【英语科技】微软最新版IE测评

In the continuing tug of war between apps and the Web, Microsoft offered a little bit of both last month in its beta release of Internet Explorer 9, the latest iteration of the world's most popular Web browser. IE 9, as it's nicknamed, is designed to make websites look richer, respond faster and behave more like the apps installed on your PC so you forget that you're browsing the Web.

Alas, you are still browsing the Web and the occasional sluggish behavior doesn't always magically abate after downloading a shiny new browser.

I tested IE 9 against its rivals, including speed tests with stopwatch in hand, as well as overall use tests to see how this new browser handled websites with complex graphics.

I found my experience with IE 9 to be fast, and in some tests, faster on average than Google Chrome, Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browser. It also handled graphically rich websites with no trouble. (IE 9 is free for Windows PCs at beautyoftheweb.com.)

I used two Windows 7 PCs for testing, and though one performed without any problems, the other crashed two times while I used IE 9.

After a thorough analysis of the PC, a Microsoft spokesman attributed this to a graphics-driver problem and suggested a work-around of switching settings in IE 9 so it would use software rather than hardware graphics acceleration, which this new browser uses to improve speed and performance. This switch would cause the browser to perform slower than if it had used the richer hardware-accelerated graphics.

Using the four major browsers, I measured the average time for how long it took each to completely open five typical websites: Facebook, Google Gmail, Twitter, WSJ.com and my sister's WordPress blog. IE 9 opened Facebook fastest and tied with Chrome in opening WSJ.com fastest. Firefox clocked the best time for opening Gmail and Twitter, and Safari opened my sister's WordPress blog the fastest.

But most of these time differences were within tenths or even hundredths of a second. What interested me more were how these browsers handled intense graphics on certain websites written in a rich format called HTML5.

I opened and interacted with websites including Livestrong.com, BMW's joydefinesthefuture.com and IMDB.com. All the browsers could handle these sites except for Firefox, which couldn't open the BMW site -- a Web page that shows interactive diagrams of car designs. Videos played smoothly in all browsers, but seemed to start a smidge faster, on average, in IE 9.

If users aren't impressed with IE 9's enhanced speed and ability to handle graphics-filled websites, they'll have a harder time ignoring the way this browser melds with Windows 7 to do some pretty cool things. For example, to automatically create a shortcut to a website, click on its representative icon, whether from the browser's address bar or from a New Tab page, and drag it down and pin it to the task bar.

This pinned site is represented with its own unique icon and can work as a notification feature for a site's content. Facebook, when pinned to the task bar, displayed a red asterisk when I had new notifications, messages, or friend requests waiting for me.

A Microsoft spokesman says there should be more sites that take advantage of these notification capabilities in coming weeks.

Like anything pinned to the task bar in Windows 7, each of these pinned sites gets its own jump list, a set of commands that can be previewed and selected right from the task bar. Other functions also work from here, like playback commands for websites with videos. And any opened site can be previewed in thumbnail view by mousing over it in the task bar.

IE 9 is visually enjoyable thanks to some small but helpful tweaks.

The browser's back button, an arrow in a circle, is much larger than other browsers, making it easy to find and use when you want to navigate back to the last page you were on. This back button and the forward arrow button beside it change colors according to the dominant color used in the opened website.

For Gmail, the arrow buttons are red, on AllThingsD.com, the buttons are green and on my sister's WordPress travel blog, they're light blue. This artistic touch makes the overall page easier on the eyes.

Many sites look the same on IE 9 as they do on other browsers, but some sites look better, filling the screen with slightly bigger illustrations and larger fonts that are easier to digest. I noticed this when viewing Twitter.com and several news websites.

But I missed some of the visual pluses of other browsers. For example, you can't close one of several opened browser tabs just by clicking on its red 'x' icon unless you select -- and, thus, view -- that tabbed webpage.

Chrome, Firefox and Safari all allow closing of tabs by just mousing over a tab to see an 'x' to click to close the website.

Handy shortcuts like this are especially helpful if you're browsing online for a birthday gift, the intended recipient suddenly appears beside your PC and you need to slyly close a tab.

I'm also not crazy about the New Tab page in IE 9. This uses tiles with names of websites and small icons on each to represent your 10 most visited websites so you can quickly select one of them rather than typing out the page's URL.

But I prefer the way Google Chrome displays the eight most visited sites as mini web page representations, which are easier to quickly recognize and select.

Likewise, the click of a button in Apple's Safari browser shows mini representations of your 12 top websites in a concave view that makes you feel like you're sitting in a round room. And though IE 9 has a handsome translucent border, when I had it opened in front of Google Chrome, I could see Chrome's tabs behind that translucency, showing just how much more computer screen real estate Chrome offers.

Aside from my unusual PC crashes, IE 9 worked quickly and is smartly designed to handle websites with intense graphics. The Web will continue to fill with more and more of these visually rich, interactive sites, so people will benefit from using a browser like IE 9 that can take the heat.

面对应用程序和互联网之间持续不断的拉锯战，微软(Microsoft)在近期推出了兼具两者特点的IE9 Beta版－－当今世界最流行的网络浏览器的最新版本。IE9让网站外观显得更为丰富多彩，网站响应速度更加快捷，而且使用起来更像是在你的个人计算机上安装了本地应用程序，以至于你会忘记自己是在浏览互联网。

唉，不管怎么说，你还是在浏览网页，即便是下载了绝妙的全新浏览器，偶尔的运行缓慢现象不可能奇迹般地完全消失。

我对IE9进行了测试，并将其和它的竞争对手作了比较，包括用秒表测试运行速度，还测试了它在处理包含复杂图形网站时的总体表现。

我发现IE9的运行速度很快，而且在某些测试中，运行速度平均来讲超过了Google Chrome，苹果的Safari和Mozilla的火狐(Firefox)浏览器。IE9处理起具有丰富版面设计的网站来也不存在任何困难。（WindowsPC用户可以从beautyoftheweb.com网站上免费下载IE9）。

我使用了两台装载Windows 7操作系统的计算机来对IE9进行测试。其中一台运行起来没有任何问题，但另一台却在我使用IE9时两次死机。

在对那台计算机进行了全面检查后，微软公司的一名发言人将原因归咎于图形驱动程序的问题，并且建议更改IE9的设置，让它使用软件图形加速而不是硬件图形加速。而IE9正是通过硬件图形加速来改善速度和性能的，更改设置会使浏览器的速度比起使用硬件图形加速时变慢。

我测试了四大浏览器完全打开五个最具代表性网站的时间，这五个网站是Facebook、谷歌的Gmail、推特(Twitter)、华尔街日报网站WSJ.com和我姐姐的WordPress博客。IE9在打开Facebook时速度最快，在打开WSJ.com时和Chrome并列第一。火狐用最短的时间打开了Gmail和推特，而Safari在打开我姐姐的WordPress博客时速度最快。

但是这些时间差大致都不超过几十甚至几百分之一秒。让我更感兴趣的是这些浏览器在处理某些网站上用HTML5格式制作的复杂图形时的表现。

我打开了包括Livestrong.com、宝马公司(BMW)的joydefinesthefuture.com和IMDB.com在内的网站，并与这些站点进行了互动操作。除火狐无法打开宝马公司的网站外--该网页展示了车型的交互式图像，其它的浏览器都可以对这些网站进行处理。视频在所有浏览器上的播放都很流畅，但是平均说来IE9开启视频的速度似乎稍稍快一些。

即使用户对IE9更快的速度和更强的处理图形能力不以为然，他们也很难对IE9与Windows 7共同协作完成的某些很酷的操作不心动。比如，想要自动创建某网站的快捷方式，只要在浏览器的地址栏或新卷标页中点击它的图标，然后把它一直拖到任务栏就可以了。

这个选中的网站会有自己独特的图标来表示，而且它还可以具备网站内容的提示功能。如果Facebook被锁定到任务栏，当收到新的通知、短消息或好友请求时，图标就会显示出红色星号。

微软公司的发言人表示，在未来几周内这些提示功能将会适用于更多的网站。

如同所有锁定在Windows 7任务栏中的程序一样，每一个锁定的网站都会有自己的跳转列表，用户可以提前预览上面的一系列指令并直接从任务栏中进行选择。其它一些功能也可以在这里进行操作，比如视频网站的回放指令。而且，所有打开的网站都可以把鼠标放到它在任务栏的地址上来预览缩略图。

由于一些不起眼但却很有效的设计，IE9在视觉上让人耳目一新。

IE9浏览器的后退按钮（圆圈内的箭头）比其它浏览器大出很多，当用户想要返回上一页时会更容易找到并使用它。后退键和旁边的前进键会根据当前打开的网站的主色而变换颜色。

打开Gmail，后退按钮会变成红色，打开AllThingsD.com，后退按钮会变成绿色，而打开我姐姐的WordPress旅行博客，后退按钮又会变成淡蓝色。这种设计让整个页面都变得更加自然。

很多网站在IE9上看起来和使用其它浏览器并没有什么不同，但一些网站的效果会更好一些。屏幕上显示的图表和字体会稍大一些，用户使用起来也就更方便。我是在浏览Twitter.com和几个新闻网站时注意到这一点的。

但是，我在IE9上却没找到其它浏览器的一些优化设置。比如说，当你打开了几个标签页，要关闭其中一个页面时，你无法简单地通过点击该页上红色的x按钮来关闭，而必须首先选中这个标签页，进入浏览状态。

Chrome、火狐和Safari都可以把鼠标移动到一个标签上，点击上面的x按钮来关闭该标签页。

如果你正在网上挑选一件生日礼物，礼物的接收者突然出现在你的计算机旁，你就需要关掉这个标签页。这个时候，这种便捷的快捷方式就显得尤其有帮助。

我对IE9的新标签页也不是很感兴趣。它使用选项卡页来显示10个你最经常访问的网站名及其小图标。这样，你就可以很快地选择其中的一个网站，而无需输入网址。

但是我更喜欢Google Chrome以迷你网页的形式显示8个最常用网站的做法，它让我可以更容易地迅速认出网站并进行选择。

同样，点击苹果公司Safari浏览器上的一个按钮可以显示出12个最常用网站的迷你网页，它会呈现出一种凹形的视图，让你觉得自己像是坐在一间圆形的屋子里。尽管IE9有着帅气的半透明边框，但是当我在Google Chrome前打开IE9的时候，我能在半透明的边框下看见Chrome的标签页。这说明Chrome在屏幕建设方面付出了更多的心血。

除了导致我的计算机非正常死机以外，IE9的运行速度很快，精妙的设计让它可以处理拥有大量图形的网站。互联网上将会继续出现越来越多外观华丽的交互式网站，IE9这样经得起考验的浏览器会进一步改善你的上网体验。