• August 20, 2005 •
Review: Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1
Last February, despite having previously announced that no new version of Internet Explorer would be released prior to the release of Microsoft's next Windows Operating System (then codenamed "Longhorn"), Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates announced that Microsoft would after all release a new version of Internet Explorer before "Longhorn".
Internet Explorers development had been stagnant for years. At the end of the 1990's Internet Explorer had won the battle with Netscape for control of the browser market, and Microsoft had no real reasons to improve their browser.
Finally, when Service Pack 2 for Windows XP came around, Microsoft made some much needed improvements to their browser. It was high time too: Because of Microsoft's strategy to integrate Internet Explorer deeply into the operating system, and Internet Explorer's weak security, the browser had become the most obvious attack vector for malware & spyware.
Microsoft also noted the success of Mozilla's Firefox browser which was slowly eroding Internet Explorer's market share. Firefox success is mainly attributed to it being a somewhat more secure browser, and offering some modern features such as tabbed browsing and a pop-up blocker.
With Windows XP SP2, Internet Explorer finally got a pop-up ad blocker, and a rudimentary system to manage browser plug-ins.
As mentioned above, last February Internet Explorer 7 was announced. This browser will be available for Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and Windows XP x64. There also will be a version available in Windows Vista (the next Windows operating system formerly code-named "Longhorn"), which will have a slightly different feature set than the version for the other mentioned operating systems.
Looking at Internet Explorer 7 Beta 1
Microsoft made some changes to the user interface for IE7 Beta 1, but in this first beta, these are not complete, and most UI changes will only be available in Beta 2. Looking at the new UI one notes that the Back & Forward navigation buttons have been separated from any other buttons and next to the Address Bar there is now a new Search Bar (Figure). While the Search Bar defaults to using MSN Search you can choose from several search engines for the default search: AOL search, Ask Jeeves, Google, MSN Search and Yahoo! Search (Figure). According to Microsoft users will be able to add their own favorite search engine in a future release.
Tabbed Browsing
Internet Explorer finally has support for tabbed browsing (Figure). Tabbed browsing is a feature that most users love, and probably the single greatest reason why so many users defected to using other browsers (notably Mozilla's Firefox). Microsoft's implementation of tabs looks to be well thought out. Next to the rightmost tab, there's a button that functions to open a new blank tab when clicked, and tabs can be opened and closed using the keyboard commands CTRL+T and CTRL+W respectively. For users who don't like tabbed browsing, it can be switched off from Internet Explorer's Advanced Options (Figure).
RSS support
Real Simple Syndication (RSS) is an XML data format that is used to publish Web content to which people can subscribe. Many Web sites (such as The New York Times, CNN and News.com) now have RSS feeds, that lets people subscribe to their content. Most people these days use what is called a news aggregator to subscribe to RSS feeds. These aggregators come in three basic types: standalone news aggregator clients, email plug-ins, and Web browser plug-ins.
Microsoft decided to extend Internet Explorer's functionality, and make it a RSS compatible reader. IE 7 features a "feed discovery" button on the toolbar that lights up red (although this is easy to miss) when you navigate to a Web site that includes an RSS-based subscription (Figure). There is an option under Internet Options > Content > Feeds discovery which also lets you assign a sound effect to the discovery of feeds. You can click the button to see the RSS feed rendered right in Internet Explorer (Figure). At the top of the feed, you'll also see an Add to Favorites button, which adds the feed to Internet Explorer's favorites list.
In Beta 1, there is no way to be alerted when RSS-based Feeds you have subscribed to are updated, but in future builds Microsoft will add the Common RSS Data Store, Feed List, and Sync Engine to complete the RSS experience.
Printing
Internet Explorer 7's printing feature is also being overhauled. It finally includes an option to "Shrink to fit" (Figure), so that a Web page fits completely onto a printed page, a feature common in most browsers today. To get to the new options, you have to go into Print Preview, which can be accessed from the File menu, or you can enable a new toolbar icon to access it directly from IE's toolbar.
Other printing options included let you switch between portrait and landscape mode, and an option to remove the header and footer text, all with a single toolbar button.
Phishing Filter
Another new feature in Internet Explorer 7 is a Phishing Filter. Phishing is usually defined as the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be a legitimate business (for example a bank or Internet Service Provider) in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as credit card-, social security-, and bank account-numbers. These Web sites are bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.
According to Microsoft, the average "life span" of a Phishing Web site is around 5 days (meaning that it takes authorities usually around 5 days to discover and disconnect these sites). In 5 days, a lot of users can fall victim to these sites, and managed security vendor MessageLabs logged over nine million Phishing attacks in May, over three times the number in April.
So Microsoft enlisted the help of WholeSecurity, a maker of computer security programs in Austin, Texas, to help Internet Explorer 7 identify websites designed to trick people into disclosing personal data to identity thieves.
If you visit a Web site that meets certain criteria, the Phishing Filter will trigger a yellow warning to warn you that the site looks suspicious and might be a Phishing site (Figure). If you visit a Web site that is known to be malicious (to be labeled as such, Web sites are verified by a human to be a Phishing site), you get a red warning and are blocked from visiting the site. You are given the option to visit that site anyway, or report the site when you suspect it is not a Phishing site (Figure).
I think adding the Phishing Filter is a very good move on Microsoft's part, given the fact that identity theft starts to overtake viruses & worms as the #1 thread to Internet users, and a lot of novice computer users fall victim to these Phishing sites on a daily basis.
Delete Browsing History
Another nice little addition is the Delete Browsing History menu item on the Tools menu of Internet Explorer (Figure). This lets you delete your entire Web browsing history (cookies, history, web form data and passwords, and temporary files) with just a single click.
Conclusions
Microsoft is finally moving forward again with Internet Explorer; it was needed! From a security standpoint, the addition of the Phishing Filter to the browser should be a huge step in making the Web a safer place for many people. The emergence of tabbed browsing on IE will also be greeted by many, while the improvements made to IE's printing engine will alleviate another problem faced by many IE users today.
Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 7 shows promise. We'll have to wait for Beta 2 to see the finished UI changes, and the completion of some of the new features.