Internet Explorer 8 - IE8 is Now Live

Consistent with the efforts to promote interoperability across the Web, Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability allows Microsoft to help web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of ?write once, run anywhere?, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers.

Today, they announce the public availability of Internet Explorer 8 (Beta 2). It is designed to help you extend your browsing experience beyond the page while ensuring you stay connected with the things you care about most. Some of the prominent features of Internet Explorer 8 include:

Improved Search

Searching for information is the most commonly performed task on the web. You’ll now see results show up instantly as you start typing in the built-in search box; these results will become more accurate each time you type a letter! This function will be supported by a wide variety of search providers including Windows Live?, Yahoo! and Google.

Search Suggestions

Now you can type a search term and see real-time search suggestions from your chosen search provider, recommending common searches related to the text that is typed. Click on a suggestion at any time to immediately execute the search, saving you time and increasing the relevance of the search.

Visual Search

Microsoft is partnering with top search providers like Microsoft Live Search, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Amazon, and more to deliver direct results and "visual search" images that provide you with immediate answers. For example, typing "Seattle weather" with Live Search will instantly show you a preview of the current weather directly in the Search Box drop-down.

Better Safety & Privacy

Do you want to be better protected from phishing and malicious software downloads? Need to browse with more privacy for that special gift online? Concerned about identity theft and your privacy? The latest version of Windows Internet Explorer has been designed to address these potential threats and more.

Increased Performance

Internet Explorer 8 includes many performance improvements that contribute to a faster, more responsive Web browsing experience in the areas that matter most, including when starting the browser, opening a new tab, or loading a page.

Please Note

Browsing with the Internet Explorer 8 default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. We are working with site owners to ensure that their content will continue to display seamlessly in IE8. To enable this process, we?ve provided a ?meta tag? (usable on a per page or per site level) that helps maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content exactly the way it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.

We would like to encourage you all to get your sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8. To learn more and get started, please follow the step by step instructions as outlined at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/952030

The good news is that Internet Explorer 8 will have a ?Compatibility View? button if people want to simulate their IE7 experience!