Most people who surf the Web have at least a handful of sites that they visit regularly to see if there's anything new. This can become a time-consuming process, and frustrating as well, because often nothing has changed at the sites since the user's last visit. Internet Explorer 4.0 introduces Smart Favorites to end these fruitless searches, providing an easy way for you to know when one of your favorite sites has changed.

Smart Favorites use a powerful new technology called WebCheck to check your favorite Web sites periodically, note whether anything has changed since your last visit, then notify you when it has changed! The feature can tell you when you last visited a site, when the site was updated, and (with a little help from Web authors) what has changed—all in a fraction of the time it would take you to surf to the site, download it, and check for yourself. Best of all, you decide when and how often to check your favorite sites.

If you're a Web author, you can take advantage of Smart Favorites, using three standard meta tags to provide useful information that is displayed when users mouse over the listing for your site in their favorites list. Providing this information will save users from becoming frustrated upon visiting your site when nothing has changed, and will entice them to visit when you have something new to offer. Your use of the tags can go a long way in ensuring that your site remains on people's favorite lists.

Here's how it works...
When you download and install the Internet Explorer 4.0 Platform Preview, it automatically imports your old favorites or bookmarks and converts them to Smart Favorites.

Go to your Favorites folder or click the Favorites button on the toolbar and look for listings that have a small red "gleam" on one corner—those are the sites that have been updated since your last visit!

Just point to one of the updated sites (don't click yet!) and watch as Internet Explorer 4.0 shows you the last time you visited the site, plus when it was last updated. If the Web site author has taken advantage of the meta tags, the listing will summarize what has changed as well.

From now on, a "gleamed" icon will appear in the lower right corner of your Taskbar whenever an updated site is waiting for you.

Note: Smart Favorites shouldn't be confused with Internet Explorer 4.0's Webcasting, which automatically downloads sites that have changed. Smart Favorites let you see which of your favorite sites have changed—without automatically downloading them all. Because many people have a slew of favorites, this can save you connection costs.