Enrich your life by gaining new skills, knowledge from the Internet
Today, the Internet has become a vital tool in our everyday lives, a venue for social interaction, entertainment, services and, of course, our primary source for all types of information.
When you need to edit a document, there’s a website to help you with that. If you’ve missed an episode of your favourite television series, there’s a website where you can watch it. If you want to publicly announce your engagement, there’s a website for that, too. Clearly, the Web browser has become central to almost everything we do. To truly succeed in today’s Web-driven world, however, we need to optimise how we use the Internet as a learning resource. A good place to start is to learn more about the best Web-surfing technology available, and Internet Explorer 9 is one browser that can give you a smoother, safer surfing experience with its streamlined look, faster performance and HTML5 support.
The Internet has become a powerful search tool for people of all ages and all industries. Internet Explorer 9 makes searching even easier by allowing you to search directly from the Address bar. If you enter a search term or incomplete address, it’ll automatically launch a search using your default search engine.
Valuable information and media on specific topics can also be found in online encyclopaedias and archives like Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica and others. Internet encyclopaedias can actually help you find information much faster and their online presence makes further research easier as well, especially because you will often be linked to other sources which you can open in a new tab. Internet Explorer 9 simplifies this further with its refined tabbed browsing function that can keep several Web pages in a single window open at once. Another great tool that helps with research is Internet Explorer 9’s site-pinning feature. It keeps all your favourite sources on your Windows 7 taskbar for easy one-click access to the website. Both global sites (Facebook, Twitter, CNN, etc.) and local sites (MThai.com, Dek-D, MSN Thailand, etc.) support useful features like jump lists and notifications when you pin those websites onto your Windows 7 taskbar.
The Internet can be described as a massive digital library where you can find virtually everything. From newspapers to videos, from books to music – everything is online. An array of programs for such media is available to consumers, but the platform of choice today is HTML5. Its features are supported across all major Web browsers, including Internet Explorer 9.
Downloadable audio and e-books are another growing source of information and knowledge for internet users. With Internet Explorer 9’s Download Manager, you can keep a list of the files you download and the application will notify you when a file might be malware. It also lets you pause and restart a download, and shows you where to find downloaded files on your computer. Of course, it’s important to keep your private information safe while you browse and download, which Internet Explorer 9 does without question.
In fact, it is the most secure browser on the market today: based on third-party research from NSS Labs, Internet Explorer 9 blocks over 98.2 per cent of socially-engineered malware (eg phishing attacks), while other browsers guard against just a fraction of them. Internet Explorer 9 has also introduced Tracking Protection and ActiveX Filtering, which limits the browser’s communication with certain websites – determined by a Tracking Protection List – to help keep your information private. Internet Explorer 9 ActiveX is a technology Web developers use to create interactive content on their sites but can also pose a security risk, so it allows you to only apply ActiveX controls for the sites that you trust.
With Internet Explorer 9’s sleek new look, superfast performance, and added security features, I’m sure you will enjoy learning by surfing the Web. Keep in mind that available online resources are not only useful for your personal interests but can be and are increasingly leveraged to build and develop your professional skills as well. For those who have the desire to gain new knowledge, explore their potential and better their lives, the Internet provides a wealth of resources.
Birathon Kasemsri na Ayudhaya is managing director at Microsoft (Thailand).
