Windows 8 will extend the pinned site concept introduced in Internet Explorer 9 so that live tiles on the desktop can represent pinned websites, with Jump Lists and notifications if a site's content has been updated.

Microsoft continues to drip-feed information about the features in its upcoming next-generation version of Windows, with the latest tidbit coming from the firm's IE Blog describing how Windows 8 and Internet Explorer 10 will handle pinned sites.

The pinned site concept was introduced with IE9, allowing users to create a shortcut directly to a commonly accessed website from the Windows taskbar.

With the new Metro-style user interface in Windows 8, the taskbar goes away and so pinned sites will be represented as tiles alongside those for applications, Microsoft said.

"Pinned sites on Windows 8 make it fast and easy to immediately get to your sites. With badge notifications, site tiles come alive with up-to-date information and help you know when new content is available," wrote Rahul Lalmalani, Internet Explorer programme manager at Microsoft.

With badge notifications, Windows 8 will scan pinned sites for updates, a mechanism that enables notifications such as new messages for email accounts or social networks, new discounts on a shopping site, or new articles added to a newsfeed, Microsoft said.

V3.co.uk