New meta tags for IE9 "applications"

[MikeGale]

I see that IE9 might introduce some meta tags which give pages some extra capabilities (but only in IE9). These look like part of a response to the apps we're seeing elsewhere.

I haven't thought through this but am interested in what others think.

The tags give additional UI elements when a browser tab is "torn off" and added to the task bar. The item on the task bar can acquire additional right click menu items from this markup.

Some of it looks like this:

<link rel="shortcut icon" href="**" />

<meta name="application-name" content="**"/>

<meta name="msapplication-tooltip" content="**"/>

<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=**;action-uri=**;icon-uri=**" />

<meta name="msapplication-task" content="name=**n;action-uri=**n;icon-uri=**n" />

What do you think about that markup?

[Albert Wiersch]

It looks interesting. I have not "played" with IE9 yet, but I should probably put that on my "to-do" list sooner rather than later.

I'm not sure how often I would be tearing tabs off and putting them on the taskbar. I guess I will just have to try it for awhile and see how well it works.

Mike, have you used IE9 to any significant degree? Have you torn off tabs? Thanks.

[MikeGale]

I was holding back on IE9 until it seemed stable enough. Was planning to get a VM with it on board to test. (Not prepared to create my own VM!) Yesterday I got confirmation that a seemingly suitable VM was now available. At the same time I was also assured that the version 6 Beta was stable and good to use. (I leave it to others to make up their own minds on that.)

I installed it, not in a VM, yesterday.

With limited testing:

1) On a Win7 laptop I find it much better than IE8, which wasn't giving me enough screen real estate.

2) I was particularly fascinated by the jump lists and app like ideas in there. So yes I was tearing stuff off, playing with hi res icons etc. I didn't immediately find a reference for the JavaScript API that gives some programmatic control so I haven't tested that yet.

3) There were a few areas of UI design that I don't agree with so I'm feeding back suggestions via connect.

4) My knee jerk reaction to proprietory markup is to reject it. (That motivated my post. I want to see what others think, especially those who've given it a try.) In this case the proprietory sub species of web created for iEverything, Android and even Facebook etc. seem to have spread to the browser/OS combination. It looks like it could be genuinely useful. I'll check that to my own satisfaction. If I decide it's worth using I'll have to rework my views of what constitutes the right use of the web. If my web is going to shatter into several semi-compatible shards, I'll need to figure out what how I handle that!

5) So, this stuff may be worth doing.

I hadn't intended to spend any time, yet, on the technology but it was interesting enough that it hijacked my attention. (The browser is very fast, it keeps out of your way... The icon creator tool, which can bundle several icons sizes up to 64 x 64, caught my attention. It's hosted on the web but doesn't have the feel of a toy. This marks a place on the road to a smarter web I think.)

Yes I'm testing it. Not as much as I'd like under program control! Some of the most interesting things seem to have been announced at PDC a few days ago, but I'm hoping that the API's are published somewhere so that I can test them.