Reminder: Internet Explorer 9 goes live at midnight
updated 09:40 pm EDT, Mon March 14, 2011
Internet Explorer 9 ready at midnight
As promised earlier, Microsoft at midnight Eastern (9PM Pacific) should post the finished version of Internet Explorer 9 on its download page. The Windows browser brings a much improved engine with genuine web accuracy, faster JavaScript, hardware acceleration, and support for most current forms of HTML5. A new, minimalist interface, support for pinning sites to the Windows 7 taskbar, and detailed control of what sites are allowed to track cookies and other private info are also included.
The browser is expected to reach Windows Phone late this year through the mobile OS' Mango update, which also brings multitasking.
Microsoft considers the browser important for the sake of moving the web forward and has taken the unusual step of encouraging users to stop running IE6. Older versions of the app, 6 most of all, have at times been notorious for relying on proprietary web rendering code that pushed developers to either write special code or to risk losing the majority of web browsers. IE9, along with much lower market share than in the past, has moved Microsoft to follow rivals like Apple, Google and Mozilla into focusing on web standards.
