Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 9 Preview 3
Get the newer, faster IE9 preview build.
Right now, Internet Explorer lags behind the likes of Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera in terms of features and speed. But that's just version 8. With IE9, Microsoft is working to make it the best browser available.
If you want to catch a glimpse at what Microsoft is doing for Internet Explorer 9, then you may want to try out the third platform preview of the upcoming browser.
Officially, the Internet Explorer Platform Preview is for developers who want to test the new Internet Explorer 9 web development and design capabilities, including the new JavaScript engine – codename Chakra – as well as support for standards like HTML5, CSS3, SVG 1.1 and DOM. It's not meant to be a mission critical browser application, but enthusiasts looking to test out something faster than what they're running now have the option to do so.
Early tests show that IE9 is indeed quite fast, even when compared up against the developer builds of Chrome 6 and Firefox 3.7. When it came down to it with HTML5 hardware acceleration, however, IE9 blew past Chrome 6 but Firefox 3.7 actually performed better. Check out Download Squad's test video for more.
The browser wars still continue, even in the unreleased format. The good news for all of us that we can use more than one browser at a time on our machines and this sort of competition will only help to improve our internet experiences.
If you're the adventurous type, download the preview. Be sure to check out the further reading from Microsoft below.

Yes there was a world before teenagers and their ilk existed.......
When they put in something simlar to speed dial like opera, I'll start using IE exclusively again.
The only thing I open it up for now is to test css layout for browser compatability.
Yes there was a world before teenagers and their ilk existed.......
Not to burst your bubble but:
>Massively customizable: Firefox, Chrome
>Fastest: Opera = second fastest http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firefox-chrome-opera,2558-10.html
>Search Bar: IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari
>Speed Dial: Chrome, Safari
It's great to see IE showing speed gains, but I'll stick with Chrome. Not because it's "faster than browser X", but out of principle and because I like the interface. Microsoft is scrambling to slow their share loss- finally.. but I think time will show that it's all too little too late. And besides, Google is actually dedicated to pushing their browser so you use it more and love the experience, not because they can see more server and development software like Microsoft.
With that being said, on an Asus 1201n Netbook, Chrome is considerably quicker with Java than FF.
Not to burst your bubble, but you just proved his point even further.
Only Opera fits in all of the lists you just mentioned, and milliseconds difference as far as speed goes is certainly still debatable.
Oh, wait, except it breaks down every 15 miles, and people want to break in to steal my stereo (or the car itself)...
I'm sorry, we were talking about web browsers, weren't we? Yeah, IE9 saves me 4ms on all 30 webpages I load during the day? IE9 FTW!
Djeez, can't they do anything up to date?
For a not outdated browser, at least some basic svg1.2 is a must.