So I was doing my regular rounds around the sites I most visit and whilst visiting The Register I notice its report that Microsoft had released Beta 2 of the new version of Internet Explorer, best yet, it was public. So I headed on over, downloaded, and installed this new beta version and, if I’m being honest, was pleasently suprised by IE7.

Ok, first off, yes it does have ideas and features that have been used in Firefox and Opera for donkeys years and yes you could argue to the cows come home which browser nicked which idea from which browser and who thought of it first. Please if anyone does comment on this post don’t just say “OMFG M$ have sooo stolen that idea from Firefox” or whatever. In this world it happens, Opera has tabbed browsing, did FF steal that from them? To be honest, who cares?! The main key for me is, does it work and if it does how well and more importently is it secure? I don’t care whether they’ve stolen ideas from somewhere as that will always happen and it’s not just Microsoft that do it so deal with it.

As I said though I was pleasently suprised as it had the features I liked in Firefox (tabbed browsing and an integrated search bar) but it also added a couple things of its own. The main on for me is known as “mini tabs.” As you can see in the screen shot below

which is from the IE Blog what you get is little screen shots of the page you were visiting which makes finding the page you were just looking at a helluva lot easier. The other feature I like is its “favourites center” which is also where you can view your RSS feeds .

This is a nice feature as it kind of floats there (you can also fix it there) and is just a little nicer than a drop down menu. What has also been added to IE7 is a “phishing” which tries to let you know if the site you are looking at is, in fact, the real deal. This I think is a great addition and the fact that is built in just shows, I think, how much MS are taking security now. Yes I know IE is known to be a risk security wise but then again it is the most used and security by obscurity is no security at all. IE7 also has the pop-up blocker which first appeared in IE6 and it has also gone a little re-design too. Tool bars are different graphics changed which is really the norm on new software.

I really do think Microsoft are making a big effort to make IE7 secure and give its customers confidence in the browser. Wether you use IE or not for the average home user its the only browser they know and in places of work IE is the defacto browser used. The fact that MS have woken up to the criticsms of its current browser and are now trying to change them in IE7 can only be a good thing.

I’m in no doubt however that it may still suffer security problems and the anti-MS people of this world will continue to bash it. What I say is give it a whirl (though if you don’t like trying beta stuff try it when its on full release) and see how you go. Don’t be obtuse and make up your mind from your own experiences. I mean I only switched to FF because I like customising things and you can’t do much of that in IE.

So if you’d like to, read more on the IE Blog (got the screenshots from there too) and if you’re feeling dangerous, download IE7 Beta 2!