Microsoft announces global launch of Internet Explorer 9

Microsoft Corp. today announced the launch of the latest version of the world’s most-used browser with the release of Windows Internet Explorer 9 in 40 languages at an event at the SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) conference.

Internet Explorer 9 is Microsoft’s most-downloaded browser beta of all time, with more than 40 million downloads, and it has already has gained more than 2 percent usage on Windows 7. Already more than 250 top sites from around the globe are taking advantage of the capabilities in Internet Explorer 9 to deliver differentiated experiences to their customers, with many featured on http://www.BeautyoftheWeb.com. Together, these partners reach more than 1 billion active Internet users on the Web.

“The best experience of the Web is on Windows with Internet Explorer 9,” said Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president, Windows Internet Explorer, at Microsoft. “Today, the Web can unlock the power and performance of the best PC hardware through Windows and Internet Explorer 9. Websites also can act more like applications within Windows 7, with features such as Pinned Sites. In less than a year, Internet Explorer 9 went from early preview to final release with the help of hardware partners and the Web community.”

Top sites and designers take advantage of Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer 9 is designed to bring sites front and center through Windows 7, enabling a more immersive, more beautiful Web experience.Features such as Pinned Sites and JumpList enable people to put their websites directly on the Windows 7 Taskbar, as though they were native applications, and then to quickly and easily perform tasks related to those websites, such as check their inbox, change the music station, accept a friend invitation or see breaking news.

In addition to 250 top sites, more than 1,000 other sites and designers are taking advantage of these new features with Internet Explorer 9 and Windows 7. These sites include not only the largest sites on the Web, such as Facebook and Amazon, but also leading experiences from across the Web and the world.

In social and information networking, Internet Explorer 9 partners include category leaders such as Facebook, Twitter and WordPress - the No. 1 global blogging platform - in addition to leading professional networks in the U.S., Europe, Russia, Korea and Latin America.

In e-commerce, partners include the leading worldwideshopping site, Amazon, and the No. 1 worldwide auction site, eBay

Video and streaming partners include someof the top five video-on-demand sites in the U.S.- Break.com and Dailymotion - and leading Internet radio sites like PANDORA internet radio and Jango. In addition, partners include global broadcasters, likeWat.tv in France, and CNN in the U.S.

News website partners in the U.S. includethe Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Huffington Post, as well as dozens of leading news sites globally across all major geographies.

“What people care about on the Web is their sites, not their browser. That’s why Internet Explorer 9 is about making those sites shine. The browser is the theater and the sites people visit are the play, and that is what Internet Explorer 9 makes better - your favorite sites,” said Ryan Gavin, senior director, Windows Internet Explorer, at Microsoft.

PANDORA internet radio is announcing a new dynamic JumpList for Internet Explorer 9. Tom Conrad, Chief Technical Officer and Executive Vice President of Product for Pandora, adds, “This new feature allows our listeners to have immediate access to their personalized Pandora stations right from the task bar with Internet Explorer 9, which will make for an easy-access listerner experience.”

Fast is now beautiful: Internet Explorer 9 with hardware acceleration

The new version of Internet Explorer takes advantage of the power of modern Windows PC hardware to improve all-around Web browsing performance. The only browser with fullyhardware-accelerated HTML5, Internet Explorer 9 harnesses the power of the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), unlocking 90 percent of the PC’s power that went previously untapped by Web browsers.

Developers can now build faster, more immersive websites that feel like native applications using interoperable HTML5 or by using plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player and Microsoft Silverlight, both of which will take advantage of the hardware acceleration in Internet Explorer 9 in their next versions.

“Thanks to how Internet Explorer 9 taps into the power of the GPU, the web is now more visual, more immersive, and more powerful with NVIDIA GeForce. We are incredibly excited that consumers can now experience their favorite sites re-imagined and accelerated.  It’s a whole new web,” added Drew Henry, General Manager, GeForce Business Unit, NVIDIA.

Improving privacy and security online

Because the Web is increasingly less secure and private, Internet Explorer 9 is designed to be the most trusted browser because it contains a robust set of built-in security, privacy and reliability technologies that keep customerssafer online.

In December, Microsoft introduced Tracking Protection in Internet Explorer 9,which putspeople in control of what data they aresharing as they move around the Web, by enabling consumers to indicate what websites they’d prefer not to exchange information with. Consumers do this by adding Tracking Protection Lists to Internet Explorer 9, and partners such as PrivacyChoice,TRUSTe, Abine and AdblockPlushave already published these lists.

Malware is now the No. 1 risk to people’s security online, and Internet Explorer 9 provides the first Download Manager with integrated SmartScreenmalware protection. The browser also introduces SmartScreen download reputation, a groundbreaking browser feature that uses reputation data to remove unnecessary warnings for well-known files and show more severe warnings when the download has a higher risk of being malicious. Studies show that Internet Explorer 9 blocks 99 percent of socially engineered malware attacks, five times more than Firefox and 33 times more than Chrome.

Raise expectations for a better web

Partners from around the world are re-imaging their websites usingthe capabilities of Windows and Internet Explorer 9, creating newexperiences that make theWeb feel as native as PC applications.The result is a more beautifulWeb experience.

“HP and Microsoft have a long history of bringing meaningful innovations to our customers. Today we celebrate with Microsoft the launch of IE9, a new milestone in enabling faster and more visually compelling web experiences,” said Tony Prophet, Senior Vice President of Operations, Personal Systems Group, HP.  “IE9 is really a superior browser and we’re pleased to make it available on most of our consumer PCs.”