Death Of the IE...End of an Era or Beginning of a new revolution?

Microsoft just introduced the Project Spartan in their Windows 10 event. It is the internet companion that replaces the IE on Windows 10.

What's new -

• New, refreshed & improved UI, unlike the slight cosmetic changes of the past.
• Reading Mode (something from the MACs but seems better with a personal magazine/read later feature)
• The brilliant idea of note taking and sharing on the website itself.
• Assisted web browsing with Cortana.

Moving away from the versioned mode used in Internet Explorer, Project Spartan now uses the same markup as other modern browsers. Spartan’s new rendering engine is said to be designed to work with the way the web is written today.

The UI is in sync with the Modern UI of Windows 10  & is now more functional than before.

The reading mode, somewhat an older feature that the Safari on OSX & iOS devices already had is a welcome addition to the Project as well. It gives you a clutter free and distraction free read. The Read later magazine like feature reminds me of the BlinkFeed feature of HTC Sense 6 & it is very useful, especially when you feel like you miss out on articles/web pages when in a hurry and don't want to Bookmark them.

One of the best features built into the project is undoubtedly the note-taking and sharing feature. This reminds me the features of Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but it's a bit different in usability than that. This is especially useful in today's social lifestyle & for collaboration with colleagues on projects. It makes the website static with links accessible (not as a screenshot like in the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 ) & that makes it the best way of sharing the web.

The best feature, Cortana, however is what makes the web experience much smarter & aware of our requirements. The addition of Cortana as an assistant to your everyday web usage helps in a way that a personal assistant would & better. It seems to understand when you start searching for something on the web as per your previous searches, bookings, meetings, lifestyle etc. It also gives you meanings of words that you may not know with a simple right click.

For the Web-Developers -

• Backward compatibility for older websites designed for Internet Explorer.
• Document modes will no longer be supported.
• Improved F12 Developer tools mode.

Said to be powered by a new rendering engine & a markup that is used by other modern browsers, the Project Spartan would work across devices as a service/unified app.

For more info, web developers  kindly check the following links :

• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/01/22/project-spartan-and-the-windows-10-january-preview-build.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2014/11/11/living-on-the-edge-our-next-step-in-interoperability.aspx

The above features seem awesome if not game changing & modern at least on paper & presentation. It seems to be truly a worthy IE replacement.

It seems truly a step in the right direction in future for both IE and Microsoft. It seems to be a great evolution for both.

But, the project is  still in infancy & a lot cannot be said about it at the time, except that if it works as said & is faster to load that the present generation IEs, then we have a winner ;-) .