The age old question for owners of a new computer is whether to stick with the Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) or download something like Mozilla Firefox or Chrome. The perceived slowness and general lack of user friendliness on all IE versions up to the current one - IE8- has seen the other browsers make real headway into the market, and many people who use the internet frequently don't even consider using IE8.

So what is the new version of Internet Explorer - IE9 - going to give us? It is now online to be downloaded as a beta trial version and these are the main points which have been improved:

Speed. This has been the main gripe with those who spend a lot of time browsing the web, and the latest version certainly has improved on the old ones.

Layout. The design is simpler and a bit more attractive as well. There is no menu bar and the navigation controls and address bar have been moved.

Pinned sites. This is a new feature, and very useful it is going to be too. It has been designed for people who keep sites such as the their email and Facebook open all day but sometimes shut them down by mistake when they close a window which has other things on it too. This new feature let you put your favourite sites onto the Taskbar.

One Box. Another new feature, with this one you can add things like Google, Amazon and Wikipedia onto your search bar, as well as the standard Bing which it comes with.

Download Manager. This new and much needed features let you track the progress of the downloads you carry out through IE9 as well as see your download history.

In summary, whether you prefer IE9, Firefox or Chrome as your browser will depends upon your taste and opinion, but at least the choice is a lot closer now and giving IE9 a try is a good idea.