MS launching Internet Explorer 8 today
updated 07:50 am EDT, Thu March 19, 2009
MS Launching IE8 Today
Microsoft on Thursday said it would launch Internet Explorer 8 at 12PM Eastern. The app is the company's first significant web browser release since 2006 and is partly meant to address gaps in its feature set compared to other, newer browsers: a new rendering engine makes it more compatible with true W3C web standards while still having support for IE-specific pages. It also has shortcuts to perform context-sensitive tasks through specific websites (such as a Facebook search), visual search suggestions, and a WebClip-like feature known as Web Slices that lets users bookmark specific sections of websites and see them at a glance.
Greater security is also a focus with a private browsing mode and a smart filter for hostile sites. The software will be available for both Windows XP and Vista and will be a core feature of Windows 7.
The release comes just as the company faces increased competition as well as a potential blow to its control of the browser market. While significantly faster and more standards-ready, IE8 is already believed to be outperformed by Apple's Safari 4 as well as by Google's Chrome and the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 3.5. The software is poised to gain significant traction by virtue of its inclusion with Windows 7 but may be made optional in Europe as an ongoing EU antitrust case may force a choice between browsers that lets users install an alternative without ever installing Internet Explorer.
I said...
03/19, 08:10am reply
WE'RE LAUNCHING Internet Explorer 8!!! Anyone? Hello? Anyone? Is this mic on?
trevj
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Dec 1999
And I should care
03/19, 08:22am reply
about a windows-only browser ... sorry, why again?
chas_m
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001
IE6
03/19, 08:37am (1 reply) reply
My corporate apps are only certified with IE6. And therefore we cannot go to IE7 even. Users that sneak around and upgrade then call the helpdesk to complain that the application is broken. These are huge software packages that cost big money and much time to upgrade. With more IE versions more support and testing needs to happen. Maybe MS should have been standards compliant long ago but it doesn't matter now. We just need a working browser for our software systems but Microsoft is making that very difficult at best.
Jittery Jimmy
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Joined: Jan 2006
WOW, THIS IS HUGE
03/19, 08:55am reply
AMAZING! I am so looking forward to this.
It's so exciting with IE 8. Finally, wow!
We will be able to do everything with IE8.
Time to celebrate, gather around the computers and install!
..
..
Just kidding, who cares about this?
Meovv
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Joined: Jan 2006
We care because...
03/19, 09:15am (1 reply) reply
this potentiality puts more distance from IE6 for web developers.
robhall
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Joined: Dec 1999
Re: not really
03/19, 09:48am reply
Then do what Apple does. Just say "We don't support your browser, go get a real one" and be done with those IE 5/6 users.
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
no cross platform?
03/19, 10:26am (2 replies) reply
It is really a shame that MS is only releasing this as a windows app. All the other major browsers are cross platform these days. What ever happened to 'developers developers developers'?
estranged
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Joined: Apr 2007
die, IE6, die!
03/19, 10:35am reply
At this point, IE 6 is hurting the Internet more than it's helping it. For regular websites, it's frankly a huge pain to support this dinosaur. And old sites that depend on IE (especially IE 6) always suck because they only work with IE--they don't support Firefox or Chrome for Windows users, and they don't support Mac users.
IE 6 developers; your browser technology is from 2001, it's time to update.
_Rick_V_
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Joined: Mar 2003
Oh joy!
03/19, 10:48am reply
Back up your data folks!
Mr. Strat
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Joined: Jan 2002
Re: no cross platform
03/19, 12:23pm (1 reply) reply
If they made it for the Mac, you'd be complaining "Why bother, I've already got Safari, Firefox, Opera, Omniweb, etc, etc, etc".
And, really, who'd use it?
testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Aug 2001