With highly-anticipated Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 now available, along with recently released Google Chrome 10, superb Opera 11, newly updated Apple Safari 5.04, and rock-steady Mozilla Firefox 3.6, this is going to be quite an interesting race.

A good nine months have passed since Web Browser Grand Prix 2. Back in July, we pit Chrome 5, Firefox 3.6.6, Internet Explorer 8, Opera 10.60, and Safari 5 against each other. Because it's been so long, let's take a minute and get up to speed on the major Web browser events since WBGP2:

07/22/10: Google moves Chrome to a rapid six week release cycle.

09/02/10: Chrome 6 is released.

10/19/10: Chrome 7 is released.

12/02/10: Chrome 8 is released.

12/16/10: Opera 11 is released.

01/12/11: Google announces that it will be dropping H.264 support from Chrome.

01/27/11: Opera is updated to 11.01 (the current stable version).

02/02/11: Microsoft releases a H.264 plug-in for Chrome.

02/04/11: Chrome 9 is released.

02/07/11: Mozilla announces an accelerated Firefox release cycle. Firefox 5, 6, and 7 slated for 2011.

02/08/11: Adobe releases Flash 10.2.

02/15/11: In a personal blog post, Mozilla's Paul Rouget claims that IE9 is not a modern Web browser.

03/04/11: Firefox is updated to 3.6.15 (the current stable version).

03/09/11: Safari is updated to 5.04 (the current stable version).

03/14/11: Internet Explorer 9 is released.

03/15/11: Google previews a WebM plug-in for IE9.

That pretty much covers all the important releases, announcements, and associated drama. The browser wars are definitely heating up, and it seems like the fastest browser on the block is always just around the corner. Today, Internet Explorer 9 is the latest and most anticipated entry in the WBGP. Does Microsoft have a “modern” browser with IE9, or is everyone still better off with a competing solution? We'll find out soon enough, but first, let's take a look at what's new in the just-released Internet Explorer version 9.