Internet Explorer 12 to feature ‘substantial changes’ to the user interface?

In an official Microsoft blog post late last month, it was revealed that the Redmond giant had already begun development on the next version of Internet Explorer – currently known as Internet Explorer 12 (IE12). Microsoft outlined some of these new features and indicated that they were in development, as part of Microsoft’s commitment of delivering interoperable implementations for the latest features on the modern Web.

But it seems like Microsoft has more up it’s sleeve with the development of IE12. One of our readers reported an issue with Internet Explorer 11’s bookmarks bar requiring some user interface improvements. The issue was reported to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team on Microsoft Connect. While this may be considered a minor issue (if you want to call it that), the interesting part about this is Microsoft’s response. “Thanks for the feedback. We’re making substantial changes to the UI, we’ll keep this in mind. Best Regards, The Internet Explorer Team.”

From the sounds of it, Microsoft is looking to make some big changes to Internet Explorer 12, especially to the user interface. Will there be changes for the desktop or the Modern interface? Or will it be for both interfaces? Details are nonexistent right now but we are sure to hear more about this as development continues. Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer’s primary competitor, recently underwent a major user interface overhaul too.

Thusfar, Microsoft has outlined a few new features for IE12, such as Web Audio, Media Capture, and HTTP/2 support. Web Audio, for those that did not know, is a specification that describes a high-level JavaScript API for processing and synthesizing audio in web applications. Media Capture allows access to a device’s camera or microphone, while HTTP/2 is a major revision of the Web’s protocol and is intended to decrease the wait time spent loading web pages. You can see a list of planned features by visiting status.modern.ie.

In the mean time, what interface improvements would you like to see in Internet Explorer 12?

Thanks for sending this in, Joshua!