Windows 7 Internet Explorer 8

In a concerted effort to match and beat the features of other browsers (notably Firefox), Internet Explorer 8 has added some unique, convenient new ways to access web resources with Accelerators and Web Slices. It has a color-coded tab system, an improved address bar, and enhanced privacy protections, in addition to some new security and web helper features.

Accelerators

Accelerators are basically in-page web services-a way to get relevant information without having to leave your current page. Highlight some text and a blue arrow icon pops up nearby. Click this and you'll see a list of actions, such as search, map, or blog. Choose an action, such as map, and the map pops up when you highlight its entry in the list of actions.

Web Slices

Web Slices enable you to see frequently updated web data, such as eBay listings or sections of a news site. When your mouse moves over a content area on a page that supports this IE8 feature, a green box appears around content that has been programmed to allow Web Slices. Clicking the nearby green button enables you to create a Web Slice for the content, using the toolbar to drop down updated information about the item at any time.

The slice also appears in your Feed sidebar, which you can access from the star at the top left of the browser.

Colored Tabs

When you have several tabs open and launch a new one from within one of the open tabs, the color of the just-created tab will match that of its parent. All like-colored tabs are grouped together, so your new tab may not appear all the way to the right the way you're used to. After you've gotten used to the change, it's a helpful visual cue not found in competing products. When you close the tab of the page you're viewing, the new focus will be a related tab, not just the one to the right or left.

When you create a tab, you can initiate a variety of useful actions that include reopening closed tabs, starting InPrivate browsing (which doesn't save the session to your History), or choosing an Accelerator. And IE8 is still the only major browser that lets you choose to close just the current tab rather than all of them when you hit the X close icon.

A new find-on-page capability lets you jump to each subsequent occurrence of your search text. This feature also lets you choose whether to match case or only whole words entered.

InPrivate Browsing

InPrivate Browsing hides activity from your browser history when enabled. You can turn on InPrivate Browsing when you open a blank tab or from the Safety menu, and a bar next to the address bar clearly shows you've enabled this browsing mode.

InPrivate Filtering

InPrivate Filtering prevents third-party websites, which may supply content to the page you're visiting, from gathering information from your browsing session. You can even choose the sites you'll allow to access such data. You can enable or disable InPrivate Filtering without turning on InPrivate Browsing, via an icon at the bottom of the program's window. When you clear private data, you can erase most of it while still keeping your login and settings information for sites in your Favorites.

The SmartScreen filter blocks both phishing and malware-distributing sites. When you land on either, you see a red page with a warning, rather than being taken to the site. If you're unsure about a site, you can check it from the Safety menu, where you can also report destinations that you've determined contain malware.

With cross-site scripting (XSS), you might get an email, for example, with a link to a legitimate site, such as that of a store. However, characters appended to the URL run a script that could send your keystrokes to the malware writer or other destinations. When such an attack is detected, IE8 automatically refuses to execute the related script code and alerts you that an attack has been blocked.

Note Clickjacking is a form of tricking an Internet user into revealing confidential information or taking control of the computer.This happens when you click what appears to be a normal button but is actually an overlay in a frame covering the button.You might bump into this in one of your online accounts, such as an online store. IE8 lets website owners prevent third-party sites from placing such frames,while still giving you an option to view the site in a separate window.