Internet Explorer 9… Microsoft may have finally got it right this time!

Congratulations, Microsoft. With Internet Explorer 9 Beta you finally built a Web browser (though it’s still in beta) that’s as fun and easy to use as my current favorite, Google Chrome.

Clearly, this is no accident. Thought Microsoft still owns a commanding share of the Web browser market (60 percent to Chrome’s 7 percent) Google’s consistent product quality and speed of innovation over the last two years did nothing but throw into stark contrast Microsoft’s own sluggish browser performance and development pace.

Honestly, it’s exciting to see how Microsoft finally went for it with Internet Explorer 9. Yes, it looks a lot different than Internet Explorer 8, 7, and certainly 6. However, the changes are not confusing (as they were when IE7 first launched) because Microsoft took its interface cues from Google’s Chrome and, essentially, cut away all the chrome.

As with Google Chrome, the focus is now all on what’s on the browser page and not on the toolbar. By default, I think I have over 20 features and options on the top of Internet Explorer 8. By my count, Internet Explorer 9 defaults to about 10. One of my favorite changes is

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