Microsoft Unveils New Version of Browser for ‘Web Lifestyle’

Microsoft Corp. released the much anticipated upgrade of its Internet browser Tuesday, with a host of content and distribution partners and bold predictions to surpass the entrenched leader Netscape Communications Corp.

The new version of Internet Explorer, called IE 4.0, melds the software applications on a personal computer with the Internet, and lets users easily jump from a Web site, for example, to a word processing document or a spreadsheet file.

The software giant unfurled the software, which has been tested by more than 3 million customers,’ at a news conference and party hosted by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates at Ft. Mason, a former military base overlooking San Francisco Bay.

“It’s my prediction that Americans will live a Web lifestyle” within a decade, Gates said.

In the last two years, browsers have become the chief tool for computer users to view documents, search for information and read news.

Shares of Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft fell $2.19 to close at $132.31, and Mountain View, Calif.-based Netscape shares fell $2.50 to close at $36. Both trade on Nasdaq.