SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones)--Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) made an almost-finished version of its latest Internet Explorer browser available for download on Thursday, a move that comes as the software giant tries to bolster its sagging position in the software that helps users navigate the Web.
The release candidate of Internet Explorer 9, which has been in development for over a year, takes advantage of hardware acceleration technology to help Web pages play multimedia content faster and more smoothly. The browser also has built-in privacy features that allow users to more fully control which sites are tracking their movements on the Web.
IE9, as the browser is informally known, will work only with Microsoft's Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. A final version of the browser is expected to be released within weeks.
The new version of Internet Explorer comes as Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft battles to preserve its slipping share of the market for browsers, a software category it has historically dominated, sometimes with a share of more than 90%. Now, Internet Explorer accounts for 56% of the market, while Mozilla Corp.'s Firefox has nearly 23% and Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Chrome browser about 11%, according to Net Applications.
As with other versions of Internet Explorer, Microsoft will not charge for IE9. But Dean Hachamovitch, who runs the IE business, says the new browser will help generate enthusiasm and excitement for the company's other products, most notable the well-received Windows 7 operating system.
"Your Web experience is only as good as the operating system it runs on," Hachamovitch said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "We want them to have a great experience," he said, referring to prospective IE9 users.
IE9, which uses a new technology known as HTML5, loads and play Web pages quickly because it takes advantage of the graphics processing unit inside a computer, something previous browsers didn't do. IE9 can use both the graphics processor and the central processing unit, allowing it to render Web pages with more speed and power.
"The more operations you can move to the GPU, the more performance you can get from the CPU," said Rob Mauceri, a senior engineer on the IE9 team.
The browser also addresses growing concerns over the amount of private information that is collected each time a Web user visits a site. Because most websites are made up of material provided from other websites, users can end up providing their information to scores of different companies each time they visit a page.
Some of these companies then follow users across the Web.
IE9 has an opt-in tracking protection feature that allows users to employ lists of websites recommended for blocking. Once the lists are installed, they are updated automatically.
The lists are provided by four partner groups: Abine Inc., EasyList, PrivacyChoice and TRUSTe Inc.
Microsoft shares, which trade roughly where they did a decade ago, fell 1.7% to $27.50 in Thursday trading.
