Microsoft plans to release the first beta of the next version of Internet Explorer in the first half of 2008, and said that IE 8 has passed a key Web standards test that ensures the browser won’t “break” the Web. IE8 has passed the “Acid2 Browser Test” from the Web Standards Project, which shows whether a browser renders a Web site in a certain way. If the browser renders the site correctly, it means the browser supports certain accepted Web standards. Microsoft developed IE before some Web standards such as CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) were developed, and so older versions don’t support some current standards. With the release and subsequent popularity of open-source browser Mozilla Firefox three years ago, a browser’s need to stay current with Web standards once again moved to the forefront.

When Microsoft developed IE7, released in October 2006, the company had good intentions and decided to improved support of Web standards with the new release. However, Web sites that were created for older versions of IE didn’t work properly on IE7. Microsoft hopes to remedy this problem so the situation is not repeated with IE8, according to an IE Blog posting attributed to Dean Hachamovitch, a Microsoft general manager on the IE team. “With respect to standards and interoperability, our goal in developing Internet Explorer 8 is to support the right set of standards with excellent implementations and do so without breaking the existing Web,” according to the blog posting. Microsoft said the final release of IE8 depends upon feedback received from the beta process.

Source: PC World