David Pogue reviews the new Internet Explorer — available to you now.
But hope is in the air. Earlier this week, Microsoft took the wraps off IE 7. The new version is a public beta — Beta 2 — and therefore technically unfinished. Still, Microsoft feels that this release is ready for average people to try out; you can download it from www.microsoft.com/ie. Phone help is available, and you can easily restore Version 6 if necessary.
How this new browser measures up depends on the ruler you’re using. If you’ve never used anything but Internet Explorer, you won’t be able to wipe the grin off your face.
But next to rivals like Firefox, Opera and Safari, IE 7 is a catch-up and patch-up job. Some of its “new” features have been available in rival browsers for years.
For example, IE may be the last Web browser on earth to offer tabbed browsing. This useful feature lets you keep several Web sites open on the screen simultaneously — not in a hopeless mess of overlapping windows, but all in one window. File-folder index tabs at the top of the window keep them straight.
NewMexiKen doesn’t know why you wouldn’t just choose Firefox or Opera or Safari, but at least IE is catching up. It’s more secure than IE 6, too.
(Of course, tabbed browsing is so 2004 for most websites. RSS is the newer new best thing.)