Microsoft Officially Releases Internet Explorer 8.0

Microsoft has released the final build of Internet Explorer 8.0 (IE8) in 25 languages (final build number 8.0.6001.18702). The much anticipated browser has been long awaited – and with the rumoured speed and safety enhancements it couldn’t have come too soon as the competition heats up with strong rivals Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome.

In addition to the alleged increased security and speed, it brings a number of new features such as InPrivate browsing (no trace of history, etc.) legacy site support, Accelerators (quick links built within the browser), Visual Search Suggestions, Web Slices and others. However, the most significant enhancement, the one that defines IE8 as a much larger leap forward than IE7 was from IE6, is the standards support. This finally brings IE in line with the competitors such as FF, Chrome and Safari. Now, this certainly won’t bode well for sites that tried to hack themselves to display properly in the much less standards-compliant IE7 (that’s why they have that compatibility mode), however it’s a great leap forward for the Internet as a whole.

All is not rosy for the Redmond giant, however, as during a security conference in Vancouver a hacker was able to exploit a hole in the new IE8 and take control of a Sony laptop in 2 hours (more on this here). Additionally, even though it boasts serious speed improvements over IE7, independent tests from Computer World have revealed that it’s still significantly slower than the competition. Microsoft claims the tests are biased and based on non-realworld scenarios, but those who have used Google Chrome know how blazingly fast it is. Many are also criticizing the new browser for having ignored a huge percentage of the userbase, as discussed in this article.

Nevertheless, love it or hate it, the new browser is here, and it’s your choice if you’d like to use it.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/