Just got a mail today from Microsoft, announcing the release of IE8 beta 2, because I’m registered betatester.

I’ve really looked forward to this beta, since IE is my favorite browser, and IE8 B2, should have some pretty cool features.

So.. How is it? AWESOME! I’ve noticed that the Javascript engine is working 100% now (in beta 1, it was slow, and sometimes it didn’t work, e.g. in iGoogle’s drag&drop).

Other things like colored tab groups, a visual search bar, an adressbar like FireFox’s awesome-bar, caret browsing and more has been added to this release.

I’ve took some screenshots, and will try to explain the new main features (click for full-size):

This is how the main interface looks, when you open IE8B2. Not slightly different from IE7, but you may notice some design changes. The tabs looks more plain and slick, not that fancy web 2.0 3d-glossy look, just simple and flat. Nice!

Notice: In a standard installation, there is a “Favorites” panel over the tabs, I don’t really like it, so I’ve minimized it, so it just shows a “Favorites” button on the left of the address bar.

I will point out other new things in the following images.

Let’s take a look at the upper left of IE8. You can see that in http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en, google.com is highlighted. This is because you can easier see the domain name. This will also help you to easier recognize fishing sites (if the phishing filter doesn’t catch it).

You can also see that the tabs are more streamlined, and now when I write about the tabs, I have to write, that tabs of the same site, are divided into colorgroups:

 

Now to the address bar.

This is how the address bar look. You may notice, that it looks a bit like the FireFox’s awesome-bar, however, I do like the IE bar, because it’s smaller, and doesn’t fill up the whole screen. The shortcuts on the right are also pretty nice.

The upper right corner doesn’t look much different than IE7. But you can see, that Microsoft added a button to the left of the refresh button. So.. What is that strange little button with a ”broken” paper?

Well.. It’s the Emulate IE7 button that was introduced in IE8 Beta 2, they have just fit it into the design, and called it “compatibility view”. It’s made because some (older) websites may be parsed incorrectly and showed because of the new IE8 rendering engine. This button is parsing the current website using IE7s engine, so it will be parsed correctly. You can even add a whole website to a list, so everytime you visit it, it will parse as IE7.

Caret browsing is a new feature in IE8. It allows you to easily browse the webpage and select text easily with the keyboard.

Image from IE blog.

Another new thing in IE8 is the new, more featurerich search bar. When you search,  it will automaticly search in your history, and the overall searchbox is more streamlined. Visual Search is also introduced in IE8 beta 2, and allows you to see images from your search query. 

When you open a new tab, you can see this page. This allows you to reopen closed tabs, use an accelerator, or start InPrivate browsing.

 

The beta is open to public, and you can download it at: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/