Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer Add-ons

Maybe Microsoft thinks they are the reincarnation of the Titanic. At least they like to rearrange the deck chairs a lot.In other words, I'm not sure if the nomenclature I'm using below will be the same a year from now. ;-)

Add-ons Gallery is the latest key phrase for Internet Explorer plugins, add-ons, etc. The Microsoft Developers Network has some background information on these "extensions". There's also a Wikipedia article on Internet Explorer extensions.

Microsoft has introduced accellerators [gallery] and web slices [gallery] with IE8. The links in brackets take you directly to the related categories in the Internet Explorer 8 Add-ons Gallery.

IE8 Accelerators let you do specific tasks on the Web faster. "They are designed to make your browsing experience faster and easier, and to help you complete daily tasks with an air of efficiency usually reserved for 007."
Web Slices (examples there) let you track updates to specific clips or "slices" of web pages. The web page itself must define the slice region. Normally you rely on the kindness of web sites to provide slices, but liveslices.com lets you create your own (if the web site already has a web feed). Slices behave like fractional web feeds, with updates brought to you automatically. [more at msdn] I've discovered that you can also track web slices in Firefox. :-)