Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 web browser goes live

Microsoft has said the latest version of its internet explorer web browser puts it ahead of competitors like Google and Firefox.

The software giant, which is losing market share, made the bold claim as it unveiled what is known as the release candidate of IE9.
This is the final test drive for the new browser - a chance to catch any last-minute bugs before its debut.
IE9 has been downloaded 25 million times during beta testing.
Privacy and speed are being highlighted as two of the features that set IE9 apart.

"This release is one that is playing catch up [on past releases], but it leapfrogs everything and now you see the other folks on the back foot trying to catch up with us," Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president of Internet Explorer.

"This is a real race again in terms of browsers," said Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief of PCMag.com.
"To some extent, Microsoft had ceded that race, but when I first heard about IE9, my initial reaction was 'oh the game is on'.

Now it is a question of how people will perceive it when they look at it against Google Chrome and Firefox, but Chrome is where you have the most interesting battle and this is a true battle in the browser space."
One feature being put front and centre of IE9 is tracking protection that gives users better control over how their information is shared across the web.
Some content on websites can be used to track activity as people hop from one site to another. IE9's tracking protection means users can limit the browser's communication with certain websites to help keep information private.
Privacy features

"With this release you are seeing innovation after innovation that other folks are catching up to. Hardware acceleration was something no one was talking about until we did it. No one else was talking about privacy and tracking until we did it."

According to Web analytics company Net Applications, IE lost more than six percentage points of user share in the past 12 months. At the end of January, the browser hit an historic low with 56% of users using IE.