The web tonight is awash with news of the release of the beta of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 9 (IE9). At the risk of being accused of cronyism, this is a major development for web design and designers. IE holds over 60% share of browser usage (source: Wikipedia) and the release of IE9 beta therefore signals the beginning of widespread adoption of new web coding techniques like HTML5, Canvas, SVG and CSS3. The feature set is impressive and you can immediately notice the speed improvement over IE8 and appreciate the potential that hardware accelerated graphics and text bring to future web design.
To see the power of these technologies for yourself, install IE9 beta, then explore some of the test drive sites and the many live sites available from today. Be sure to check out some of my favourites including The Killers’, Gorillaz, and Pixel Lab’s delightful Agent 8 Ball game.