14 DAY TRIAL // On the heels of the gold version of Internet Explorer 8, Yahoo is offering an optimized variant of the latest iteration of Internet Explorer. Of course that the IE8 flavor offered by Yahoo is tailored to the Sunnyvale-based Internet giant's online properties. Back at the end of 2006, Yahoo made a similar move with Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP SP2. But although Google had once jumped on IE's wagon, the Mountain View search giant is no longer playing best buddies with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, especially since it made available its own breed of open-source browser, Chrome.
“Welcome to Windows Internet Explorer 8. This installation package includes customized settings and possibly additional applications from Yahoo,” reads the message displayed first by the installer for the IE8 copy optimized for Yahoo. According to the Sunnyvale Internet giant, its optimized version of IE8 RTW is designed to integrate only with 32-bit Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and SP3 and 32-bit Windows Vista RTM and SP1.
Released to web on March 19, 2009, the plain vanilla Internet Explorer 8 is also offered for the 64-bit versions of XP SP2/SP3 and Vista RTM/SP1, as well as for x86 and x64 Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. The optimized IE8 has Yahoo set up as the default search engine, and comes with the Yahoo Toolbar already installed. In addition, users will notice Yahoo sites through the default favorites.
In 2006, Google was also offering a customized variant of Internet Explorer 7. In fact the Google-branded IE7 continues to be available, with the download link still live. However, the Mountain View company is currently focusing on Chrome, leaving Yahoo to offer alone a personalized and branded Internet Explorer 8 RTW experience. Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) RTW is available for download here (for 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008).
The latest development milestone of Google Chrome is available for download here.
