4 ms·

Leaked Screenshot Shows a Cleaner, Simpler IE9

28 points by shrikant 16y ago

grg 16y ago
Leaked by whom? Microsoft's PR Department?
PhilipM 16y ago
Its not cleaner or simpler, its exactly the same. Stupid people just stare at the pretty picture thats all. You need 2 search boxes, links bar and tabs and a title bar and a status line. Everything else better take up no room. There is no possibility of the interface changing, period. Ever.
- bmelton 16y ago
  1) It isn't exactly the same. The tab bar has been floated next to the URL bar, some of the icons have been shifted around, and overall, it seems to take up less space for the browser chrome to allow more space for the content. 2) Why do you need 2 search boxes? 3) Really? No possibility of the interface ever changing? I honestly figured Mozilla had it all figured out with Firefox 3.0 (or whichever version had the search box right next to the URL box,) until Chrome came along and had a multi-purpose URL box (that let you perform searches.) To make the statement that it will never, ever, ever change just seems brazen.
  - PhilipM 16y ago
    You need an address box and a search box. You need tabs. real estate concerns mean thats 2 lines so far. you need a favorites line (or i do anyway) you need a title line and a status line. If the browser is missing any of these lines I will add it. The interface is exactly the same, internet hasnt changed browsing hasnt changed. What you need to do in a browser hasnt changed. Its nonsense.
    - andrew1 16y ago
      I'm not saying you don't need a search box, but I use the address bar as my search box. That's even the default layout in Google Chrome isn't it?
      - desigooner 16y ago
        So far, I prefer the Chrome approach of a unified address+search bar to the Mozilla approach of 2 separate boxes. 1 keyboard shortcut to access either is far better than 2 .. if you type a search term in the firefox address bar as well, it'll search it for you ..
        andrew1 16y ago
        Maybe stating the obvious here, but you can just remove the search box from Firefox and they look pretty much the same.
        bmelton 16y ago
        Except that you then don't have a search box. That's the magic of Chrome, is that the address bar IS ALSO the search box.
        andrew1 16y ago
        You might have to mess around with the default behaviour but you can use the Firefox address bar as a search box. You can set it up so that typing 'g foo' searches for foo on Google, 'w bar' searches for bar on Wikipedia etc. It's actually more useful than the search box (in my opinion) as you can set up shortcuts so 'gm' will open google mail, 'lol' will open up the lolcats website. So there's really no need for a bookmarks bar either (as long as you can remember your shortcuts!).
      - shrikant 16y ago
        Chrome is my primary browser, but every now and then what I really miss about the two separate bars in Firefox is this use-case: 1) Select and right-click word/phrase on page 2) Select a search engine from search bar list 3) Look it up instantly on whichever search engine has focus in the search bar. In Chrome this wouldn't be possible without a form of overhead somewhere (add-on, user script, using keyboard, etc.) Just to clarify, I'm not against using the keyboard shortcuts - just that when I'm reading a page with a hand on the mouse/trackpad, it annoys me a just a little bit to switch to the keyboard and back to the mouse again.
ThomPete 16y ago
At least from the screenshots it looks neither cleaner nor simpler. Removing things is not the only point of simplicity.
- emarcotte 16y ago
  Removing (or rather probably just moving to be in a menu somewhere) things is definitely not the only key to simplicity, but I think it does help in this case. I think it does look quite a bit simpler to comprehend at least with respect to not slamming too much different stuff in the same sort of grouping. When I start up IE 8 I get the tab bar which has, in this order: A favorites button with an icon and a label, the set of tabs, some toolbar icons buttons, some of which are menus, some are just actions, some menu labels, and finally another icon menu for help. The new shot looks like they moved most of that into 3 icons on the top right. Unfortunately they moved the tabs next to the location bar, which means they will now be competing for space, but definitely trimming down and moving where all the menu options are is a plus in my eyes. They also added the idea of greater emphasis on the back button which is certainly more frequently used, which is nice.
  - ThomPete 16y ago
    The main problem I see is that they have made it simple by removing stuff but leaving no room complexity and still making the look of it complex. For instance the browser background is semi-transparent which means that yes the page will probably stand out more in some respect but at the same time they have no canvas to work with to make additions, allow for third party stuff. It will have to sit on top of that transparent canvas which will end up making it more complex. The reason to normally use white, black or gray is to have a neutral background that almost everything fit's nicely into. Now any icon or button have to compete with whatever happens to be behind the semi-transparent canvas. In many way's from the looks of this they are already maxed out on design debt. Of course that might be reading too much into it from this screen shot as I don't know what their plans are. But my immediate reaction is it won't scale very well.
    - iaskwhy 16y ago
2mur 16y ago
Where's the yahoo toolbar? (I really think that it looks similar to Chrome). But really, I'm just hoping for good css3/html5 support.
- jasonlotito 16y ago
  Not an IE user, but I've been impressed with the work the IE team is doing for IE9. The quality of support previewed so far outshines WebKit or Gecko. WebKit and Gecko, I think, have greater support, but the quality of IE9's support is superior.
seltzered 16y ago
I'm not a fan of mixing tabs on the same level as the url box. but I can imagine it was a design decision to allow for a bit more reading on widescreen monitors. I'm no fan to judge though, as I don't think I've actively used ie for nearly a decade now.
- ghurlman 16y ago
  As you can imagine, your average IE-only user typically only has one tab open at a time - so there's no reason to provide an entire tab row for them. My hope would be that the "tab bar" would act like any toolbar that IE has today - easily dragged down to its own row. Heck, it might have been dragged UP by whomever took that screenshot.
  - bigsassy 16y ago
    I've always wondered about tab usage among the typical IE user. Do you have any hard numbers or studies that corroborate your statement? I ask not to put you on the spot, but figure it's possible you have this information or may even work in a usability lab that has actually studied this (this is Hacker News after all).
    - koenigdavidmj 16y ago
      You would not use tabs either if it took three seconds to open a new one.
- grogers 16y ago
  I think I might like this actually. Chrome was a good start to reducing the wasted vertical space in the browser compared to earlier versions of firefox. Combining the address bar and tabs into one line is the next logical option, it might work, it might not. Tough to know unless you've tried it for a while.
- schultzor 16y ago
  I wonder if there's a clean way they could hide/collapse the URL field to a minimal width on the left side of the tab bar, then automatically expand it on mouseover or selection. Agree that vertical size of the toolbar should be minimized, less scrolling helps everyone.
swatermasysk 16y ago
It would be nearly impossible for IE9 to not be simpler than IE8, so I am not giving them too much credit until I actually see something shipped that the masses adopt. Interesting write on the simplicity of IE8 vs. Safari: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638772
hebejebelus 16y ago
Every single time a new version of IE is released, I think "Hooray! The masses will be able to see the web as it's supposed to be seen!" and then I'm crushed. Every. Single. Time.
Groxx 16y ago
Why does Microsoft hate tabs?
- shrikant 16y ago
  The slab you see to the right of the address/search combo bar is a tab.
  - Groxx 16y ago
    I know, it'd be an utter nightmare to use if you had more than 2 or 3 tabs. Compare to more tab-friendly browsers like Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Opera / anything with tabs. Heck, they've reduced the amount of space for tabs from the previous version, where all you had taking up tab-space was your favorites buttons and a half-menu setup.
henry81 16y ago
I see some people saying "you NEED this" and "you NEED that". Maybe YOU do, but I don't. At least give me the option to remove it. Yes I'm a minimalist. Personally my dream browser would have tabs and the URL box in the same row with no other icons or search boxes at ALL. Also get rid of the fat borders, maximize the real estate. Just my 2 cents.

28 points by shrikant 16y ago

grg 16y ago

Leaked by whom? Microsoft's PR Department?

Its not cleaner or simpler, its exactly the same. Stupid people just stare at the pretty picture thats all. You need 2 search boxes, links bar and tabs and a title bar and a status line. Everything else better take up no room. There is no possibility of the interface changing, period. Ever.

bmelton 16y ago
1) It isn't exactly the same. The tab bar has been floated next to the URL bar, some of the icons have been shifted around, and overall, it seems to take up less space for the browser chrome to allow more space for the content. 2) Why do you need 2 search boxes? 3) Really? No possibility of the interface ever changing? I honestly figured Mozilla had it all figured out with Firefox 3.0 (or whichever version had the search box right next to the URL box,) until Chrome came along and had a multi-purpose URL box (that let you perform searches.) To make the statement that it will never, ever, ever change just seems brazen.
- PhilipM 16y ago
  You need an address box and a search box. You need tabs. real estate concerns mean thats 2 lines so far. you need a favorites line (or i do anyway) you need a title line and a status line. If the browser is missing any of these lines I will add it. The interface is exactly the same, internet hasnt changed browsing hasnt changed. What you need to do in a browser hasnt changed. Its nonsense.
  - andrew1 16y ago
    I'm not saying you don't need a search box, but I use the address bar as my search box. That's even the default layout in Google Chrome isn't it?
    - desigooner 16y ago
      So far, I prefer the Chrome approach of a unified address+search bar to the Mozilla approach of 2 separate boxes. 1 keyboard shortcut to access either is far better than 2 .. if you type a search term in the firefox address bar as well, it'll search it for you ..
      - andrew1 16y ago
        Maybe stating the obvious here, but you can just remove the search box from Firefox and they look pretty much the same.
        bmelton 16y ago
        Except that you then don't have a search box. That's the magic of Chrome, is that the address bar IS ALSO the search box.
        andrew1 16y ago
        You might have to mess around with the default behaviour but you can use the Firefox address bar as a search box. You can set it up so that typing 'g foo' searches for foo on Google, 'w bar' searches for bar on Wikipedia etc. It's actually more useful than the search box (in my opinion) as you can set up shortcuts so 'gm' will open google mail, 'lol' will open up the lolcats website. So there's really no need for a bookmarks bar either (as long as you can remember your shortcuts!).
    - shrikant 16y ago
      Chrome is my primary browser, but every now and then what I really miss about the two separate bars in Firefox is this use-case: 1) Select and right-click word/phrase on page 2) Select a search engine from search bar list 3) Look it up instantly on whichever search engine has focus in the search bar. In Chrome this wouldn't be possible without a form of overhead somewhere (add-on, user script, using keyboard, etc.) Just to clarify, I'm not against using the keyboard shortcuts - just that when I'm reading a page with a hand on the mouse/trackpad, it annoys me a just a little bit to switch to the keyboard and back to the mouse again.

ThomPete 16y ago

At least from the screenshots it looks neither cleaner nor simpler. Removing things is not the only point of simplicity.

emarcotte 16y ago
Removing (or rather probably just moving to be in a menu somewhere) things is definitely not the only key to simplicity, but I think it does help in this case. I think it does look quite a bit simpler to comprehend at least with respect to not slamming too much different stuff in the same sort of grouping. When I start up IE 8 I get the tab bar which has, in this order: A favorites button with an icon and a label, the set of tabs, some toolbar icons buttons, some of which are menus, some are just actions, some menu labels, and finally another icon menu for help. The new shot looks like they moved most of that into 3 icons on the top right. Unfortunately they moved the tabs next to the location bar, which means they will now be competing for space, but definitely trimming down and moving where all the menu options are is a plus in my eyes. They also added the idea of greater emphasis on the back button which is certainly more frequently used, which is nice.
- ThomPete 16y ago
  The main problem I see is that they have made it simple by removing stuff but leaving no room complexity and still making the look of it complex. For instance the browser background is semi-transparent which means that yes the page will probably stand out more in some respect but at the same time they have no canvas to work with to make additions, allow for third party stuff. It will have to sit on top of that transparent canvas which will end up making it more complex. The reason to normally use white, black or gray is to have a neutral background that almost everything fit's nicely into. Now any icon or button have to compete with whatever happens to be behind the semi-transparent canvas. In many way's from the looks of this they are already maxed out on design debt. Of course that might be reading too much into it from this screen shot as I don't know what their plans are. But my immediate reaction is it won't scale very well.
  - iaskwhy 16y ago

2mur 16y ago

Where's the yahoo toolbar? (I really think that it looks similar to Chrome). But really, I'm just hoping for good css3/html5 support.

jasonlotito 16y ago
Not an IE user, but I've been impressed with the work the IE team is doing for IE9. The quality of support previewed so far outshines WebKit or Gecko. WebKit and Gecko, I think, have greater support, but the quality of IE9's support is superior.

seltzered 16y ago

I'm not a fan of mixing tabs on the same level as the url box. but I can imagine it was a design decision to allow for a bit more reading on widescreen monitors. I'm no fan to judge though, as I don't think I've actively used ie for nearly a decade now.

ghurlman 16y ago
As you can imagine, your average IE-only user typically only has one tab open at a time - so there's no reason to provide an entire tab row for them. My hope would be that the "tab bar" would act like any toolbar that IE has today - easily dragged down to its own row. Heck, it might have been dragged UP by whomever took that screenshot.
- bigsassy 16y ago
  I've always wondered about tab usage among the typical IE user. Do you have any hard numbers or studies that corroborate your statement? I ask not to put you on the spot, but figure it's possible you have this information or may even work in a usability lab that has actually studied this (this is Hacker News after all).
  - koenigdavidmj 16y ago
    You would not use tabs either if it took three seconds to open a new one.
grogers 16y ago
I think I might like this actually. Chrome was a good start to reducing the wasted vertical space in the browser compared to earlier versions of firefox. Combining the address bar and tabs into one line is the next logical option, it might work, it might not. Tough to know unless you've tried it for a while.
schultzor 16y ago
I wonder if there's a clean way they could hide/collapse the URL field to a minimal width on the left side of the tab bar, then automatically expand it on mouseover or selection. Agree that vertical size of the toolbar should be minimized, less scrolling helps everyone.

swatermasysk 16y ago

It would be nearly impossible for IE9 to not be simpler than IE8, so I am not giving them too much credit until I actually see something shipped that the masses adopt. Interesting write on the simplicity of IE8 vs. Safari: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1638772

hebejebelus 16y ago

Every single time a new version of IE is released, I think "Hooray! The masses will be able to see the web as it's supposed to be seen!" and then I'm crushed. Every. Single. Time.

Groxx 16y ago

Why does Microsoft hate tabs?

shrikant 16y ago
The slab you see to the right of the address/search combo bar is a tab.
- Groxx 16y ago
  I know, it'd be an utter nightmare to use if you had more than 2 or 3 tabs. Compare to more tab-friendly browsers like Chrome / Firefox / Safari / Opera / anything with tabs. Heck, they've reduced the amount of space for tabs from the previous version, where all you had taking up tab-space was your favorites buttons and a half-menu setup.

henry81 16y ago

I see some people saying "you NEED this" and "you NEED that". Maybe YOU do, but I don't. At least give me the option to remove it. Yes I'm a minimalist. Personally my dream browser would have tabs and the URL box in the same row with no other icons or search boxes at ALL. Also get rid of the fat borders, maximize the real estate. Just my 2 cents.