This Chinese page purportedly features a couple of leaked screenshots of IE9′s new GUI. I don’t know if it’s the real thing, but if it is, Microsoft are doing something very bold here. The general design is reminiscent of the new Windows Phone 7, with a clean, angular look and graphics that are “cut” on the edge of the window (like that back button in the top-left corner). Even if it’s just a mock-up, it’s still quite impressive, and an interesting break from what we’ve come to know from Firefox, Chrome and Opera, not to mention previous versions of IE.

I’ll let Google Translate do the talking here: “New version of IE 9 preview version of the title bar of the platform, integrating the address bar, tool bar, search box, the status bar. Click the page title to display the address bar (and the search box, favorites management, access history viewer), the website finish loading cases, the address bar to display only part of the title page.” (Any native Chinese speakers here are welcome to submit a better translation via the comments.)

What do you think, people? April Fool’s or the real deal?

More information (Chinese page) [livesino.net]