Internet Explorer 9 closes the HTML5 gap
Did you feel that? Microsoft has shifted its Internet Explorer development team into higher gear and dropped another rev of the IE 9 beta, this one called Platform Preview Version 6 and touting "next generation experiences." It's all happening so fast. The new Platform Preview arrives just a few weeks after Microsoft launched a new full beta of Internet Explorer 9.
The days of rolling out a new revision every few years are long gone, as the battle for dominance among Web browsers is hotter than ever. Microsoft wants to keep its platform in the hearts of Web developers, and the simplest way to do that is to roll out newer, faster engines with more support for the new HTML5 features. Mozilla just released a new version of Firefox, claiming the fastest JavaScript performance. Google, once so shy that everything was an awe-shucks "beta," is now incrementing the version number practically every time a developer types "make." Google Chrome is up to version 7, and developers are sharing version 8.
Does it make a difference that the version numbers are starting to turn as quickly as the National Debt clock? It depends upon who you are. The average Web surfer probably won't bother with Platform Preview 6 because it just shows off the rendering engine. It's only a rectangle for viewing Web pages. There are no extra buttons for juggling bookmarks or handling other browsing chores. As long as your mom or dad download a new version once or twice a year, they'll see that IE is getting zippier and the Web pages are becoming livelier.
