame, and are located in separate processes

So each new tab will spawn a new process and in case of a crash only a particular tab will crash and not the window as a whole.

"InPrivate" browsing?  I can only imagine what that will be used for."

"-> they have clearly mentioned its use in the blog. cant help it if you have something else in your mind."

* I'm thinking it will make it hard to investigate potential fraud or malicious activity in a corporate environment, that's what I'm thinking.

-> I can't disagree with this though. Maybe they should design "InPrivate" mode in such a way that it requires elevated privileges to access it. Since mostly corporates do not give administrative privileges to users, it will probably not be misused.

(These comments appeared originally in the official IE 8 blog in the post titled better everyday browsing. Give here are just a few selected comments and not the entire blog.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2008/08/28/part-ii-better-everyday-browsing.aspx)