In preparation for MIX08 (or so it seems), Microsoft has taken the wraps off of the public download page for the first beta of Internet Explorer 8. Unfortunately, the download links them selves are not yet live. Owel, the new features page will have to do for now… I guess.

So, what new features can we expect? Well, there’s Activities, Web slices, Favorites Bar, Automatic Crash Recovery and an Improved phishing filter, to name a few. But what does it all mean, Basil? I’ll start with Web Slices, as this feature seems to be ringing some bells. With Web Slices, the user can crop out a preferred section of a web page and add that small section of the site to a link within the new Favorite Bar. Click on the link, and that section of the page will open in a small pop-up window right in the toolbar. Yep, sounds familiar alright… Ah, yes; Safari Web Clip! Owel, it’s a convenient feature and I’m glad to see it implemented in IE8.

Moving on now, to Activities. With this nifty little feature, one can now perform a variety of online tasks while navigating a web page via a right-click contextual menu, such as sending an address within the page to Windows Live Maps, submitting a story to Digg, sharing a page on Facebook and even sending a story to Windows Live Spaces for your blogging needs (here’s to hopping for a WordPress or a Windows Live Writer plugin!)

On to a more serious note, ever since IE7 made it’s debut in November of ‘06, the focus was on security. IE7 leaped ahead of IE6 in this department and most of this is thanks to the new Phishing Filter, which I can say was long overdue for IE. Well, IE8 is no exception to this rule and it seems the security just keeps on getting better. IE8’s Phishing Filter now blocks sites known to contain malicious software that could harm users’ computer or steal their information. Also pointed out by Long Zheng, is a less significant, yet equally welcomed feature, where the main domain of the site is highlighted in the address bar, allowing the user to easily see whether they are on a legitimate web site, or if their login credentials are about to be swiped by a 14yo from a country who’s name they can’t even pronounce.

And last but not least, Automatic Crash Recovery, or ACR. This feature is pretty self explanitory, in the unlikely event that one or more of your tabs should crash (or the entire browser, if it’s not your lucky day), ACR attempts to recover the tab(s) and I would presume any unsaved form data within them (I’ll have to look into this).

Wait, hold on a second, there’s one more. The Links Bar. Well, according to the features page, it’s been slightly redesigned and renamed to “The Favorites Bar”, allowing users to better understand it’s use. Yay?

Of course, all is better seen with your own eyes:
- Internet Explorer 8 Beta Home Page
- Internet Explorer 8 Download Page
- New Features in Internet Explorer 8
- Release Notes (Not yet live)

Digg It!