Why I like the new Internet Explorer 7 – tabbed browsing

Geoff Rasmussen

15 Feb 2007

The new Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) software has taken web surfing to a higher level. Microsoft’s newest web browser has been available for a couple of months now, and comes with its new operating system, Windows Vista.

My favorite feature of this new browser software is the tabbed browsing. Prior to IE7, to view multiple web pages at once, you either had to open Internet Explorer multiple times, or use a different browser like FireFox.

The image below (click for larger image) shows a small portion of the new IE7 browser. It currently displays the LegacyFamilyTree.com site. To open another site at the same time, simply click on the button next to the main tab. This will open a new web site where you can type in a different web address (www.familysearch.org for example). Now, to switch back and forth between the two web sites, all you have to do is click on the tabs. No more ALT-tabbing, minimizing, or resizing windows to view multiple sites.

To see which version of Internet Explorer you are using, with it open, click on the Help menu, and click on About.

For an overview of the new browser software, click here. The link also contains a list of helpful keyboard shortcuts.

Comments (4)

Speaking of browsers, Google Labs has a downloadable plug-in called Notebook, which lets you highlight and save selections from any Web page into a personal file. It beats just saving the URL in Favorites, since the content you want is preserved even if the original page disappears or changes. It’s also much faster and easier than copying/pasting into a Word or other document. You can name and keep multiple Notebooks, which are then accessible from any computer using Google. You’ll need a Google account, but these are free and quick to set up.

Netscape 8 has had tabbed browsing for a long time too. It also can display pages as Firefox view or Internet Explorer view in case one view is better than the other. Microsoft usually just copies ideas from others, it’s just bigger than anything else and can buy out anyone.

Firefox has also been available with tabbed browsing for a long time. And there are also many other extensions for users to add to it. Don’t sell IE7 like a new great thing, when is actually only slowly catching up to existing technologies.

Opera has had tabbed browsing for ages. Also it is much faster than IE 7 and generally thought to be more secure. It also has a great feature – “Widgets”. This is a huge range of small programs that can be downloaded and added to Opera to do various tasks.
I currently use ones for :- TV listings (almost instant), currency conversions, local weather forecast, scientific calculator and earthquake monitor – but there are literally hundreds more. Oh and by the way Opera is free as are the Widgets.

TP
Tim Perrott

18 years ago

Speaking of browsers, Google Labs has a downloadable plug-in called Notebook, which lets you highlight and save selections from any Web page into a personal file. It beats just saving the URL in Favorites, since the content you want is preserved even if the original page disappears or changes. It’s also much faster and easier than copying/pasting into a Word or other document. You can name and keep multiple Notebooks, which are then accessible from any computer using Google. You’ll need a Google account, but these are free and quick to set up.
GL
G. Lynn Hada

18 years ago

Netscape 8 has had tabbed browsing for a long time too. It also can display pages as Firefox view or Internet Explorer view in case one view is better than the other. Microsoft usually just copies ideas from others, it’s just bigger than anything else and can buy out anyone.
AS
Andre Switala

18 years ago

Firefox has also been available with tabbed browsing for a long time. And there are also many other extensions for users to add to it. Don’t sell IE7 like a new great thing, when is actually only slowly catching up to existing technologies.
DS
David Sims

18 years ago

Opera has had tabbed browsing for ages. Also it is much faster than IE 7 and generally thought to be more secure. It also has a great feature – “Widgets”. This is a huge range of small programs that can be downloaded and added to Opera to do various tasks.
I currently use ones for :- TV listings (almost instant), currency conversions, local weather forecast, scientific calculator and earthquake monitor – but there are literally hundreds more. Oh and by the way Opera is free as are the Widgets.