It's almost unbelievable. Not only has Microsoft created an awesome Web browser far better than anything else available for the Mac (and I've tried them all), but they are GIVING IT AWAY FOR FREE!

There's so much cool new stuff in Internet Explorer 5 I don't know where to start, so I'll start with its cosmetics. Simply put, Internet Explorer 5's interface is gorgeous. Like Mac OS X, its buttons "glow" when your mouse moves over them. Even the buttons themselves are prettier than the buttons on any browser I've ever seen. And you can choose a color scheme for the entire browser that matches your Mac -- Blueberry, Bondi Blue, Graphite, Grape, Lime, Strawberry, Tangerine, PowerBook Black, or PowerBook Bronze. Very slick.

But, this program is more than just another pretty face. It's got about a zillion great new features. Let's look at a few of my favorites:

• A rendering engine called "Tasman.
  Tasman is Microsoft's name for the guts of the browser, the "engine" that translates HTML (the language of Web pages) into the words and pictures you see on the screen. Not only does it display pages that bring other Mac browsers to their knees flawlessly, but it does so 50% faster than Internet Explorer 4.5. You'll be shocked at how fast most pages load.
  
  
• Search Assistant
  Suffice it to say that Internet Explorer 5's search assistant makes using search engines easier. Search Assistant automates the search process so you don't need to know how to use individual search engines. It's the easiest way to find stuff on the Net yet. (Unfortunately, while it can automatically and sequentially access several search engines including AltaVista, Yahoo, Excite, InfoSeek, Lycos, and Northern Light, you cannot add other search sites such as HotBot or Ask Jeeves.)
  

• Internet Scrapbook
  Because online links are often discontinued and online information is frequently updated, many Web sites tell you to print out important tracking information such as receipts and articles. Internet Explorer 5's new Internet Scrapbook lets you capture a complete Web page and store it for future reference without worrying that the page may be changed, expired or removed from the server where it resides. But it's not a static "screen shot" -- all the links on the page in the Scrapbook remain "live." As far as I know, this feature has never been offered before on Windows, or any other platform.
  

• Auction Manager
  This cool new feature is a complete auction management solution. It can notify you when you have been outbid or when an auction is about to end, and it can check the status of items at several different auction sites including EBay, Amazon, Yahoo, and more. And to make life even easier, when you win an auction you can use the Internet Scrapbook feature to preserve the page with the item you won, even though that the page will disappear from the Web as soon as the auction ends.

So what are you waiting for? Fire up your old browser and download your new browser for free. I've had my copy for three days now and have yet to find even one feature I hate. And you can't beat the price.

Internet Explorer 5 Macintosh Edition.
Microsoft Corporation.
Redmond, Washington.
Free.
425-882-8080.
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/.

System Requirements:
Macintosh with a PowerPC processor,
MacOS version 7.6.1 or above,
QuickTime version 3.0 or higher,
8 MB of free RAM with Virtual Memory on (12MB recommended),
12 MB of hard disk space for Internet Explorer,
Apple MRJ 2.1 or above.

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