Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

The wait is finally over for the latest version of Internet Explorer: Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, was officially released on March 14, 2011. Incidentally enough, the release was made nearly two years after the unveiling of Internet Explorer 8, which was revealed to the public on March 19, 2009.

The latest version, Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, was originally unveiled to the public in October 2009, right alongside the release of Windows 7.

According to Microsoft Program Manager Ryan Gavin (written in his personal blog): “On Monday, March 14, we will celebrate the developers and designers who are making a more beautiful web for all of us.” Gavin further went on to state the exact time for IE9’s release, which will be available for download “beginning at 9 pm Pacific.”

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 features full hardware integration with Windows 7 including hardware acceleration support for added speed and performance and increasingly buffed up security measures. Taking note from the rated performance of the release candidate, which has been available for trial use since February, IE9 will include a significant performance boost over its predecessor IE8.

Chrome and Firefox users won’t necessarily find speed enhancements over their current browser but will indeed find a few unique features specific to Internet Explorer. For a more specific listing of what features are included in IE9 check out our related article on the IE9 release candidate, and the IE9 Review.

The IE9 download will be available via the official Microsoft IE9 home page upon release.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9

As mentioned above Internet Explorer 9 was originally demoed alongside the release of the Windows 7 operating system and was used as a flagstone advancement for the OS upgrade. However Microsft Internet Explorer 9 never officially launched in 2009 and since then Microsoft has lost quite a bit of ground considering how far the competition has come in that time.

In related news – Firefox 4, the latest version, is set to release on March 22nd. That is of course if the current release candidate passes testing and bug tryouts. The end date for the Firefox RC testing is March 16th at 11:30 am; if the candidate is performing well by then with no serious issues the developers will plan for a release on the 22nd.

It will be interesting enough, to say the least, to watch how IE9 holds up against the competition (Chrome, Firefox 4) and if these major improvements have been enough to garner a large audience.

Will you be using the latest version of Internet Explorer, and do you prefer Microsoft’s browser over Google’s Chrome or Mozilla’s Firefox? Are you going to be using Firefox 4 instead? Please join the discussion and let us know in this forum thread.