More than a year after releasing the first public beta of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft plans to give the browser a good and proper launching today at noon EDT. You'll be able to download the browser from the IE8 page at that time. Right now clicking the download link will get you Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1.
Here are a few of the new features that Internet Explorer 8 offers:
- Accelerators that make web-based services available through a right-click context menu. For instance, you can click on a word or phrase and map it or email it.
- Web slices provide information from web sites like Wikipedia or Digg available in little pop up windows that you can check out without navigating away from the page you're on.
- Improved search box features including visual previews and "quick pick" search engine selection.
You can find some of our favorite tips and tricks for making Internet Explorer 8 even more useful in our Pimp Internet Explorer series.
