Microsoft has just unveiled modern.IE, a new resource for devs to test their apps in the newer versions of Internet Explorer.

Sure, IE is the browser we all love to hate, but Microsoft has really stepped up its game in the browser department. IE9 is — dare we say it? — daggone pretty. And IE10 is waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, Microsoft has taken IE6 out behind the shed where it belongs.

All this adds up to several steps in the right direction, helping IE to gain back a little lost ground in the ongoing browser wars. Which in turn means that developers of web applications and sites need to keep building and testing for IE.

So, back to the topic at hand: web-app testing.

Modern.IE features a code evaluation “wizard,” a set of cross-browser testing tools from BrowserStack, and some handy best practices for web development in these modern times.

As a Microsoft rep wrote to VentureBeat via email:

We’ve talked in the past about some of the experiences we’ve created for the web, with the goal of inspiring innovation on the web. The reality is, though, that there is a delta between where the web is currently, and the potential of where it can go with a modern browser, and a big part of this is time spent making sites work for old browsers.

For developers, testing can take up to 30 to 40 precent of their time — imagine if that time was spent creating new experiences leveraging the tools we’ve provided and not on addressing the past. We’re excited about what’s possible on the web and what developers will be able to create once they have more time to innovate.

Here’s a quick promo clip the modern.IE folks created to tout the service’s benefits:

Top image from the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, a delightful music about life in a shtetl in Tsarist Russia. The screengrab above is from the number “Miracle of Miracles.” Neither the song nor the musical has anything whatsoever to do with Internet Explorer.

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“IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away,” wrote Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, in a company blog post. “Less than a year later, I’m thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6.”

Last March, Microsoft launched the IE6 Countdown website to track the slow and painful death of the outdated browser. Microsoft even partnered with many tech companies and websites like Kayak, Meebo and CNET to advertise a banner to IE6 users encouraging them to upgrade. The most stubborn country to update is China with 25.5 percent of that country’s share allocated for IE6, according to IE6 Countdown. Other update offenders include South Korea, which has 7.2% IE6 share, and Japan at 5.9% IE6 share.

Facebook, one of the most trafficked sites in the world, has even gone a step further to help get the world’s browsers upgraded. Last week, it was reported that Facebook’s new Timeline feature would not function for Internet Explorer 7 users, forcing them to update to IE8 or IE9.

Of course, in the complete scope of things, Microsoft might not want to drink too much of that champagne because Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox browsers are munching away at Internet Explorer’s market share. A December report by StatCounter said Chrome has 25.7 percent share of the global browser market while Firefox has a 25.2 percent share. While Internet Explorer is still the big dog, it’s losing ground fast to its peers.

Internet Explorer has been losing market share for years, first to Mozilla’s Firefox and now to both Firefox and Google’s Chrome. With the release of Internet Explorer 9, it appeared Microsoft recognized this problem by adding new features and pushing better performance to keep users from leaving. With Internet Explorer 10, Microsoft probably hopes to keep users from leaving and to win some back as well.

The second preview of IE10, which comes 11 weeks after the first preview was launched, has lots of new features and background elements that enhance performance. It specifically includes “support for major platform features like HTML5 Parser, HTML5 Sandbox, Web Workers, HTML5 Forms, Media Query Listeners and more,” according to Microsoft’s release notes.

Arguably the biggest enhancement is support for the Web Worker API, which lets developers take advantage of things like multi-core processors when they work with JavaScript. Basically, when a website is rendering images or something complex, IE10 will take advantage of hardware to make the site load more smoothly or even run scripts that are more complicated than ever before.

IE10′s second preview also outpaces the first preview’s HTML5 performance on www.html5test.com. The second preview scored a 231 while the first preview had a 125. Both of those scores, however, are easily beaten by Firefox 5′s 296 and Chrome 12′s 327. At the very least, IE10 is a step in the right direction.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens next with this browser. While I prefer Chrome 12 and Firefox 5 any day to Internet Explorer 9, I love the idea of using hardware acceleration to boost what you can get out of the web. The best part of the browser wars is that even if some company clearly loses, the resulting technology improvements from the fierce competition end up helping all of us.

As of March 26, Firefox 4 was seeing a 3.64 percent share of browser usage after only being available for 5 days. IE9, which launched just a week earlier had 1.78 percent after 12 days. The numbers are a clear sign that Mozilla’s hard work has paid off for Firefox 4 and that IE9 will be at a disadvantage for some time since it runs on far fewer platforms (it only supports Windows Vista and Windows 7).

Firefox 4, owing to its open source roots, runs on pretty much every major operating system available, including Windows XP (which Microsoft is no longer developing software for), Mac OSX (don’t expect to see IE there, ever), and Linux. Firefox’s big advantage is Windows XP compatibility, a platform that as of last November held around twice as much market share as Windows 7 and Vista combined. Given the massive number of new features in IE9, it would be difficult for Microsoft to offer a Windows XP version of the browser.

The news also further emphasizes the fact that Firefox’s big browser competitor this time around is Google Chrome, not IE9. Chrome has been steadily growing in popularity over the last few years, thanks in large part to its fast browsing engine, while Firefox’s market share has fallen. With Firefox 4, Mozilla has a shot at convincing its traditional base of tech-savvy users, many of whom switched to Chrome, to give its browser another shot.

As we’ve previously reported, Firefox 4 brings with it a completely new interface that, like Chrome and IE9, aims for minimalism. It also has a faster JavaScript rendering engine, hardware acceleration support, and synchronization capabilities.

Via BetaNews

CNet noted that Firefox 4 had 4.7 million downloads a few hours before the end of the browser’s first day of release, compared to IE9’s 2.3 million downloads. At the time of this post, Firefox 4 had just surpassed 7 million downloads, according to Mozilla’s statistics site.

Mozilla may have been slow to upgrade Firefox, but the downloads tell us that there is still lots of interest in the browser. Firefox 4 may finally help put a stop to the browser’s declining market share, and perhaps even slow down Chrome’s steady rise.

What the numbers don’t tell us is how people intend to use the browser. Many Firefox fans have shifted over to Google’s Chrome browser over the past few years — mostly due to its crazy fast speed — so I wouldn’t be surprised if a good chunk of those early downloads came from Chrome users curious to see if Mozilla has finally turned Firefox into a legit Chrome competitor.

And as CNet notes, the numbers are far lower than Firefox 3’s 8 million first day downloads in 2008, although that was largely the result of a widespread marketing campaign. Firefox 4’s numbers are certainly impressive given that Mozilla hasn’t spent nearly as much effort marketing it.

As we’ve previously reported, Firefox 4 brings with it a completely new interface that, like Chrome and IE9, aims for minimalism. It also has a faster JavaScript rendering engine, hardware acceleration support, and synchronization capabilities.

Update: Mozilla is now saying that Firefox 4 has been downloaded 7.1 million times in its first 24 hours. Also, as a commenter noted below, it’s worth considering that much of Firefox’s success is likely due to it being available for more platforms than IE9.

Specifically, he said the IE9 team rejected the philosophy that websites and browsers should run the same across any device — or, as he put it, the misconception that “the Web is the Web is the Web.” That thinking has led to browsers that only take advantage of 10 percent of a normal computer’s capabilities, he said.

Hachamovitch argued that the browser is actually “only as good as the operating system.” That’s why IE9 uses a computer’s graphics processor for faster delivery of text, video, and graphics. (Rick Bergman at chip company Advanced Micro Devices, told VentureBeat that IE9 should lead to better web sites and more usage of graphics chips for non-gaming computing tasks.) And that doesn’t just make a difference on the latest Windows 7 computers; since almost any computer has at least a dual-core processor, even a notebook that only costs a few hundred dollars will see an improvement, he said.

Besides the hardware acceleration, Hachamovitch said one of the IE9 team‘s other big goals was to move the focus away from the browser and toward the website. That’s why the browser allows users to “pin” websites directly to their Windows taskbar, so they can access their favorite websites just as easily as they can the software on their computer.

The design of a pinned site places an even greater emphasis on the website over the browser. A pinned site has its own notifications and site search, and the back button is even colored to match the site’s favicon (the little logo or icon that you see at the top of the browser). Website publishers are already seeing benefits from this approach Microsoft said — for example, the Huffington Post found that 38 percent of visitors on IE9 “pinned” the site, and that those users spent 49 percent more time on the site than other users.

The official launch tonight marks the end to months of testing for IE9, which started with the beta release of the browser last September and continued with the launch of the first IE9 Release Candidate (the final step before a program’s final release) in February.

Internet Explorer 9 proved very popular with testers — its beta version hit 2 million downloads in its first two days, and it was downloaded 25 million times when its beta period ended. That’s a surprising amount of interest for a Microsoft browser, which tells us that the company’s big gamble to revamp IE9 — stripping away the confusing toolbar clutter from IE8 towards a more minimal design — paid off.

IE9 is a major departure for Microsoft. In addition to its minimal design, it packs in modern browser capabilities like a fast Javascript rendering engine and support for HTML5. IE9 also includes hardware acceleration for web-page rendering (it uses your graphics processor to do some of the work) — something that even geek-friendly browsers like Chrome and Firefox have yet to roll out (though it’s coming soon to both).

I’ve been using IE9 throughout its test phase and don’t really notice anything too different with the final release. For those heading into the browser for the first time, prepare to be wowed by its speed and design. Microsoft one-upped Google Chrome’s minimal design by moving the browser’s address bar right alongside its tabs, leaving even more room for web pages to shine. It’s also clear with this final release that IE9 is far faster than the latest version of Firefox (not including Firefox 4 beta releases).

Rick Bergman, head of the graphics chip and microprocessor business at Advanced Micro Devices, said in an interview with VentureBeat’s Dean Takahashi that IE9′s use of advanced graphics will lead to better web sites and more usage of graphics chips in everyday non-gaming computing tasks. That creates more demand for increased graphics processing power in future products and more demand for either powerful combo graphics-processor chips or stand-alone graphics chips.

Microsoft has also pumped up the capabilities of IE9′s address bar. You can perform searches from within it, but unlike its competitors, you can also view search results from within it as well. The address bar defaults to Microsoft’s Bing search engine, but you’re free to switch it to Google, Amazon and others.

The browser is fast enough to tempt power users who haven’t fully invested themselves in Chrome or Firefox. But the real value of IE9 is that it will bring the speed and features geeks are familiar with to general users. Those users will likely never get around to installing a third-party browser. At least with IE9, it’s less of a crime if they don’t.

Microsoft will be celebrating the browser’s launch in style with a huge party at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. And the celebration may be deserved, as it seems Microsoft may have a major hit on its hands with IE9.

The beta version of the browser saw over 2 million downloads in its first two days available, which was nearly twice the amount of downloads that Internet Explorer 8′s beta received in its first five days. As of February, when the browser left its beta phase and stepped into “Release Candidate” status (the final step before a program’s final release), Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded over 25 million times.

IE9 is a major departure for Microsoft. The browser sports a minimalist design that resembles Google’s Chrome browser, and it packs in modern browser capabilities like a fast Javascript rendering engine and support for HTML5. IE9 also includes hardware acceleration for web-page rendering (it uses your graphics processor to do some of the work) — something that even geek-friendly browsers like Chrome and Firefox have yet to roll out (though it’s coming soon to both).

The browser will also allow for a more interactive experience with Microsoft’s Bing Search engine. You’ll be able to do things like zoom into Bing’s gorgeous background images, or play video in the site’s background.

Internet Explorer 9′s new interface and features could help Microsoft retain its lead with 57 percent of global browser share. The browser has been dropping steadily in market share since the rise of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Google Chrome (which is also stealing away users from Firefox).

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

The latest iteration of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, Windows 7, has sold 240 million copies in its first year of being on the market, Microsoft announced today.

Add that to the roughly 6 million downloads of the newest version of its web browser, Internet Explorer 9, and its newest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, which shows some promise in being able to compete with the rest of the heavy hitters on the market, and you have a potential comeback story.

Microsoft has been a bit of a black sheep, criticized for failing to innovate with its flagship operating system and mobile platforms as companies like Google and Apple waltzed in and took over the market. Its Windows Vista operating system, released almost four years ago, was panned for being slow and bloated, and Internet Explorer 8 faced much of the same criticism that Internet Explorer has always faced. Microsoft responded by stripping down its PC and mobile operating systems, as well as its web browser, to provide a more user-friendly experience.

The results seem to be positive. Internet Explorer 9 was downloaded about 2 million times within the first two days of launching. All of Microsoft’s manufacturing partners were shipping machines with Windows 7 as well, compared to only about 70 percent that were shipping PCs with Windows Vista. Windows 7 is also now running on 17 percent of all PCs in the world, as well as 93 percent of new PCs, according to Microsoft.

The company still has a little ways to go in the mobile market — on its current trajectory, Windows will continue to lose market share to Apple, Research in Motion and Google, according to a report by Gartner. But if Windows Phone 7 ends up being anywhere close to as successful as the iPhone or any of the Android handsets, Microsoft might just be back in the game.

Even though we’ve seen a few developer previews of Microsoft’s upcoming Internet Explorer 9 browser, the company has managed to keep news of IE9′s new visual interface under wraps — until now. It appears that Microsoft Russia accidentally released a screenshot and further information related to IE9 on its press site, ZDNet’s Mary Jo Foley reports.

The screenshot (above) shows some distinct differences from Internet Explorer 8. The location bar and search bar have been combined (like Google Chrome), and tabs now appear to the right of that bar. The available buttons have been simplified to just three, and the back button is now larger than the forward button.

Judging from the screenshot, IE9 doesn’t appear to be a massive visual update, but Microsoft has clearly continued to strip down the browser to avoid distracting elements. It started aiming for a cleaner browser interface with IE7′s release in 2006, and IE8 pushed that idea even further when it hit in 2009.

It’s also interesting that the company is trying to remain different from its competitors. Mozilla’s Firefox 4 interface, for example, looks a lot like Google Chrome.

After running the Russian site’s text (which has since been taken down) through Bing’s Translator, Foley also discovered that the browser will have the ability to pin certain “recognized” or “protected” sites directly to the task bar. There’s also a new “tear-off tabs” feature that allows users to turn tabs into separate windows — something both Firefox and Chrome already offer.

Microsoft is hosting an event on September 15 to launch the IE 9 beta. It’s unknown when a final version of the browser will be released, but many are betting on sometime in 2011.