One blogger who has really broken down the advantages of HTML5 is Mark Pilgrim (no relation to Scott).Mark’s written an online book on the possibilities of HTML5 and how this will play a huge part in the future of how we experience the web each day at his site:

Mark carefully picks out the core features of HTML5 for us:

1. It’s not one big thing – HTML5 will make lots of different aspects to our experience of the web more beautiful. This includes video, geolocation and the look and feel of every webpage updated to the new standard.

2. You don’t need to throw anything away – HTML5 will improve the web experience for those who’ve got Internet Explorer 9, but past web content will also work fine with new browsers like IE9

3. It’s easy to get started – HTML5 makes designing more beautiful webpages even simpler

4. It already works – you can try out HTML5 with our test drive of IE9 at http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive

5. It’s here to stay – HTML5 is a big part of the future of the web, according to W3C, founded by Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the web)

HTML5 and Internet Explorer 9 are the perfect partnership and we’re looking forward to seeing how developers use the multiple applications of HTML5 to make for a more beautiful web. To join the countdown please go to http://www.thebeautifulweb.co.uk

One of our favourite blogs is by Scott Orgera – a venerable browser expert who regularly reports the latest news on Internet Explorer and our rivals Firefox, Opera and Chrome. His blog is full of tips on everything you can do with a modern web browser from the latest news, tips and tricks and cataloguing the history of web browsers. You can take a look at http://browsers.about.com

He even includes a timeline charting the launch of the different versions of IE. We noticed that there are two more recent omissions… so just for Scott, here’s the complete timeline of Internet Explorer:

August 1995: Internet Explorer v1.0 – Came with Microsoft Plus! For Windows 95 (remember that?)

November 1995: Internet Explorer v2.0 – Supported 12 different languages

August 1996: Internet Explorer v3.0 – First to have the blue ‘e’ logo. 100 people in the IE team

October 1997: Internet Explorer v4.0 – Included Outlook Express for the first time

March 1999: Internet Explorer v5.0 – 1,000 people now working on IE

August 2001: Internet Explorer v6.0 – Support for RSS feeds

October 2006: Internet Explorerer v7.0 – Integrated tabbed browsing for the first time

March 2009: Internet Explorer 8 – Added Accelerators, webslices and Smartscreen

15th September 2010: Internet Explorer 9 Beta – Will reveal the beautiful web in HTML5

To add the date to your diary take a look at http://www.thebeautifulweb.co.uk

We’re looking forward to seeing Scott’s take on our new browser when it launches.

Based on figures from Net Applications, we can announce IE8 grew 1.17% in August, accounting for 32% of usage share worldwide – more than three times that of Chrome’s 0.36% share growth.

Running alongside this positive news, IE9 beta is on the horizon (15 September) and Ryan Gavin, our Senior Director for Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, outlines the excitement and anticipation which is building:

“Today, people on the web are demanding an even more beautiful web experience. The Internet Explorer 9 Platform Previews continue to generate great buzz among developers and browser enthusiasts, and we have now registered over 2.5 million downloads and 20 million page views to the IE Test Drive Site, our developer site where we show new capabilities in HTML5 and Internet Explorer 9. We are looking forward to even more great things with the release of IE9 Beta this month.”

You can read his full blog post here.

The countdown to IE9 has truly begun, make sure you don’t miss anything by staying tuned here

The new browser is incredibly fast. Our current speed tests prove it is 11 times faster than IE8 alone! For web developers this is truly revolutionary. It means that webpages can become even more graphically rich and advanced websites (like Radian6) will feel like normal applications on your start menu in Windows.

If you really can’t wait for the launch then you might want to take the developer trial version of IE9 for a test drive. We’ve already had over 2.5 million downloads of the Platform Preview alone on the IE Test Drive site and love getting feedback we can take on board to make sure IE9 meets your needs better than ever.

http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

This week we’re counting down to the IE9 launch and giving you more of an idea of what the browser includes to make the web feel more beautiful than ever!

It’s 15 days until IE9’s launch on 15^th September. Get ready for a whole new way to experience the web…

First up is Tumblr. This clever site allows you to share your videos, images, videos and much more through a simple blogging application. You can even email your posts directly to your blog!

Calling all Twitter fans, check out Paper.li . This website will organise links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. You can create it for your own username or any hashtag.

Lastly Scribd is a social publishing and reading site. Here you can read extracts from soon to be released novels or even checkout Guy Ritchie’s comic book talents . Users are invited to share their documents within the online community which also features companies such as Lonely Planet and Microsoft’s own templates. 

A favourite from the team here is Videojug. Launched back in 2006, Videojug is a free factual video guide website. The site offers advice on everything from ‘How to chat someone up on the tube’ to ‘making egg fried rice’.  In fact the site features over 60,000 professionally made videos!

Another great video site we can’t get enough of is Daily Motion. This website not only allows you to upload and share your own video content, including our very own Life Academy but also showcases full length movies, art movies, celeb gossip and even animations

And lastly who could forget the recently re-launched MSN Video . The channel boasts full TV episodes including Little Britain and Skins. The website also has all the latest trailers, pop videos and news.

Badoo is a social network similar to Facebook but with one clear difference, fans of Chatroulette will love the inbuilt video chat that Badoo offers. User can also specify their location and meet new friends in their own area. http://www.badoo.com.

Playfire is not only a multiplatform social network designed for gamers, by gamers but is also an Official Microsoft Community Developer. The network has over 300,000 members with some really neat features including a database of over 40,000 gaming titles allowing you to showcase your collection to your friends. You can also track all of your friends gaming activities. For more information visit http://www.playfire.com

For music fans out there, Music Vita has it all. This ‘online music club’ has the latest news and interviews but also allows its members to create their own profile where they can showcase their own music. The site also includes reviews and advice for aspiring musicians.

Check back on Wednesday when we will show some of the best video gems on the internet

Internet Explorer 9 is a significant milestone in internet and computing history and is launching in beta on September 15. Internet Explorer 9 uses the power of your PC’s hardware and Windows 7 to transmit the optimum speed, clarity and depth of vision for world’s best, most beautiful web content.  It is a new category of browser, different and better to any other in the market right now.

Internet Explorer 9 Test Drive Site

Key features include:

1. Unlike any other browser, IE9 takes better advantage of hardware advancements like the  full capabilities of graphics processing units

2. IE9 uses the whole PC to unlock the next class of experiences on the Web

3. IE9 is the first browser to take standard Web patterns that developers use and run them better on modern hardware

4. IE9 creates a richer, more colourful and powerful browsing experience

5. For enthusiasts, now is the time to start taking IE9 for a spin to see how it lights up your PC Web experience. Ahead of the launch on the 15^th September why not try out Product  Preview 4  

Internet Explorer 9 is a gateway to an exciting and visually rich web experience which will give consumers and brands a new way of connecting. If you cannot wait until the 15^th September why not try out the test drive here http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Despite the browser being over nine-years-old it is still used by around 20% of internet users however with modern threats such as malware the browser does not protect as sufficiently as newer browsers such as Internet Explorer 8. We would recommend anyone who uses Internet Explorer 6 to update their browser as soon as possible so that they are not leaving themselves vulnerable.

Numerous sites from the BBC to YouTube recommend moving away from Internet Explorer 6 and now with its great grandson Internet Explorer 9 about to be born, IE6’s time has come to an end. With the threat of new viruses and the many innovations in the Internet it is with a heavy heart that we announce the death of Internet Explorer 6.

This Friday we will take you through some of the key features of Internet Explorer 9, the great grandson of IE6.

Launched in 2001 the 6^th browser by Microsoft was the default browser for Windows XP and despite its age is still used by many businesses today. IE6 was the most widely used web browser during its tenure, surpassing Internet Explorer 5. At its peak in 2002 and 2003, IE6 achieved a total market share of nearly 90%, with all versions of IE combined reaching 95%.

However despite its popularity IE 6 did have its problems and in 2006 was voted one of the worst tech products of all time by PC World. Luckily for all its brother IE7 and the current IE8 were far superior products. 

In Wednesdays post we will continue to look at Internet Explorer 6 before finishing off the week with a post on Friday discussing the next instalment of IE, Internet Explorer 9.