Microsoft begins the hype for Internet Explorer 9

Although Microsoft is no stranger to banner ads, they appear to have taken quite the bold step to start building publicity for the Internet Explorer 9 beta (emphasis on the beta) launch event next week dubbed “Beauty of the web” as I spotted this ad on TechCrunch today.

The ad begins with a couple of quotes about Internet Explorer 9 from the press and partners (I saw a few variations) and ends with “Beautiful is feeling the love”, “get ready for a more beautiful web” and “9.15.10” – the date of the launch.

It’s also interesting to note some resemblance of the style and colors of all the IE9 marketing material up until now with the trademark purple and swoosh of Visual Studio 2010 and the aesthetics of Zune.

Even though a screenshot of what might be the IE9 UI has leaked (although I have my doubts it is the final look and feel), the fact that the beta launch event is so elaborate makes me wonder if Microsoft has a few tricks up its sleeve.

Disclosure: I will be attending the San Francisco IE9 beta launch event as a guest of Microsoft.

54 insightful thoughts

  1. I also wonder about how it will finally look. The only thing i don’t like of IE9 is the new “e”. I usally like neo-retro designs. just not this one. It is too clear cut and who came up with the idea of mixing Classic IE5/IE6 “e” with the one from IE7/1E8?. Would have prefered a direct evolution of the current one.

    But i will stop, or i will end up sounding like those bitching about the new lukewarm and amateurish itunes 10 logo.

    Looking forward to the IE9 beta.

    1. I’d have to agree – IE9 might end up improving on IE8 in every regard except for its logo. These things tend to grow on me over time, though.

    2. The new logo fits very well into the other icons for Windows Live and standard apps on Windows 7 (Paint, Control Panel …), IMO

      The old “e” was based on the Franklin Gothic font witch was the corporate font for Microsoft in the 90’s. So it was about time to move on and the glossy style is very Vista-like. 😉

      1. No, the IE7/IE8 “e” was completely vista/longhorn styled. the new one is supposed to be styled after the default non-aero look in Windows 7. But you are right, on it being as it is to better integrate with the standard apps and windows live wave 4 for that matter.

        Still, think it should look better. But at least it is now recognizable on its own and it does integrate. So it is a succesful design. Just nowhere as good as the last one.

  2. I admit, I really want IE9 to be impressive. IE8 was almost enough for me to switch back from Firefox full-time (still use IE8 part-time), but I need to break down and get a new RSS feed handling experience to truly make the jump, and IE9 has got to pick up the speed for performance.

  3. Killing IE6 would change the web forever.

    IE9 sounds good so far but I’m not aware of anything about it (or any other coming browser release) that will be revolutionary.

    (It doesn’t have to be revolutionary to be good until they start making silly claims like that.)

  4. Maybe the Visual Studio look is supposed to tie it a bit more strongly to developers, seeing how they’re the only ones complaining about web standards and performance.

  5. I have a hunch that the new IE9 Browser UI will be similar to the Microsoft Live Labs Pivot browser — everything is animated and rich, got SeaDragon stuff, history is visual with stacks, dragging the scrollbar towards the page will zoom the page out.

    You’ll see what I mean — try browsing the web using Microsoft Live Labs Pivot. http://www.getpivot.com/

    1. I wonder if IE9 is going to be supported on XP. Frankly, I think they should drop it, but if they keep supporting XP, I doubt any of the Pivot stuff is going in.

    2. yeah I’ve been hoping for that as well, the visual history in pivot was very cool and not something i’d thought about before but deffinately loved once i used it

    1. Considering the FPS he’s getting in the HTML5 demos, I think this is a fake Firefox skin to made to look like IE9.

  6. Yeah change the 30% of the Windows 7/Vista world crap. Only Microsoft can conveniently ignore the rest 60% of the world. Hardware acceleration isn’t critical to the standards-compliant rendering that every Windows user should have long got. With even Vista Home/Ultimate support ending in 2012, IE9 is more like an Ultimate Extra for Windows 7, sort of a value-added service.

    1. FWIW, the Valve hardware survey ( http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ ) says that XP is only 32% of the (consumer) market. Windows 7 is about 42%, and Vista another 20%. XP is in the consumer minority, with ~62% of the market of people who have the *option* to change browsers (read: non-corporate) not running the outdated OS that is XP.

      1. Valve only measures gamers using ITs service. Microsoft often themselves cite Netapplications’ marketshare figures and their Financial Officer recently also mentioned Vista and XP having combined market share of 85%. (Vista is ~13-14%).

  7. @Long: Why “hype” and not “excitement”? I’m just wondering…

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to the San Francisco event and it’s cool you’ll be covering it. Will there be a live blog gangbang like before? Those are always fun!

    BTW, “Beautiful is feeling the love”? Uh, OK. I have no idea what that means.

    1. To me it’s the language used. I think they’re setting the bar pretty high with the messages and quotes in the ad, thus, they’re creating some hype around the product.

      If instead they just had something like “Internet Explorer 9. Coming 09.15.10” then I wouldn’t consider hype.

      1. I see where you’re coming from and, I, too, would like just a simple message (like I said before, I don’t know what “Beautiful is feeling the love” is supposed to mean), but it’s message like those that get people excited about an event, even though I don’t like ’em.

        I do like “Get ready for a more beautiful Web.”

  8. When do you think the IE team will start talking about plugins and areas such as ‘Internet Options’?

  9. Até que fim!
    Já baxei a versão beta e fiquei admirado com os recursos e performance!
    Agora tudo pode voltar a ser código sem a necessidade de plugins, inclusive para animações, videos, graficos!

  10. The one thing I would like to see is some type of built-in ad-filtering/ad-blocking features, similar to what they had originally planned for IE8 with InPrivate Filtering.

    1. You’re aware that Microsoft does have an adCenter service for advertisers, right? I doubt Microsoft will want to have any conflict with a service of their own that provides revenue.

      Though you could probably install (or someone will make) a built-in ad-filterer/ad-blocker by yourself from a 3rd party. IE7 Pro is pretty good.

  11. I like that IE9 is very standards compliant now, but I hope to see some actual new “features” besides fixing up the rendering engine. Would be great if Microsoft were to release some new features that other browsers haven’t yet to have done yet. And getting more official plug-in partners would be nice, for Accelerators, Search, and WebSlices (they haven’t really seem to have caught one, despite IE8 getting rising marketshare).

  12. Hello everyone,
    My name is Rick and I am with the IE Outreach Team. I was reading through the thread and wanted to invite anyone who hasn’t been there yet to visit the IE9 test drive page to see what’s coming in the new IE9. Keep in mind IE9 isn’t just an update to IE8 but a total redesign, built around HTML5 web standards and is more integrated with Windows to allow for great Hardware acceleration capabilities. When you hear “Beautiful Web” it is how we are referring to how the new IE9 will help show the full creative vision of designers, using HTML5 to create websites. With HTML5 developers can do things they haven’t been able to do because of cross browser incompatibility issues. Now with modern browsers, like IE9 built around these new standards websites are going to push the limits of what you are used to seeing. We will all be seeing more websites pushing limits and redefining our web surfing experience.

    So Please visit the Test Drive page, and explore the Speed , HTML5, and Graphics demo’s to see what is coming very soon with the release of the IE9 Demo. Any of you Dev types can even use the platform preview to test your HTML5 code to see how might look in IE9.

    Cheers,
    Rick
    IE Outreach Team

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