Internet Explorer Version 8 ( ie8 )

This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future software.
The content may change as the software release approaches and more information becomes available.

Version 8 of Internet Explorer is in development.A beta version will be made available in the first half of 2008. From the blog and based on the conferences of MIX 2007; RSS, CSS, Ajax, microformats, more options for user interface customization and improved web development tools are possibilities for inclusion into the forthcoming version of Internet Explorer, with security still being the top priority.

Microsoft is investing in support for more of the CSS 2.1 specification as well as changes to the DOM for interoperability with other web browsers. HasLayout functionality will also be done away with in IE8.IE8 includes a new rendering mode known as "IE8 standards mode". IE8 standards mode breaks compatibility with previous versions of Internet Explorer by more strictly adhering to web standards. IE8 standards mode is not enabled by default, but can be triggered by inserting a special flag into a web page.

IE8 supports Data: URIs, HTML object fallback, abbr tag, CSS generated content and display: table display type, in addition to fixing a lot of CSS and HTML parsing bugs.As a result, according to Microsoft, an internal debug build of IE8 passes the Acid2 test in IE8 standards mode. However, the version of IE8 that will be released will not pass Acid2 as it will require pages to specifically request to be rendered in IE8 standards mode, and Acid2 does not request this.