Microsoft have released Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Beta to the public, at a launch event during the “Beauty of the Web” keynote at the San Francisco Design Center.

Microsoft also hosted a launch event in the UK, teaming up with the Gorillaz to launch the browser.

IE9 includes many changes over its predecessor, including a new user interface, support for some HTML5 and CSS3 tags, faster rendering and JavaScript engine, hardware accelerated rendering, and many more.

On opening the browser, it will also prompt users to disable slow loading plugins, making the browser fly. Early benchmarks look very promising, with speeds passing that of Firefox 3.6. Both Engadget and Neowin have performed some benchmark testing.

Internet Explorer 9 Beta is available to download now for Windows Vista and Windows 7 users.

Mozilla have just released Firefox 4 Beta 6, fixing only a handful of bugs that made the previous release unusable for some.

As a result, there are no new features in Beta 6. Fixed in this release is a rendering issue affecting Mac OS X users, and a stability issue causing crashes in Windows. More details on the update can be found in the release notes.

Firefox 4 Beta 6 is available in 39 languages, and can be downloaded from the Firefox Beta website.

Google have pushed Chrome 6.0.472.59 out to stable channel (and Beta) users for Windows, Mac and Linux.

The update fixes 9 security holes, one of which is rated as critical, with a further six rated as high, and two rated as a low threat.

Full details can be read on the Google Chrome Releases blog. Current Chrome users will receive the update automatically over the coming days.

New users can download and try Chrome from the Google Chrome website.

Firefox 4 is a step closer to completion with the release of Beta 5.

The latest release is available in 39 languages, and now has support for the HSTS security protocol.

Windows users have hardware acceleration turned on by default, with a new Firefox menu also making it’s appearance for Vista and 7 users.

A more detailed list of changes can be read in the release notes. Current beta users will be prompted to update in the coming days, while new testers can download the beta from the Firefox Beta website.

Google has released Chrome 6.0.472.55, bringing with it several changes, just a few days after releasing Chrome 6 to the stable channel.

The new release fixes failures on auto-complete, shift reload which ignores any cached copy when reloading, and a bug which caused the default search provider to disappear.

More details can be found on the Google Chrome Release blog. The update will be applied automatically to Chrome users in the coming days.

Web browser market share results are now available for August 2010 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer fell slightly in August 2010, from 60.74% to 60.40% market share. Opera was the other looser this month, dropping to 2.45% to 2.37%.

Firefox rose slightly to 22.93% from 22.91%, as did both Chrome and Safari rising to 7.52% from 7.24% and 5.16% from 5.09% respectively.

Full results can be read in the August 2010 Browser Market Share report.

MPEG LA have come out and declared that the H.264 codec will remain royalty-free for Internet broadcast videos.

This has been one of the blocks for wide adoption on the standard with both Mozilla and Opera opting not to support the format in the past citing royalty concerns.

“MPEG LA announced today that its AVC Patent Portfolio License will continue not to charge royalties for Internet Video that is free to end users (known as “Internet Broadcast AVC Video”) during the entire life of this License. MPEG LA previously announced it would not charge royalties for such video through December 31, 2015, and today’s announcement makes clear that royalties will continue not to be charged for such video beyond that time.”

Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 9 already support videos encoded with the H.264 codec.

Mozilla and Opera are yet to comment on the move.

Microsoft’s Russian Press site has released a screenshot of the upcoming user interface scheduled to make an appearance in Internet Explorer 9 Beta.

Soon after, the screenshot was pulled indicating it is likely real, but Microsoft journalist Jo Foley managed to save the image before it was removed.

New features are set to include a combined URL and search bar, tear-off tabs, and a consolidated menu.

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta will be released on September 15th during a launch event in San Francisco.

Mozilla are still hard at work, today releasing Firefox 4 Beta 4 tot the public which is packed with several new features.

New in the latest release is Firefox Panorama, which lets you arrange and organise your tabs at the click of a mouse button.

Also new in this release is the inclusion of Firefox Sync, which syncs bookmarks, tabs, history and passwords between different computers you use. Previously this has been available as an add-on for Firefox, but as of now it is included directly with the browser.

Firefox 4 Beta 4 is available for Windows, Mac and Linux users right now. A full list of changes can be read in the release notes.

Opera 10.61 has been released, fixing three security issues, and a hand full of other bugs.

A full list of changes can be found in the Opera Changelog, while the update affects Windows, Mac, and Linux users.

Opera 10.61 can be downloaded from the Opera website.