IE 9 Beta Bags Over 2 Million Downloads

Being number one isn’t always a picnic. Internet Explorer has been the most popular Web browser for years, but that’s also made it a target for competitors like Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera, that have been chipping away at its dominant position.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s been busy developing the next version of its browser, IE9, that it recently released as a public beta for download.

Datamation has the story on the early response to IE9 and what new features Microsoft thinks will help it keep the raft of competitors at bay.

If early response from users is any measure, Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) is off to a strong start.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) just released the first public beta of IE9 last Wednesday, but it’s already racking up millions of downloads, a company official said Tuesday.

“In [the] first two days, over 2 million people worldwide downloaded [the] IE9 Beta. By comparison, when Internet Explorer 8 Beta launched in August 2008, we had 1.3 million downloads over the first five days,” said a Microsoft spokesperson.

Read the full article at Datamation:

Internet Explorer 9 Beta Takes Off with a Bang