Internet Explorer 9 hits 2 mn downloads
This is in sharp contrast to 1.3 million downloads Internet Explorer 8 Beta received over first 5 days when it was launched in August 2008.
Roger Capriotti of Microsoft wrote on the company's IE blog, "The initial reaction has been pretty overwhelming." Capriotti added, "We've seen 9 million visits and over 26 million page views to the Beauty of the Web site since its release last week, and our developer-focused IE Test Drive Site has had 4 million page views since last Wednesday."
Among key features, the new IE 9 offers support for HTML5, a catch phrase for an updated set of rules and specifications that website programmers use. HTML5, which is currently under development, will include video playback and other graphics-intensive features.
The new browser also uses the PC's graphics processing unit -- the same chips that make the images in elaborate video games run smoothly -- to make images, animations, movie clips and other visuals appear or play faster.
As for system requirements, the new browser works on PCs with Windows 7 or Vista, but not on PCs with the much more widely used Windows XP or on Macs.
IE9 is available in a public beta, or trial version, in more than 30 languages.
