June 03, 2009, 11:20 AM — Here's a little-known advantage to using Internet Explorer 8: It lets you access multiple Gmail accounts simultaneously and independently.
This is accomplished via the New Session option, which makes it possible to log onto Web sites that track your identity across different tabs--like Gmail.
In Firefox, for instance, you can't have multiple Gmail accounts open in multiple tabs or Windows. If you sign into a second one, you'll get signed out of the first one when you try to do anything.
Here's how to take advantage of this IE8 perk:
1. Run Internet Explorer 8 and open Gmail. Make sure the Remember Me option is unchecked when you sign in.
2. Press Alt-F, I, and then hit Enter. This will open a new Internet Explorer session (which for all intents and purposes is the same as a new IE window).
3. Open Gmail and sign into your second account, again making sure to uncheck Remember Me.
That's all there is to it! This should work with other Webmail accounts and services that don't like multiple sessions running simultaneously.
I know it's not a perfect solution, especially if you prefer Gmail to remember your username and password from one session to the next. Here's hoping Microsoft will further tweak IE's New Session feature to support this option.
