Microsoft Ireland Announces Availability of Internet Explorer 8
Microsoft Ireland Announces Availability of Internet Explorer 8
• Faster, Easier and more Secure from the moment you start to browse
• Blocks two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers
• Independent.ie says, ‘tools are fantastic’ and ‘users will be the real winners’
• RTE Develops five Web Slices giving browsers up-to-the-minute information
Dublin; March 19, 2009: Microsoft has announced the availability of Windows Internet Explorer 8, the new web browser that offers the best solution for how people use the web today. It can be downloaded in 25 languages at www.microsoft.com/ie8 starting from 5:00pm (GMT) today. Internet Explorer 8 is easier to use, faster and offers leading-edge security features, in direct response to people’s increasing concerns about online safety. A new study shows: 91% of U.S. adults are concerned about online threats in the current economic climate and 78% are more likely to choose a web browser with built-in security.
Ronald Dockery, Client Manager, Microsoft Ireland said that, “Internet Explorer 8 does more to help people be confident that they are safe on the web by making choices clearer and easier to understand. With Internet Explorer 8, people get the controls they want from the start. While some other browsers offer ways to address these safety and privacy issues, with Internet Explorer 8, you’re safe and in control from the moment you open your browser without any confusing downloads and add-ons.”
In response to extensive customer research and input from tens of millions of customer sessions, Microsoft developed Internet Explorer 8 to focus on what matters most to people. The security enhancements offer protection against existing and emerging security threats online, including blocking two to four times more malware attacks than other browsers, and cutting down on the time it takes to complete common tasks on the web like searching, mapping and sharing, including 15 of the 20 Top Worldwide sites, and blurs the lines between the services they use daily and the browser used to access the internet.
Helps Protect People from Online Threats
A new Harris Poll released today reinforces the importance of safety in browsing, indicating that 78% of people are more likely to choose a browser that includes built-in protection against security threats than they were two years ago. It also showed that 91% of adults in the U.S. are concerned about online fraud and identity theft in today’s economic climate and 37% are less likely to shop online because of concerns over online threats. Windows Internet Explorer 8 offers the best security protections among leading browsers: a study released today by NSS Labs indicates that Internet Explorer 8 blocks two to four times as many malicious sites as other browsers in market today. Moreover, Internet Explorer 8 is the only browser with built-in protections to block unwanted attacks and threats—other browsers require that customers download additional add-ons or perform customisations.
Makes Common Online Tasks Faster and Easier
In addition to improved security and privacy protections, Internet Explorer 8 is one of the fastest browsers on the market today, beating other top browsers in page load time on almost 50% of the 25 top comScore websites. It also helps people save time while using the web with easy to use new features, including:
• Accelerators. Accelerators make it faster and easier to perform common tasks online by making web-based services like Facebook, Independent.ie and Live.com, available for use directly from the page people are viewing—simply right click a word or phrase, and instantly map, email, or share.
• Web Slices. Web Slices in Internet Explorer 8 makes favorite information from sites like RTE, Independent.ie, Aerlingus, MyHome.ie, and eBay instantly available wherever someone goes on the web.
• Visual Search Suggestions. The Instant Search Box in Internet Explorer 8 enables rich, real-time search from sites like the Independent.ie, Amazon, and Wikipedia, as well from people’s own Favorites and History, complete with visuals and detailed information that saves time.
“Accelerators create shortcuts to the activities and services people do online – mapping, blogging, sharing photos – making the services developers create a click away,” comments Dockery. “Web Slices ensure browsers and your customers get up-to-the-minute information, whether they are wanting to track bids on an eBay product they are hoping to acquire, tracking a house price on MyHome.ie, getting the latest flight information from Aerlingus.com or wanting to stay informed with the latest sports and business news on RTE and headlines on Independent.ie, Web Slices deliver information important to your customers, quickly and easily.”
Patrick Lenehan, CTO, Independent.ie commented, “Our business is run in the browser and we are delighted to be involved as a partner with Microsoft in launching IE8. All users of IE8 will be able to use Irish Independent Web Slices and Accelerators as they browse and read any website. We believe these are great tools that make for a fantastic user experience. For Independent.ie it means that the full depth of our content is one simple click away regardless of what website the user is reading.”
Irish Independent is also an IE8 Search provider. “Search is consistently one of the most popular places on Independent.ie and now a user can add Irish Independent Search as one of their search options in IE8. It’s another example of IE8 making it easy for the user to get things done their way. The implementation of the new IE8 features was simple. I think all website publishers should consider adding these features as users will be the real winners.”
RTE have developed five web slices onto the front page of www.rte.ie; Lotto result, News, Business, Sports and Entertainment that allow their browsers to keep in touch and informed on issues important to them. This is particularly useful when those sections of the site that get updated frequently.
“Web Slices are a nice feature in Internet Explorer 8 that allows people to stay connected with their favourite websites in a new and innovative way. It’s like an RSS but for humans – simple and informative but without compromising on the design. We already ‘sliced’ some sections of RTÉ.ie homepage and will definitely add more in the future. It is as easy as adding 2 lines of HTML code. For a really good look and feel it may require a little bit more work but still it is very straightforward,” commented Michael Lisovskiy design and production manager for RTÉ.ie.
Available Today for Download
Internet Explorer 8 will be available for download at noon ET in 25 languages including Arabic, Chinese (Traditional, Simplified and Hong Kong), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Swedish. To download or for more information, visit www.microsoft.com/ie8.
Ends
Press queries to:
Caroline Kohn (Slattery Communications) Tel: 01 634 2546 or 086 8049600
About Microsoft Ireland:
Founded in 1975, Microsoft is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realise their full potential. Microsoft was first established in Ireland in 1985, and now has three local divisions: the European Operations Centre (EOC); the European Development Centre (EDC) and the Irish Sales, Marketing and Services Operation, which was established in 1991. Microsoft employs over 1,200 full-time employees in Ireland. For more information on Microsoft’s products and solutions, please visit www.microsoft.com/ireland.
Other Information:
On Thursday, 12 March 2009, the Internet Explorer 8 team released a video showcasing head-to-head raw lab performance for Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 and Google Chrome 1.0 on the top 25 worldwide websites. The video features performance tests of the top 25 sites and highlights which browser loads the page the fastest. The overall test results find that Internet Explorer 8 browser load time beats Firefox and Chrome on 12 out of the top 25 sites worldwide. In support of the video and test, the team will also release a whitepaper which discusses how the Internet Explorer 8 team measured speed performance and provides an in depth analysis of the results.
Link to the video for Windows Internet Explorer 8: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/beta/videos.aspx?vindex=14
The “Measuring Browser Performance” whitepaper that explains the methodology for testing the browsers in the video:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=cd8932f3-b4be-4e0e-a73b-4a373d85146d#filelist
