The Russian website of Microsoft, world’s largest software maker, today revealed details about the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) user interface. The site highlighted new features such as quick-release tabs and a Chrome-like address-cum-search bar. Notably, Microsoft has issued several developer previews of IE9 since March, but the previews did not show any user interface (UI). The previews have presented the rendering and JavaScript engines. If the information posted on the website are true then IE9's user interface will look a lot like Google's Chrome. Microsoft has not revealed anything about IE9 until now.
The page is now not available on the website but it is available in Bing.com's cache. The interface of the IE9 sported a Firefox-esque design to the Back/Forward buttons. The buttons are dispensed with traditional menus. Taking a leaf out of Chrome’s playbook, Microsoft has placed tabs atop the browser window and combined the address and search bars.
"Your browser is not overloaded with navigation elements, and compared with other browsers leaves more space for the site," a machine translation of the promotional copy read. "Now the user sees only what is necessary for navigation."
It is to be noted that Internet Explorer rival Mozilla has already in that direction, following the lead of Google and its cleaner-composed Chrome. Firefox 4, Mozilla's next major upgrade, will feature tabs on top. The new upgrade will also eliminate the traditional Windows menus above the browser's content area. "Anchored sites are seamlessly integrated into [the] navigation system [of] Windows 7. Thus, the work of such sites [is] as simple and familiar as with other Windows applications," said Microsoft’s marketing material.
