[HIB]IE9 beta preview: Chrome and Firefox had an ugly baby

Microsoft has wasted no time in reminding everyone it's still in the browser wars, previewing Internet Explorer 9's beta version only three weeks after work began on the new software.Steven Sinofsky, president of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live division, showed off some of the new features at the company's Professional Developers Conference. Microsoft's usual business-like sobriety characterises the design, but there are some unsubtle similarities with other major Web browsers, which have been rapidly encroaching on IE's previous near-monopoly.Microsoft is forced by the EU not to bundle Internet Explorer with Windows and instead offer users a choice between the biggest browsers available by way of a 'ballot box' on launch. So with Microsoft having to promote its own competition, this is the first time it's had to really consider its browser opponents and win its users over, rather than claiming dominance by unearned ubiquity.

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