According to Gregg Keizer of ComputerWorld, Microsoft "unveiled a very early edition of its next-generation browser, IE9. So early, in fact, that it's more "pre" than pre-release, pre-beta or even pre-alpha. Ladies and gentlemen, say hello to 'IE9 Platform Preview.' That's a new name for Microsoft, and one meant, as one company manager said yesterday, to evoke the 'major change' the software maker believes it's taking in Internet Explorer development."

Keizer stated that this preview is nothing like a beta. He stated, "This build is not a fully functional browser by any stretch. It lacks critical user features, including an address bar (what?) and a back button. Instead, Microsoft is billing this as a lightweight frame wrapped around the IE9 rendering, layout and JavaScript engines that it's passing around so developers and the technically adventurous can try it out and let Microsoft know what they think."

Another article by eWeek stated, "IE9 features a new JavaScript engine and hardware-accelerated graphics capabilities, in addition to support for Web standards such as HTML5, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), Cascading Style Sheets 3 (CSS3) and more."

Learn more about the preview of IE9 now!