Microsoft unveiled their new Internet Explorer today, in beta form and it’s a definite leap above their prior 3 iterations of their browser easily. With HTML5 support, built-in integration with Windows 7 and 32-bit and 64-bit versions for Microsoft Vista and Windows 7 as well as support for hardware acceleration and a real clean interface, Internet Explorer 9 is nothing like the versions before it – it actually works well and lacks that sluggishness in the UI.

The improvements to Internet Explorer are as much about what you don’t see as what you do see. Internet Explorer 9 has a streamlined design, fewer dialog boxes to click through, more intuitive navigation, and many new features that speed up your web browsing experience. Features like Pinned Sites let you pin your favorite website directly to the taskbar for one-click access. Other features, like hardware acceleration, deliver an all-around faster browsing experience. With Internet Explorer 9, websites perform and feel more like the programs you use every day on your PC.

The bad part? If you’re still running Microsoft Windows XP, don’t even attempt it. And to be honest, the integration in Windows 7 is a tad bit more in-depth and seamless than with Windows Vista – but the experience is close enough between the two operating systems that I think it’s merely reflective on my like of Windows 7 and my intense dislike for Vista.

Seriously though? I’m impressed. It’s fast – I mean like Opera 10.6 fast – and the UI is not in the way at all. Combined with Adobe’s release today of their 64-bit Native Flash 10.1 Player nicknamed “Square” (download here), it seems like Internet Explorer might become an option once again for developers and people who have long abandoned Internet Explorer since the very early Mozilla/Opera days… like me.

Bravo Microsoft. You’ve all but shut up my typical hatred for all things Internet Explorer. Besides speed and support for new technologies though, let’s hope you’ve worked on the security of this browser just as well. That’s the other reason I disliked Internet Explorer.

[ Links: Beauty of the Web, Download IE9 Beta ]

Some people can travel by landmarks alone. Some people can be given a list of streets and be just fine. I’m a landmarks type of traveler… as long as you’ve included the street names too.

Microsoft is playing around with some tech that will make Google Maps look like an old world map that Lewis and Clark might have used.

While onboard navigation systems are gaining in importance, maps are still the medium of choice for laying out a route to a destination and for way finding. However, even with a map, one is almost always more comfortable navigating a route the second time due to the visual memory of the route. To make the first time navigating a route feel more familiar, we present a system that integrates a map with a video automatically constructed from panoramic imagery captured at close intervals along the route. The routing information is used to create a variable speed video depicting the route. During playback of the video, the frame and field of view are dynamically modulated to highlight salient features along the route and connect them back to the map. A user interface is demonstrated to allow exploration of the combined map, video, and textual driving directions.

Since this is part of the Microsoft Research endeavors, no clue when this is coming out in even a beta release. But I hope it’s soon.

[ Microsoft ] [ Microsoft Research ]