Last updated on July 23, 2020
Kudos, Microsoft, on Internet Explorer, going from the laggard of the browser wars to being neck-and-neck with Chrome (which I switched to form Firefox only a few months ago as a default browser) in everyday usage. I actually do have a few sites I rely on that require IE, so IE9 has won me back. Privacy advocates have hailed the Do not track option, and I also have already pinned a few sites to the taskbar. In fact, I thought iIE9 might become my only browser, but that didn’t last long since IE9 didn’t work with a date selector on Rail Europe’s Web site.
IE9 still has a few annoyances and a few areas where I just prefer Chrome’s approach. While I the new less modal notifications at the bottom are an improvement, I’m somewhat dismayed to see that it still prompts by default to display fully the many pages that mix secure and unsecure content, so that required a trip to the still-overwhelming Internet Options dialog. Why not just have an option to not warn about this again?
While I’m not a huge fan of Chrome’s tabs-on-top, I’m still not sold on having tabs on the same line as the address bar and don’t see a way to put them on separate lines. I also prefer how Chrome shows downloads at the bottom of the window. with a visible link to download history. And, of course, Chrome’s networked bookmarks work across platforms where IE doesn’t play at all. Finally, I’d also like to see other browsers take on Safari’s ability to collect tabs on many windows onto one, but a least IE shows all open tabs in Aero Peek regardless of their window, the way it should be..