Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8 Beta - Windows

03.05.08

discuss Total posts: 1

by Chloe Albanesius


SLIDESHOW (12)
Slideshow | All Shots
Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled the beta version of Internet
Explorer 8 (IE8) for developers at the annual MIX08 conference in
Las Vegas.

The beta version of IE8 includes better predictability when
designing sites, full support for cascading style sheet (CSS) 2.1
at release to manufacturing, and integrated developer tools to
quickly debug HTML, CSS and scripts in a visual environment,
Microsoft said.

"A lot of the end user or consumer features are not featured on
this build because it really is targeted at the developers and the
designers," Matthew Lepsen from the Microsoft IE development team,
said on a video produced by Microsoft's Channel 9 site.

While the consumer version of IE8 will differ somewhat from this
first beta, it will not be a dramatic change, Lepsen said.

"There are not going to be huge landmark changes," Lepsen said.
"We want to have continuity with the new functionality, so we
don't want to shock our viewers with a whole bunch of changes."

The software giant again stressed the browser's interoperability.
Microsoft on Tuesday announced that it will make IE8 standards
compliant.
The browser will render the Acid2 browser test correctly, and
fully supports CSS 2.1, Microsoft said. In addition, it fixes
"many cross-browser inconsistencies such as
get/set/removeAttribute, default attributes, Attribute object and
the < Q > tag."

In an apparent coincidence, the Web Standards Group announced the
release of the next-generation Acid3 test on Wednesday.

The beta will also include two new features, dubbed Activities and
WebSlices.

Activities is intended to provide quick access to services from
any Web site, Microsoft said. Once downloaded through the IE8
service guide, users can look up or send certain information from
the Web. Those on a restaurant Web site, for example, can click
within the page to get maps, look up news on the restaurant, blog
about it, or share on Facebook.

Activities will also feature partnerships with companies like eBay
and Stumbleupon, which eBay acquired in May. Highlight something
on a Web site, right click it, and see if that item is available
on eBay without ever leaving the original Web site, Lepsen said.

"We're always going to love control-v, control-c, but right now
we're trying to shorten up the steps," Lepsen said. "The whole

idea of tab proliferation? You don't always have to have that.
Access to what you want to do most often is going to be a lot
easier."

WebSlices is an RSS-like features that allows users to subscribe
to content directly within a Web page. IE8 will identify WebSlices
within a page, and add them to the favorites bar, which will also
display updates.

The favorites bar was revamped for IE8. In addition to storing
links to favorite Web sites, users can now add content like feeds,
WebSlices, or documents from World, Excel and PowerPoint.

IE8 also includes automatic crash recovery, which restores tabs in
the event of a failure.

Also on the security front, the beta will include a phishing
filter to warn users of possible phishing Web sites.

In addition to the IE8 beta, Microsoft also unveiled the
Silverlight 2 beta, which supports managed code, includes the core
of the Common Language Runtime and adds over two dozen user
interface controls, Microsoft said.

Microsoft also announced Expression Studio 2 beta, and a preview
of SQL Server Data Services.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 1:15 PM PDT on Wednesday
with comments from Microsoft.


http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2273696,00.asp


--