Microsoft is continuing to show off new features coming in its Internet Explorer 10 Web browser, with a couple of posts describing its touch-friendly Metro interface and its enhanced security.
The current trend in browser design, led by Google Chrome, is to scale back the browser's interface so that it takes less and less of the screen, devoting more room to the Web content itself. Windows 8's Metro design similarly removes window chrome to put the focus on content.
Metro Internet Explorer 10 is the logical conclusion of this trend: most of the time it has no visible interface at all, leaving only the Web page visible. Its app bar, displayed by swiping from the top or bottom of the screen or right clicking the mouse, contains tabs, the address bar, and so on.
The Metro version of Internet Explorer feels slick and comfortable using both touch and mouse and keyboard interaction. Particular highlights are the tile-based favorites view and the tab thumbnails, both shown to good effect in Microsoft's post.