A Microsoft website in Russia Wednesday posted a screenshot that gives a glimpse of the look and feel of the company’s forthcoming Web browser – the new Internet Explorer 9 (IE9).

The screenshot, which reportedly has now been removed, essentially showed the user interface of the IE9, as well as some of its new design features that are strikingly similar to the Google Chrome Web browser, especially the address-cum-search bar.

Going by the details unveiled by the screenshot, most of the IE8’s menus and buttons have been given a miss in the IE9. The screenshot does not show the staples of the present version, including buttons for RSS, email, print, “Page,” “Safety,” “Tools,” and even bookmarks. Seemingly, all these snipped features have been sent to different menus.

According to ZDNet blogger Mary Jo Foley, the screenshot showed that the interface of the IE9 sports a Firefox-esque design to the Back/Forward buttons. In addition, while the new browser has done away with the conventional menus, it now features tabs atop the browser window and has Chrome-like address and search bars.

Furthermore, the screenshot showed that the text on the page was apparently replete with hints that Microsoft will “Chromify” IE9's interface by aping that user interface (UI) of Google’s Chrome.

In addition, IE9 – which will run only on Vista and Windows 7; and not on Windows XP - will also leverage the Aero UI of Vista and Windows 7 with a feature called “quick release tabs.”