Microsoft releases new version of Internet Explorer

SEATTLE (AP) – Microsoft Corp. will release a new version of Internet Explorer Thursday, adding features meant to speed up common Web surfing tasks and bringing the browser’s security measures in line with those of major competitors.

The number of browsers has grown to a dizzying array, from Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox, the two most popular, to Apple Inc.’s Safari, Google Inc.’s Chrome, the Norwegian entrant Opera and others. Each is using speed, security enhancements and new features to fight for a share of Web surfers’ growing time online. Microsoft remains the dominant player, but Firefox’s influence is growing.

Dean Hachamovitch, the IE group’s general manager, said in an interview Wednesday that the free browser is important to Microsoft because the company simply wants PC users to have a “great experience every day” when surfing the Web. For Microsoft, as for Apple and Google, the browser is one more way to build relationships that could sway other decisions, like whether to buy a Macintosh or a Windows computer, or whether to use Google’s Gmail instead of Microsoft’s Hotmail.

Google’s entry into the market last year also shows the Web search leader believes owning the browser can help it better understand Web users’ behavior and advertise to them more effectively – an area in which Microsoft is struggling to catch up.

Internet Explorer 8, which marks Microsoft’s first major browser update since August 2006, takes a stab at fixing many of the small annoyances people encounter every day.

For one, IE8 aims to reduce the need to copy something from one Web page and paste it into another - mapping a restaurant address, Googling a celebrity name, looking up an unknown word in Wikipedia or sharing a story by e-mail, Twitter or Facebook.

A list of those little actions, which Microsoft is calling Accelerators, can be called up by highlighting the text on a page and clicking on a small blue icon that appears. People can add new Accelerators to reflect their own search, e-mail and other habits.

The new version of IE also adds a twist to the built-in toolbar search box.

Firefox already lets people switch easily among search providers and sites like Amazon.com, eBay and Wikipedia using a drop-down menu. Microsoft takes this feature a step further. Type a word into the box and a preview of suggested searches or results appears in a drop-down list.