IE9 Jump Lists

Posted By: Thomas Shaw, 1:24pm Tuesday 21 September 2010

Last week, Microsoft released a beta version of the new Internet Explorer called IE9. I am not a big fan of IE, but I actually can't contain my excitement over some of the new features.

Unfortunately you need to be running Windows 7 to take full advantage of the new features. If you are still using IE6, its time to upgrade!

Although a full release is a few months away and main stream adoption is a few years. The beta version not only includes greater HTML5 and web standard compliance, but also the ability to turn any website into an application on the Windows taskbar. Websites can be pinned to the taskbar, providing users with a one-click option to a their favorite websites. It also includes Windows 7’s jump lists; any website that supports them will provide a quick menu to its most popular webpage’s!

The code to make jump lists available is quite straightforward. A new meta tag called “msapplication-task” is available in IE9 which allows you to define the navigation for your pinned website.

This is great news for any website/online application to create useful quick links for the users.

In a blog post last week, Michael Kordahi looked at how Fairfax have rolled out the new feature across some of their sites. In the example below he pinned MyCareer to the task bar with the jump list showing previous searches and common tasks.