Remember the movie “300” about Leonidas and his small band of Greek army from Spartacus? They were called Spartans and they survived battles after battles with countless Persian armies and were only defeated when betrayal struck them from within their ranks.
Microsoft has named its upcoming web browser Spartan because apparently, the Redmond-based American tech company wants to project that it would be “300” times better than the company’s existing Internet Explorer, according to a report by the Inquirer.
Well, it seems like an improbable comparison because no matter how beaten black and blue Internet Explorer is by Google’s Chrome and Mozilla’s Firefox over the past couple of years, it can still hold its own as a noble web browser. It was after all the ‘king of internet browsers’ less than five years ago.
Unveiling of the Spartan
Now word has it that Microsoft will be launching the Spartan during the Windows 10 event on January 21 where the company will be unveiling the new features of its latest operating system, including Spartan as its new browser.
Latest round of reports or leaks about the upcoming Microsoft web browser indicate that the Spartan will get Microsoft’s digital assistant Cortana, cites First Post.
The company has earlier announced that Cortana will be a significant part of Windows 10 and that the functions currently being performed by Bing in Internet Explorer will all be Cortana-based in the Spartan browser. And lest everyone forgets, the Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 will also be in the Windows 10 too.
Another special feature of Spartan is its ability to annotate a web page using a stylus and subsequently send the notes and annotations to others as it shall be powered by Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage.
And just like Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, the Spartan will also feature group tabbing to do away with the messy multiple browser tabs that have been one of the major downsides of the Internet Explorer.
Multi-platform browser
While it is not meant to officially replace the Internet Explorer, reports also have it that Spartan is being primed to become Microsoft’s single browser that will be usable across desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
Microsoft will, in fact, be making Spartan, available as a Windows Store app so that the American tech company would be able to quickly and easily update the browser in the future.
As the Spartan is reportedly patterned after Chrome, it will bring the Google kind of web browsing experience to Microsoft’s newest browsing baby. There have been reports that Spartan has already abandoned its plan to have customized themes similar to Google’s Chrome and Mozilla Firefox but many believe that Microsoft may reconsider its decision eventually.
Microsoft has yet to make an official announcement about the Spartan so these reports about its new browser are mere speculations for the time being, and will have to wait until January 21 to be confirmed.