Internet Explorer 6: It's All in There
Published: June 25, 2001
By Barb Bowman, Windows XP Expert Zone Community Columnist
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I've never lost my sense of excitement over discovering new information and resources on the Internet. In the beginning, I had to work hard to find information and harder still to capture, share, and save it. We've come a long way from the first text-based browsers with limited functionality to the stunning multimedia experience offered in Internet Explorer 6. It's almost effortless to find, capture, and share information and images now, and it's also a lot of fun.
My Early Days Exploring the Internet
In the early 1990s, when Web content was unadorned with rich graphics, it was the information that attracted me to the Internet. The promise of a world totally linked with dynamic content fascinated me. But I had no idea of how quickly my hypothesized "completely connected world" would become reality. My Web browsing experience began in earnest just about the time Microsoft included Internet Explorer 1.0 for Windows 95.
As the available content on the Internet grew richer and evolved with sound, images, and sophisticated layout, Internet Explorer matured. Today, Internet Explorer 6 offers an unparalleled and varied multimedia platform to display information.
Internet Explorer 6 is all about fit and finish and providing three great new tool sets for your browsing pleasure.
| • | Media Bar The new embedded Media Bar, coupled with the new Windows Media Player for Windows XP, delivers high quality audio and video. |
| • | Image Toolbar The Image Toolbar adds the ability to instantly capture and e-mail an image from a Web page and a quick way to reduce the image size before sending, without loss of quality. You can view all your saved pictures in the My Pictures folder. When you point to pictures on Web pages, an image toolbar appears, giving you instant access to My Pictures functions. |
| • | Privacy enhancements Microsoft has added privacy enhancements that put you squarely in the driver's seat to make decisions about accepting cookies. |
Using the Image Toolbar
In my family, there's been a long-standing joke about whether or not my dad was born on the boat on the way to America. When http://www.ellisisland.org/ came online this spring, I jumped at the opportunity to be among the first to enjoy this exciting new Internet resource. I began using it to finally put the missing pieces together around my dad's side of the family. I'm collecting images and information about his journey to America and will eventually burn a CD full of information about the "Bowman Family History."
I was excited to find the entry for my dad on a passenger manifest, and the historical information about the ship that brought him to America. I quickly learned that I did not have to leave my browser window to capture and use the information I found online.
The image toolbar appeared automatically as my mouse hovered over an image. I saved a full size copy of the image to the My Pictures folder. Next, I used the My Pictures e-mail button to send a copy to relatives who still live in the United Kingdom. They aren't yet broadband enabled, so I used the automatic resizing ability of the image toolbar to reduce the size of the picture by about half.
I displayed the additional options as shown below, made a selection, and e-mailed the smaller picture.
The image resizing feature keeps nearly all the quality and fine definition of the original image and I'm usually unable to detect a resized image. As I find and save more information about the Bowman family, I'll be giving the image toolbar a real workout.
The Media Bar—A Little Traveling Music, Please
I just love small, compact, powerful tools. The Media Bar in Internet Explorer 6 is no exception. My travel gear includes high-end ear buds that plug into my laptop and an 802.11b wireless card. I've recently returned from a trip through Seattle's Sea-Tac Airport where I had about an hour before my flight boarded. I connected to the free, 11 Mbps 802.11b wireless network, which is provided in the airport by Wayport. Then I launched IE 6, and tuned in to my favorite Internet Radio station. The sound was amazing. Then I started a jaunt through my favorite sites on the Internet, keeping the Media Bar in view while various sounds of the 60s entertained me.
 | Today, Internet Explorer 6 offers an unparalleled and varied multimedia platform to display information. |  | |
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I usually have far too many applications open on my desktop, and most of the time, music and video are multitasked with other activities. I've found that displaying a video using the Media Bar allows me to keep browsing sites on the Web while keeping streaming content in view. Internet Explorer 6 advises me when it can display multimedia content within the Media Bar automatically. I select this option when it's offered and, if I want to concentrate on the video, I simply undock Windows Media Player by clicking the double headed arrow. Using Internet Explorer's Media Bar, I can check out new content on the Expert Zone and play the Jurassic Park III promo video in the same browser window. It's totally cool.
I'm a very private person and I'm delighted that Internet Explorer 6 is helping me tame the cookie explosion. By default, Internet Explorer 6 opts me out of receiving cookies from third party sites that don't have a compact privacy policy available. The browser disallows third party cookies that use personally identifiable information without asking. Additionally, first party cookies that use personally identifiable information without implicit consent are restricted.
The P3P or Platform for Privacy Preferences is the standards model which determines the parameters for acceptability of cookies. The compact privacy policy itself is an XML formatted file containing structured information which Internet Explorer 6 uses to determine the site's conformity to this standard. In simple terms, a Web site must disclose and publish specific information defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C):
| • | Entity—who you are and how a user can contact you. |
| • | Disclosure—where your written policy is on your site. |
| • | Assurances—what third party or law insures that you are doing what you say you are. |
| • | Data Collection and Purpose—what Data Elements are you collecting and how are you using them. |
Take Control if You Want
While the default settings should provide peace of mind for most people, it's easy to fine tune your preferences on accepting cookies from the Tools, Internet options menu in IE 6.
Using the slider, you can instantly view and select different levels to suit your needs. The high setting provides me the greatest peace of mind using the built in "automatic" levels.
I've been experimenting with fine tuning control over cookies by using the Advanced settings to manually set my own custom privacy level.
I've elected to override automatic cookie handling by blocking all third-party cookies and being prompted to accept first-party cookies. I'm doing this to see which sites I can visit without accepting any cookies and which absolutely require them.
As I find sites that I can navigate without accepting any cookies at all, I add them to my Managed Web sites list as either Always Block or Always Allow. See the screenshot below.
While this is time consuming, and I'll probably revert to using the default medium or high setting, it's helping me understand why sites attempt to place cookies on my computer. And it's given me a real appreciation for the built in levels of privacy that are available in IE 6 "out of the box."
Making a Good Thing Better
Fine tuning is everywhere in Internet Explorer 6. In just about every area, there have been tune-ups and tweaks. Internet Explorer 6 seems supercharged, and pages display with lightning speed (faster than any browser I've ever seen).
The bottom line? It's really easy for me to sum up how I feel about the latest version: It really rocks!
Barb Bowman enjoys sharing her own experiences and insights into today's leading edge technologies. She is a product development manager for AT&T Broadband Internet Services, but her views here are strictly personal.
