Less than a month back, Microsoft released Windows 7. Thereafter, work has started on Internet Explorer 9, the next version of the most widely used browser in the world. It is too early in the day for IE9 but Microsoft has revealed some basic details of what the focus areas are for IE9. It will focus mainly on three areas – improving browser speed, support for new web standards in a responsible way, and utilizing the power of hardware acceleration for better rendering of graphics and text on the web.
In a blog post revealing these plans about IE9, Microsoft has candidly admitted that it is lagging behind in browser speed; however, it wants to make amends in this regard in IE9. It shows the following chart displaying the relative performance of different browsers for script performance on the same machine running the SunSpider test:
In addition to IE7 and the current “final release” versions of major browsers, the above chart also includes the latest pre-release “under development” builds of the major browsers. Here a smaller bar means faster performance. You can notice that IE7 and IE8 are far behind other browsers in speed performance. In fact, while under-development IE9 drastically improves the speed over its earlier version IE8, still it lags behind the likes of Google Chrome and Firefox in the matter of browser speed. And, mind you, the chart is prepared by Microsoft itself.
Microsoft highlights the fact that the browser performance involves many different sub-systems within the browsers (such as, JavaScript, HTML parsing, CSS parser, Marshalling, Collections, Native OM, Formatting, BlockBuild, Layout, Rendering), and that it will be working on these sub-systems to improve the browser speed.
Microsoft is also focusing on using the power of DirectX-based hardware acceleration for better rendering of graphics and text in IE9. Graphics hardware acceleration will ensure that rich graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU. This feature is also likely to improve the font quality and readability in IE9.
IE9 is also likely to offer better support for the new web standards such as HTML 5 and better CSS support.
However, there are no details as to when IE9 will be released; maybe because it is still in the early stages. But, Microsoft will have to act fast in view of the fact that other browsers are gaining in popularity at the cost of Internet Explorer.
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