Internet Explorer 10: Microsoft ramps up its release schedule

Internet Explorer 10 is a go. Earlier this week, the team at Microsoft made available for download a limited preview of IE10, which is expected to launch about a year from now. (A caveat: The preview will only work on Windows machines. Sorry, Mac people.)

"We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows," Microsoft reps wrote over on the IE blog. "IE10 continues on IE9’s path, directly using what Windows provides and avoiding abstractions, layers, and libraries that slow down your site and your experience."

Internet Explorer 9, of course, was released last month by Microsoft; the browser was downloaded 2.35 million times in the first 24 hours after its launch. (To look at it another way, IE9 was downloaded 27 times a second.) Over at PC Mag, Lance Ulanoff posits that perhaps Microsoft is picking up the pace a little – and learning something from a certain very voracious crosstown rival.

"Microsoft finally understands why Google is always talking about Chrome," Ulanoff writes. "Even if the latest Chrome update is not a big deal, the steady flow of changes keeps Google's browser top of mind: people are always talking about, thinking about, and considering using Google Chrome. It's part of how Chrome grew to over 10 percent browser share.... in less than three years."

Ulanoff is right: Compared to Google, Microsoft has been a little sluggish in the browser update category. Chrome 8 launched in December – with added support for the Chrome Store – followed in February by Chrome 9, and then in March by Chrome 10. In a review, ZDNet praised Chrome 10 as "screamingly fast," and "close to a perfect Web browser." More here.

Tech fan? Sign up for the Innovation newsletter, which is emailed out every Wednesday morning.