With the Beta 2 preview release of Internet Explorer, we now see a much more polished and true beta version, and so far we are impressed with what we've seen. Microsoft isn't breaking any new ground with Internet Explorer 7—as most of the features in the product were first introduced in Firefox, Mozilla and Opera—but the features in this beta release are well-implemented and will be welcomed by IE users.
As previously reported, IE 7 is still slated to be available only for Windows Vista and Windows XP with Service Pack 2. However, this current beta runs only on Windows XP with SP2. The IE 7 beta can be downloaded from here.
The main interface of IE 7 has seen some significant changes, with a more streamlined toolbar-oriented approach. We found this to be an intuitive and clean browser interface, but those who want to work with the familiar menus can choose the Classic Menu option in the Tools menu.
Tabbed browsing has been tweaked and now works in much the same way as with other browsers. For example, with Beta 2 of IE 7 we could save groups of tabs and control how tabs are opened and navigated to. From a toolbar item that looks something like a virtual screen tool, we could click a drop-down to manage our tabs.
RSS feed discovery has also been boosted in this release, with the most obvious change being that IE 7 now uses the same feed icon that other browsers and Web sites do. The page shown when viewing a feed now provides greater information and a Subscription button, and IE 7 also now supports Atom-based feeds.
One new feature in this beta (although one that has always been in Opera) is a zoom capability, making it possible to quickly zoom into a page. This will be useful for people with visual disabilities or those who just want a larger view of specific Web content. This feature was easily accessible from the bottom status bar.
The privacy and security features that Microsoft has been touting for IE 7 have also seen some changes in this beta release. The Delete Browsing History button provided granular options for removing the traces of a browsing session. We could delete just passwords, just cookies or just temporary Internet files, or any combination thereof. Of course, most users will simply click the Delete All button.
IE's anti-phishing capabilities have been more effectively exposed in this release, with a menu option to easily turn off automatic site checking. As in the previous beta, the anti-phishing feature works by checking a central list of suspect Web sites and by looking for phishing characteristics in the site being viewed. In Beta 2, IE 7 also adds support for International Domain Names. This standard, which Opera also uses, makes it possible to identify Web sites with spoofed addresses.
Archived topic from Iceteks, old topic ID:4143, old post ID:33840
