This week at MIX'10 in Las Vegas, Microsoft unveiled its first public release of Internet Explorer 9, the Platform Preview. Aimed solely at developers, the IE 9 PP provides a way to experience some of the advances that Microsoft is making in this release. And while there's absolutely nothing for end users to get excited about here yet, Microsoft's plans for IE 9 are, however, quite interesting. Here's what's happening.

As far the PP goes, this is a pure developer test tool. The browser itself is almost completely non-existent. Instead of the standard browser "chrome"--the Back/Forward buttons, address bar, search bar, and so on--IE 9 PP presents itself in a Spartan, featureless window border with a very simple menu bar only. Also missing are important security and safety features like anti-phishing, which again drives home the notion that this release is not for end users.