Users of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer don’t have to wait until the release of version 7 to use tabbed browsing. Microsoft announced yesterday that with the newest MSN Search Toolbar, users can upgrade their current IE 6 and add the sought after functionality. You can read the story here.
Tabbed Browsing Comes to IE Sooner Than Expected
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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IE is the fastest browseer on the planet and backed up by a great company
Hah! At last!
Anyone here still uses IE for everyday browsing?
You mean, sooner than ’99?
I sincerely hope you are joking.
In my opinion, tabbed browsing is the least of IE’s problems. The biggest feature I’d like to see is an end to the retarded support for CSS.
I think IE’s support for web standards is dismal at best; when compared to other available browsers. That’s what the “great company” should have focused on. Not tabbed browsing.
It is tabbed browsing which comes to MSIE or it is MSIE which comes to tabbed browsing?
I thought MS said the didnt like (and possibly wouldnt support ) tab browsing as it was a “bad idea”.
yes, oh tanks, please gimme more news about IE7 tabbed browsing it’s so exciting, and sooooooo important to know…
IE7 will change the world, the world? no! the Universe.
And why? because it has TABS, can you believe it? …it’s so amazing.
Bad only because they didn’t get around to it for so long.
Seriously, does anyone still use IE as their normal browser? I have to use it once in a while, but everyday stuff? Camino.
nice move by MSN to increase use of MSN toolbar
Wow, IE has finally caught up to Firefox, well maybe not. Tabbed is nothing new! Just another idea that Microsoft has copied from some browser better than IE.
Now doesn’t that prove again that MS is really leading the crowed when it comes to new, never seen before, features?
Wow, I’m speechless!
Seriously though, it’s about time, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m getting tired of reading about the 100th story in the last two weeks alone about IE and tabs.
MS know people want tabbed browsing, and the want to get more people over to MSN search instead of Google, so the make it a ‘upgrade’, after you install the searchbar.
I recomend Firefox for normal surfing, and non-tabbed IE till IE7, if you really need IE that is!
Funny how most of the people that refuse to switch to FireFox, Mozilla, Opera, etc don’t find tabs appealing. Oh, but now that IE is getting them you know they’ll be using them and say how wonderful IE is.
So, you get tabbed browsing, but only if you use MSN’s search toolbar? I’m surprised the antitrust crew haven’t had a field day with this.
I normally use Konqueror (sometimes FireFox) for surfing, but unfortunately the computer I’m currently using is IE-only. You’ve no idea how limited IE is until you switch browsers. I’ve already pressed Ctrl+T several times today and nothing’s happened, and IE screams “wtf?” when I type gg: to try to search Google in the address bar.
Firefox has had this from the beginning with default pages seperated by pipes.
I use Avant Browser, as it has all of the features of FireFox as well as the compatibility of IE. Neat little browser.
Well, won’t install on Windows XP x64 Edition.
Good to see Microsoft “innovating”, as per usual.
I use Avant Browser, as it has all of the features of FireFox as well as the compatibility of IE. Neat little browser.
All the features from Firefox? You definitely don’t know Firefox at all, neither its extensions that are really worth looking (and would stop you from saying things like that!).
I want tabbed browsing however I hate all toolbars with no exception.
It would be nice to strip that feature off and make it independent.
…or for Google Toolbar to include it
This has been available from http://crazybrowser.com/ for years.
If I must use an IE compatible browser that’s what I use. Why wait for Microsoft to fix IE?
“Microsoft has also expanded on the idea of tabs with the inclusion of “My Tabs.””
oh yes, M$ can improve everything, oh wait this is nothing new, naming a simple feature may be new…..
I think someone already mention the piped default pages and dont forget creating a folder with links in it on the bookmarks toolbar allows you to open the whole folder in tabs… so YAWN :O
It’s no advertisement and i’m using firefox but microgarden webtools was there for IE since ages….
And IE is not a bad browser please be fair!
“I use Avant Browser, as it has all of the features of FireFox as well as the compatibility of IE. Neat little browser.”
“All the features from Firefox? You definitely don’t know Firefox at all, neither its extensions that are really worth looking (and would stop you from saying things like that!).”
I have both FireFox and Avant installed on all of my systems. Perhaps you don’t know Avant Browser at all. Care to list some features that FireFox has that Avant Browser doesn’t? And don’t give me that BS about lack of ActiveX being a security ‘feature’.
just installed MSN toolbar
the toolbar itself is nice
the tabs in IE feels weird not that anything is wrong with it but its just new thing!
but looks nice & if you need you can disable the tabs too!
Took this long to bring Tab browsing to IE. Good lord, let’s just sit on our a$$ and do nothing. They pay the IE developers WAY too much money to sit around and do nothing!
Wasn’t it Microsoft that said, that customers didn’t want tab browsing, and that they only develope what they’re customer base wants.
“ that they only develope what they’re customer base wants.”
but now customers want tabs
Hmm. Leverage the monopoly on the desktop to win the browser wars. Now leverage the monopoly on the browser to try to win the online info provider war.
Sweet way to do business. Bundling is evil. It is really too bad the only laws governments are interested in these days have to do with the removal of personal liberty.
What a world.
Installed in using it now seems to be not true tabbed browsing just an ugly buggy i might add hack. I will stick with Firefox until they get this working properly.
Saw Crazy and Avant already mentioned. There’s also NetCaptor and Maxthon (formally MyIE2). Although not put out by MS some of these browsers been around for over 2 years. I’ve used all the browser mentioned in addition to Firefox and Opera and my favorite browser is Maxthon. It has the right mix of speed, features and user friendliness. Many of the IE based browsers have additional security features in place so that they are not susceptible to many of the vulnerabilities that may plague IE.
It’s nice to know that some one else knows that there are many ways that already exist for making IE as functional as any other browser out there. Thank you.
Wow, IE has finally caught up to Firefox, well maybe not. Tabbed is nothing new! Just another idea that Microsoft has copied from some browser better than IE.
It took far longer for Firefox/Mozilla to copy tabs from Opera, and poorly at that.
Anyone here still uses IE for everyday browsing?
and the want to get more people over to MSN search instead of Google, so the make it a ‘upgrade’, after you install the searchbar.
—————————————————
I do all the time. When it comes to doing things like streaming video or specialized plugins, I have had far better luck with IE than Firefox.
The MSN tool bar doesnt limit you to msnsearch (which I actually am finding works better than google). By default its msnsearch but you can switch it to any search engine you want.
I find it funny how IE gains a feature, yet people bitch about Microsoft. If IE didnt have this feature, the same trolls would keep bitching that it didnt have tabs.
I don’t know what info the toolbar is collecting from my surfing. I like my privacy and would rather stick to Firefox.
Don’t use them! Don’t!
You were right to stay with IE, and right not to use one of those tabbed browsers like Opera or Firefox.
Tabs just aren’t useful…so now that IE has them, don’t use them! You don’t need them anyway — or any of those other pesky features. Keep insisting that IE is perfect. The rest of the world must be wrong.
I have both FireFox and Avant installed on all of my systems. Perhaps you don’t know Avant Browser at all. Care to list some features that FireFox has that Avant Browser doesn’t? And don’t give me that BS about lack of ActiveX being a security ‘feature’.
http://platypus.mozdev.org
Do you want a couple dozen other reasons?
What URL are you using with the MSN search bar to get google to work? I tried http://www.google.com and many others, and can only get it to bring the google page up, not search it
Here is the URL to use for google:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=$w
Everyone with the technical ability to “upgrade their current IE 6” has already downloaded and installed Firefox.
However, I have no doubt that in a few years a majority of Windows users will have IE with tabbed browsing because it will come with their shiny new Dells.
“I find it funny how IE gains a feature, yet people bitch about Microsoft. If IE didnt have this feature, the same trolls would keep bitching that it didnt have tabs.”
What feature did it get exactly? Built-in MSN? When you learn the difference between a feature and a ploy, then you can talk.
IE has more serious security holes than a Swiss cheese. Anyone who values the data on his harddrive uses Firefox or any other real web browser. I doubt that any future versions of IE will be more secure because the IE code has been patchwork from the start. Firefox is better in every aspect.
What are you talking about? Mozilla had tabes when I started using it at pre-1.0 status, that was like late 2001. I don’t know when Opera got them, but Microsoft has taken about 4 years longer than Mozilla.
I do know opera had them at that time, because I tried it right after Mozilla. Ended up back with Mozilla.
Opera is just a buggy mess. I tried 8.something and it was just unusable. For all its speed gains it wasted them with buggy unpredictable behavior (like you’d click a link and nothing would happen).
so when ms releases this ie7 what will happen to program that use ie to display html in your embedded programs.
would somehow that show up as tabs.. maybe that will open up more ways for phishers and hackers to make good use of this ‘tabs’ display.
Isn’t it a pattent violation of some sort?
That’s the best useless ass feature you can come up with? Why don’t you find me something that normal people would actually use, huh? If I wanted to modify web pages I’d be a web page designer. I’d rather not.
…what IE will have (feature wise) in a few years, look at what the other browsers are doing today.
… It simply quits without warning upon opening anything more complex than about:blank. So I’ve installed Firefox and the transition was as smooth as possible. I think noone even noticed that the browser has changed. However I like Firefox more besause of its extensions and the far better Gecko rendering engine.
http://deepnetexplorer.com is half the size of msn toolbar yet have more features (web,rss,p2p), so no thank you.
http://deepnetexplorer.com is half the size of msn toolbar yet have more features (rss,p2p), so no thank you.
IE is nothing more than a copy of Firefox/Opera with ActiveX and a deep integration into the OS.
Oh, and with 5 years delay…
What kind of person uses Internet Explorer and installs search toolbars so they can get “neat” new features? (Spyware victims, that’s who.)
People, who like tabs and IE at the same time, already use Maxthon/MyIE. 🙂
Firefox is nothing but a copy of Opera and IE, what’s your point?
I’m a big Microsoft Fan, and I’m using Ubuntu at the moment; but the tabs in IE just feel like they’re changing from a IE window to a new IE window, I swear you can see a flash between them… it is not seamless like other browsers, in fact it’s almost embarrassing to see microsoft do this. I know it is not IE7… When I see something new from microsoft, I look forward to seeing something polished… polished from an integration point of view. It’s embarrassing, it feels like a poor attempt by an amateur programmer to create a plugin… appalling.