Hi all! You heard this first here.. FYI We were sent this through IRC, and the person had a microsoft.com address but other than that we cannot verify the accuracy of this information. This appears to be part of an internal rough draft of the Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview Download Knowledge Base Article. This article has feature information, availability information, technical issues of the first Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview which will be available on Wednesday, Feb 28th. Here is an excerpt:

"This article describes the additions and changes in Internet Explorer 6 Public Preview (version 6.00.243x.0051). Internet Explorer 6 provides new Explorer Bars, greater privacy support, virus protection in Outlook Express, and other new features."

"Internet Explorer 6 can be installed on Windows 98 or later and Windows NT 4 or later as an upgrade to any existing version of Internet Explorer. To download Internet Explorer 6..."

"An Explorer Bar is a Web page that is contained in a window within the Internet Explorer window. It occupies a vertical pane to the left of the main document pane. Some Explorer Bars with which you might already be familiar are Search, Favorites, and History. Internet Explorer 6 adds a Media Bar, Contacts Bar, Search the web Bar, News Bar, a Personal Bar, and the ability to add new HTML based Explorer Bars created by Microsoft or 3rd parties."