Microsoft has unveiled the latest incarnation of Internet Explorer, and claims it is easier to use, more secure and just plain better than its competitors.

The company claims IE 8 offers performance upgrades, faster page loading, new navigation features and tab isolation, which enables you to kill a single tab if you run into a bad site, without crashing the browser.

Additional features let users update a particular item on a page rather than the whole page, and use some services in a small window without leaving the page. Security issues have also been addressed, and Microsoft claims IE 8 is "hands down the most secure browser on the market."

InPrivate filtering should keep you free from third-party content and ads, while InPrivate Browsing is a lot like Chrome's stealth mode, or porn-mode as some call it, and doesn't record any history of your browsing session.

Surprisingly, even Microsoft doesn't believe the new browser will attract users which have migrated to alternative browsers back to its fold. Mind you, it even says competition is good for innovation. For the record, Mozilla's market share has recently jumped over 20 percent, for the first time ever.

More here.