Microsoft Russia leaks new IE9 appearance

A Russian website has revealed details about the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) which showcases the user interface – highlighting new features such as quick release tabs and a ‘Chrome' style address search bar.

Microsoft have issued several developer previews of IE9 since March but they have all, to date, lacked a user interface. They have been more focused on rendering and Javascript engines presented in a wrapper lacking even basic navigation.

News from a Russian website however shows that IE9 is going to look very like Chrome, if the information is accurate of course. In what looks to have been an accident, the Russian Microsoft division published a screenshot of IE9 in operation as well as information on the browser. Since then the page has been removed however it was still accessible in BING.com's caching system.

The IE9 interface is similar to a hybrid Firefox and Chrome design with dual sized Back/Forward buttons. Traditional menus have also canned and tabs are placed on top of the browser window and combined the address and search bars, a move identical to the latest Chrome designs.

“Your browser is not overloaded with navigation elements, and compared with other browsers leaves more space for the site,” a translation of promotional copy read. “Now the user sees only what is necessary for navigation.”

These changes are not a shock, as other browsers have adopted the change in style and Firefox 4 is also going to feature tabs on top eliminating the traditional Windows menus above the browsers content area. Ideas spearheaded initially by Chrome.

Additionally there will be a method of pinning sites to the taskbar, much like you would do with a local application, by simply dragging a tab to the windows taskbar. You can then directly access these sites without even having to open Internet Explorer.

IE9 is also going to use the Aero UI of Vista and Windows 7 with a new feature called ‘quick release tabs.' When you drag the IE9 window to the side of the screen, Aero's snap feature will automatically display two tabs in equally sized windows.

KitGuru says: Support is apparently limited to Windows Vista and Windows 7, leaving XP users out in the cold.

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