It was just 5 short months ago that IE 7 rolled out. Now, with pressure to be more "open" (both to avoid another anti-trust scare in the States and due to constant pressure from the EU to be less anti-competitive) Internet Explorer 8 is being released to developers.
Reuters has details for you
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Wednesday made available a test version of Internet Explorer 8, the next edition of its Web browser.
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Microsoft's presentation was catered heavily toward Web developers, but Hachamovitch showed some user features of IE 8. One feature allows users to save work being done on a Web site to the local computer when an Internet connection goes down.
Another feature lets users highlight an address on a Web site and then see a map within the Web site with a single click. Users can also highlight a product name and be able to see if the item is available for sale on eBay.
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Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the new browser would use the most-standards-compliant mode by default in rendering Web sites.
That means Web sites will essentially look the same regardless of browser and developers will not need to do multiple versions of Web sites for different browsers.
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The European Union launched a new antitrust investigation into Microsoft to probe complaints from Norwegian browser maker Opera Software about how Microsoft ensures rival Web browsers are not fully compatible with Internet Explorer.
Feature-wise, it seems pretty neat. I like the ability to pull up a map of an address (hoping it works for email displayed in the browser) just by clicking on it. The product feature is really cool too, although I'd probably be giddier if it searched Amazon or Buy as opposed to eBay. It'd be nice for it to look at a more "standard" online retailer where maybe there would be product specs. Or maybe even a way to toggle which site(s) it look at? Anyway, I digress.
The announcement that IE 8 will load "the most-standards-compliant mode by default" is promising. I think that between its inability to get XML certified as an international standard and the Russian Ministry of Defence (among others in Eastern Europe) saying "no" to Windows PCs Microsoft is feeling more pressure than ever to be more flexible than before.
I have to say, I look forward to being able to load a website and not have it look ridiculous because it was designed with one browser and viewed with another.
Anyone have the test version of Internet Explorer 8 yet? Let us know what you think!
UPDATE:
C|Net's Download.com has a post about IE 8. Insightful.
Nice, see also my article about the new internet explorer 8