Whilst Neowin has been showing off and awarding Internet Explorer 9 concepts, long-time Microsoft journalist Mary Jo Foley (ZDNET) appears to have come across the real thing. We’re now around 20 days out from the expected launch date for the IE9 beta, but it seems that Microsoft Russia have gotten a little ahead of themselves and posted an official screenshot of IE9. Neowin has confirmed this screenshot is real through sources familiar with Microsoft's plans.
The site has since been pulled (of course), so the above screenshot is all you'll get for now. The screenshot doesn’t feature a date/time, but it does show off the ‘new’ IE9 icon in the taskbar. Although it’s always hard to trust an online translator, Mary has found out the following:
- Tabs can be ‘torn off’, and possibly ‘snapped’ via Windows 7's Aero Snap feature.
- Dragging a ‘pin’ from the address bar creates a link on your taskbar.
- There’s a combined search and address bar (as with Google’s Chrome).
- IE9 only has one menu, consolidating the six menus found in IE8.
Although suggested sites appears to be missing, along with a few other icons we’ve been used to seeing along the top of an IE browser window, there still appears to be home, favorites and settings buttons in the top right-hand corner of the window.
Like it or hate it, this one definitely seems to be on the money. It’s simpler, as we’ve been promised, and the design fits in well with what Microsoft has been putting out lately. Can you wait 20 days?
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