• Illustration: Privacy Policy
• Illustration: Media Bar

Internet Explorer (IE) version 6 is shipping, but is in many ways less compelling than it could have been. The most visible feature planned for this release, Smart Tags, proved controversial and was removed toward the end of the development process. Technologies supported by earlier versions of IE, notably Netscape-style plug-ins, have been removed. However, the product gives users finer security control over the circumstances in which they exchange information, and it offers some improved support for Internet standards.

Feature Deletions

Windows XP and IE 6 share a common design goal—improving the user experience. Of all the proposed new features for IE 6, Smart Tags would have had the greatest impact on the browsing experience. IE Smart Tags extended the Smart Tags technology introduced in Office XP and allowed the browser to recognize content on a Web page, such as a company name, and dynamically create a link to additional information on another Web site, such as MSN MoneyCentral.

Criticism of IE Smart Tags was immediate and overwhelmingly negative. Web sites did not want Microsoft adding "virtual" hyperlinks to Web pages without the page owner’s permission. (For more information on IE Smart Tags see "Microsoft Drops Smart Tags from Internet Explorer" on page 16 of the Aug. 2001 Update.)

Another experience-related feature dropped from the final release of IE was the "Personal" bar. Users could activate the Personal bar from the View menu to expose customizable Web content, such as a search box and news, weather, and stock information from MSN properties. IE 6 has retained the Media bar (originally part of the Personal bar), which allows users to select and play audio and video in a small frame in the browser. No reason was given for dropping the Personal bar, but antitrust-related concerns about tying Microsoft’s browser to its Web properties may have prompted the change. (For more information about IE features originally included with the Windows XP beta, see "Internet Explorer 6.0" on page 10 of the May 2001 Update.)

In July 2001, users found out quite unexpectedly that, beginning with IE 5.5 Service Pack 2, IE will no longer support Netscape-style plug-ins. Plug-ins were one means for Web-page authors to embed client-side programs. Microsoft had always promoted its ActiveX controls as the preferred technology for embedding programmatic functionality on a Web page, but some technology, such as Apple’s QuickTime audio and video format, was supported only via a plug-in.

By dropping IE’s support for plug-ins, Microsoft is forcing developers to extend Web pages with Microsoft’s ActiveX technology (Java might also be problematic for reasons given below); even Apple was forced to supply an ActiveX control for QuickTime.

Finally, citing issues related to the litigation between Microsoft and Sun, Microsoft has removed its implementation of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) from Windows XP. IE 6 users on computers with Windows XP preinstalled may find that they have to download the JVM from Microsoft's Web site before they can execute Java applets. This should not impact users of IE 6 who are upgrading from earlier versions of Windows, which included the JVM. (For more information, see "Java Out of Windows XP" on page 20 of the Sept. 2001 Update.)

Worthwhile Additions

The key addition to IE 6 is support for the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), which is designed to give users more control over the information that Web sites can obtain from them.

P3P compares privacy policies that the user sets in the browser with those stored in a machine-readable file on Web sites. With IE 6, users can decide under which circumstances the information they've entered into their browser's personal profile may be shared with Web sites, and the types of cookies they will accept. (For more information on P3P and privacy, see "Microsoft Treads Narrow Line on Privacy" on page 19 of the Oct. 2001 Update.)

Other improvements in IE 6 include the following:

• IE e-mail and newsreader tools in Outlook Express 6.0 have been updated to provide increased protection from harmful e-mail and attachments.
• A floating Image toolbar appears when the cursor moves over an image on a Web page, offering the user the choice of saving, e-mailing, or printing the image.
• The Media bar allows the user to play music, video, or multimedia files within the browser. (See the illustration "Media Bar".)
• Images or pictures can be dynamically resized to fit within the dimensions of the current browser window.
• A fault collection tool collects information on browser bugs and failures and can upload the bug data to Microsoft for analysis and correction in future service packs.

Standards Support

Given the broad array of specific HTML elements, and the emerging nature of the standards (which makes it difficult to create an adequate test), determining the exact level of support for Internet standards can be difficult. Microsoft claims a high degree of support for existing and emerging Internet standards, including the following:

• HyperText Markup Language (HTML) Level 4.0 (which in the future will likely be superceded by XHTML 1.0—a reformulation of HTML 4.01 in XML).
• Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1. DOM is an API that provides scripting languages with access to the structure, content, and presentation of an HTML document.
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 1. CSS is a mechanism for applying stylistic elements (such as fonts, colors, and spacing) to the text in Web documents. IE 6 does not appear to have any significant support for CSS Level 2.

XML and Other Technologies

The degree of XML support in IE 6 is controlled by the Microsoft XML parser version 3 (MSXML 3.0), which IE 6 uses to process XML. This parser implements the following standards:

• W3C XML 1.0 and Namespaces 1.0 standards
• World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) standards
• W3C XML Path Language (XPath) standards
• The Organization for the Advancement of Structural Information Standards (OASIS) XML 1.0 test suite.

IE 6 also offers a Simple API for XML (SAX2) implementation and a backward-compatibility mode so it can work with XML created for the previous version of the parser (MSXML 2.0).

With IE 6, Microsoft is also beginning to support technologies still under review, such as automatic ellipses for when text overflows a container (part of the latest CSS recommendations) and the W3C’s Synchronized Multimedia (SMIL) Working Group's 2.0 recommendation. SMIL 2.0 provides simplified support for the integration of media content—graphics, audio, and video—with the rest of a document's HTML content without requiring script, and it enables authors to synchronize page elements and animations (including motion paths) with media.

Future Support

The release of IE 6 leaves two big questions unanswered. First, when (if ever) will Microsoft make the new features and support levels available on other versions of IE (for platforms such as the Apple Macintosh)? A FAQ page on the Microsoft Web site says: "There are no plans at this time for versions of Internet Explorer 6 on operating systems other than Windows," but it is likely that the next version of IE for the Macintosh will pick up support for P3P and include the latest version of the Microsoft XML Parser. It might also add functionality that is not a part of IE 6 for Windows, something that has happened in past versions.

Second, when or how will support for the .NET Framework run-time environment be added to IE? For example, IE could be a host for the Common Language Runtime (CLR), which would allow users to execute managed code (written to the .NET Framework) in the browser. But IE 6 includes no such support. (For more information on the .NET Framework, see ".NET Framework Forces Decisions" on page 3 of the Oct. 2001 Update.)

Resources

IE 6 is supported on Windows 98 (including Second Edition), Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, and Windows 2000. It is included with Windows XP Professional and Home Editions. IE 6 is not supported on Windows 95.

To download IE 6, see www.microsoft.com/ie.

For the W3C site with the full specifications of Internet technologies, see www.w3c.org.

The Web Standards organization provides background information on browser standards at www.webstandards.org.

Several valuable and quick tests for browser standards compliance have been created by John Woram, an author of computer books, and are available at www.woram.com/TESTS/INDEX.HTM.