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image One gimmick is that the new IE 8 will come with search arrangements with a number of content-related partners. Interesting. But wouldn’t it be a lot more fun if Microsoft turned IE into an e-book standards-compliant reader when you wanted it to be? Ain’t gonna happen, but a TeleBlogger can dream.

An intriguing feature: "Search suggestions." And now a few more details from Forbes:


The new browser comes with a search box in the upper right-hand corner and, just below that, a row of tiny logos for various search destinations, such as Yahoo, Ebay and MySpace. You can select which destinations you want to include here.

If your search will likely end up in Wikipedia, for instance, with a single click over a little "W" you can search only that encyclopedia. Amazon.com displays items for sale. The New York Times shows snippets of stories. So far 27 Web sites have joined the drop-down column, including Facebook and Digg.

Microsoft is, uncharacteristically, keeping its hands off, giving Web sites the option to serve up results and customize how they appear. It also magnanimously lets those sites take all the revenue from ads alongside the results. That’s a sly stab at Google’s business, though this kind of searching–where users already know where they want to go–doesn’t yield especially lucrative ads for Google…

Related: Techmeme roundup and IE beta download page.

 
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