14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft already confirmed one new feature for the Release Candidate of Internet Explorer 9, but apparently the company is also cooking some changes to the graphical user interface. A recent video that made its way in the wild seems to indicate modifications to Tabbed browsing in IE9 RC.
Early adopters familiar with the beta development milestone of IE9 undoubtedly already know that the browser ships with a very simple UI.
This move is designed to put all the focus on the websites rather than on the browser, according to the IE team, and far from me to disagree with them.
IE9’s UI is certainly more subtle, and contributes to pushing the browser to the background and leaving site take center-stage.
All the bars including for Favorites, Command and Status are switched off by default. IE9 Beta’s UI offers just the Back and Forward buttons, the Address Bar with the Refresh, Stop and Compatibility View buttons, the space reserved for opened tabs and a few shortcuts such as Home, Favorites and Tools.
I’m one of those users that have hundreds of sites opened at almost any given time when I’m working, and I have to be honest, the space offered by IE9 for the Tabs seemed a tad small.
Apparently, the IE team will resolve this with the Release Candidate Build. Make sure to watch the video embedded at the bottom to get an idea of the UI changes reportedly coming (courtesy of RICK DIV via WinRumors).
The UI changes are said to be introduced in IE9 pre-RC Build 9.0.8027.6000, allowing users to reposition the Tabs below the Address Bar and not on the left.
Of course, there’s no official confirmation of this from Microsoft, and as such the report needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The launch of IE9 RC is expected in early 2011.