Internet Explorer 9 getting HTML 5 support and GPU acceleration

Internet Explorer may be the most popular browser in the world, but that’s only due to its inclusion with Windows itself.  Mozilla’s Firefox has been steadily clawing at IE’s market share for a couple of years now, and Google’s been pushing Chrome, though with less success, so far.

Microsoft tried to change that with IE 8, which actually has a very nice interface, but still presents rendering issues in a number of sites, rgbfilter.com included.  This is supposedly going to change with IE 9, with more standards compliance in general, including the not yet WC3 approved HTML 5, which allows for rich media content without relying on 3rd party plug-ins like Adobe’s Flash.  Another feature in the works is GPU acceleration for rendering, which would definitely take a bite out of display times.

It’s still the early days of development, so don’t expect IE 9 updates to appear anytime soon, but if you’re curious to know where they’re going with it, you can get the full details at the IE blog.