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Microsoft leaks new-look Internet Explorer 9

By Barry Collins

Posted on 26 Aug 2010 at 07:44

The first screenshot of Internet Explorer 9 has been leaked - by Microsoft itself.

The revamped interface appeared on Microsoft Russia's press site, before being hastily pulled down by the company.

The single screenshot shows a Spartan new design for the Microsoft browser, that is more than a little reminiscent of Google Chrome.

As with Chrome, the search and address bars have been merged. Unlike Google's browser, however, IE9's tabs appear immediately to the right of the address bar, which on first impression, doesn't leave a lot of room when several tabs are opened simultaneously.

All of the menu options have been amalgamated under a single button, which again follows in the wake of Chrome and the Firefox 4 beta.

Microsoft is also borrowing tricks from Windows 7. A "tear-off tabs" feature will allow users to snap two different browser tabs to either side of the screen, allowing them to compare web pages side-by-side.

The screenshot suggests that the Web Slices feature introduced with Internet Explorer 8 - which allowed users to place little web widgets beneath the address bar - has been hastily dropped.

Microsoft is due to unveil the first beta of Internet Explorer 9 at an event in San Francisco in the middle of next month. It appears the Moscow office didn't get the memo.

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User comments

reminiscent of google????

I think it looks nothing like chrome, we need to wait until we see the beta to really realize how same or not same they are. but mozilla for now looks pretty good and you can change that one button to the normal menu look if you want and you can change where the tabs appear, also good. but the integration of tabs into the W7 features is very impressive by microsoft. lets hope Russian website don't get the memo when to release the beta so that they release before anybody else, D

By mobilegnet on 26 Aug 2010

Same here

I don't think it looks like Chrome either.

If the tabs stay where they are shown, that's a lot of space to lose to tabs. I look forward to the single button of Firefox as I currently use an plugin to do the same.

But more annoying is why do MS split the buttons across the screen? I don't want to be hopping left and right to get to my buttons, put them all in one place!

By mviracca on 26 Aug 2010

If that's the location of the tab bar, they're having a laugh. Hopefully it is customisable enough to be dragged down into its own row - netbooks aside, most people's screens are hardly going to be filled as a result.

By halsteadk on 26 Aug 2010

The days of Longhorn....

That IE9 screenshot reminds me of the way Internet Explorer looked in the early Longhorn builds of Windows Vista, mainly the 407x builds.

By formula_86 on 26 Aug 2010

Give me buttons!

Another stupid counter-productive 'clean' ui. Just what the world needs. How I love this fad for making users have to click through endless menus to do the simplest and most routine of operations, just so we can all look like OCD-suffering Mac-fans...

By verdot on 26 Aug 2010

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