Today at MIX09, our friends on the Internet Explorer team announced the general availability of Internet Explorer 8. In IE8, Web users will see a number of Live Search accelerators that make surfing the Web faster and easier. Here’s a look at what you’ll see.

Live Search Products Accelerator

Most of us have researched or bought something online. And while it is nice to find great deals from the comfort of our homes, the experience itself can be fragmented and frustrating. Typically we have to visit several sites to find all the information that helps us buy the best product.

Live Search is working hard to streamline the process of researching and shopping online. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could compare prices from Live Search to prices on any other site without opening a new page? You can with the Live Search Products accelerator!

If you have not heard of Internet Explorer 8’s accelerators feature, this is a great time to give it a try:

1) Install Internet Explorer 8
2) Install the Shop and Save with Live Search Products accelerator
3) Highlight a word or phrase, click on and see what prices Live Search offers.

Here is an example:

Map with Live Search

Have you ever thought how great it would be to just highlight an address and see a quick map of the location, instead of having to open your favorite map site and enter the address again? Perhaps you are just curious about a place you read about in a news story or you want to validate your general sense of where a museum or restaurant is located. The “Map with Live Search” accelerator provides you with just this functionality! Highlight the place or the address, click the blue arrow, and select “Map with Live Search” from the accelerator menu. The preview window will show you a quick map of where you want to go.

If you want more information, such as restaurants or hotels close by, click on the preview window and a more detailed map will open in a new tab in IE8. Here you will have options to do additional searches.

Translate with Live Search

The Translate with Live Search accelerator gives you easy, one-click translation for common terms in other languages. For example, you might find foreign phrases in newspapers, or on websites of places you want to visit on your next vacation. Just highlight the text that you want to translate, click the blue arrow, and select “Translate with Live Search” from the accelerator menu. You will find the translated text in the preview window. You can even change the translation on the fly — just click on the “Change Language” link at the top of the preview window and select your favorite pair of languages. Give it a shot!

As always, we would love to hear your feedback and thoughts about how we can improve this experience.

Farshid Sedghi, Program Manager, Live Search Products

Debapriya Ray, Senior Product Manager, Live Search