I’ve been very happy with the beta release of IE8, and am looking forward to using the final release, which was released today.  Granted, I’m not a convert from my beloved Firefox, but for @ work websites and SharePoint, I use Internet Explorer.

I’m sure it will hit the Automatic Updates soon, but if you want to go ahead and grab it now, head on over to Microsoft.com to pick it up.

Download: Internet Explorer 8

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Being the beta junkie that I am, I figured I’d spend some time getting to know Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2.  Installation was easy – took about 7 minutes, but I postponed my restart, mainly because I like to restart myself – not have an application initiate the restart.

My initial impression is a "hmmm… not sure"  There are some new features in IE8, and some new terminology to go along with it:

Accelerators - Claims to bring multiple points of information, such as maps, search, translation, blogging and mail, to a "single IE8 Window"  It’s supposed to make browsing "feel automatic"  Basically, when you highlight anything on the page, an icon appears, and once selected, you can choose to jump straight to an accelerator.

Web Slices – Sort of like RSS, but can be just a section of a website, instead of the entire feed.  When you see the Green Slice icon, you can subscribe to the Slice, and it adds the "Slice" to  your Links toolbar – much like Firefox’s live bookmarks (from an RSS feed)

Suggested Sites – After analyzing your browsing history, IE8 will suggest sites that it thinks you will like to visit.  (I’ll stick to StumbleUpon myself)

Compatibility View – Finally!  Microsoft has finally made their browser to be compliant to web standards!  This being said, there are countless web designers out there that have made their website to work with IE7-back, so there will be sites that seem broken when you visit them with IE8.  Note that these sites have bad design, and must be viewed in Compatibility View.  To the right of the address bar, click the broken page icon to toggle Compatibility View. 

I had to turn on Compatibility View mode for the SharePoint sites at work.  Guess they were designed for IE7 and back huh?  Can’t wait for standards to be true standards across the board!

InPrivate Browsing – Do what you will on the Internet, without storing any data about your browsing session (including cookies, temporary Internet files, history etc).  Handy if using a friends computer to check your email, or bank account, and you don’t want any trace left behind.  During your InPrivate session is InPrivate Blocking, which prevents websites from automatically sharing details about your visits with other websites (tracking, refers etc)  Note, that some websites content may not function correctly with InPrivate viewing enabled.

SmartScreen Filter – IE8 has better security than it’s predecessors.  SmartScreen Filter is just one of the features that attempts to keep your browsing safe – by checking the site against a known list of malicious websites.

Performance - All in all, it is a big improvement from IE7 – although I don’t think that this holds a candle to Firefox, it’s come a long way.  I feel a bit safer, and much more confident with IE than I have in the past – but performance is still by kicker.  I know that it’s still in Beta, but man is it SLOW!  It is a real resource hog!  Just opening another tab, takes about 7 seconds (vs Firefox on same PC is just 1 second).

Addons – There are, as with previous versions, addons for IE at www.ieaddons.com.  One new Extension (more like a program) is the Basic Browser – which is geared for lower end machines, and provides a simple "browser only" without all the bells and whistles (not even favorites) of IE.  But if you ONLY need to browse, this is the extension for you!  There are not a huge list of extensions, but I’m sure more will be made soon.

IE 8′s address bar also has new features.  Similar to Firefox 3′s address bar, it is a smart suggest as you type, pulling from your favorites, history, feeds, and autocomplete suggestions.

Vs. Firefox – Quite honestly, it looks like someone on the IE team downloaded Firefox 3, liked it, and said "Hey, we should do this to IE!"  OK, probably not, but all the features they are adding into IE8 have already been in Firefox for a long time. 

If you are an diehard IE fan, or a user that is just going to end up getting this through Windows Update, this is going to be a good browser for you!  As for me, I’m sticking to Firefox for now

More screenshots from installing to first run, and it’s features after the jump:

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This update isn’t scheduled to be live until April ’08, but you can install now!

Download: KB Article 945007

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