As expected, Microsoft unveiled Project Spartan, its next-generation web browser that will be a huge upgrade over Internet Explorer.
The first feature of Spartan that Microsoft showed off was a way to let you mark up web pages just as you would do if you were using a marker on a piece of paper. It also lets you share marked-up pages with people you’re collaborating with and can work on both touch-based and non-touch devices.
The second feature is improvements to improve your overall reading experience on the web that will include the ability to save content offline through a reading list that essentially freezes bookmarks in place and lets you read them later even if you have no web connection. It will also sync your reading list across all devices so you can read them on your phone if you’ve saved them on your PC and vice versa.
Finally, Microsoft has baked voice assistant Cortana directly into Spartan to give you a way to surf the web via voice search. And because Cortana learns and adapts to your behavior, Cortana is able to pop up and actually let you know things about pages you’re looking at. So for instance, if you have a gluten-free diet and you visit a restaurant’s website, Cortana can tell you whether there are gluten-free options.
All told, this looks like an incredibly promising new browser that will be a much needed upgrade from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
