Microsoft just made the official release of Internet Explorer 8 available to the public. This new version boasts new features and, best of all, passes the Acid2 Browser Compatibility Test! This is the first version of IE to pass this test!
What is The Acid2 Browser Compatibility Test?
The Acid2 test is a Web page which tests a browsers ability to follow Web standards. If the browser passes, the page renders with the message “Hello World! and a smiley face”
As any developer will tell you, having a standards compliant browser is a dream! Long have we had to muck up our pristine code to write ugly hacks to support non-compliant browsers such as IE6. Visiting a site with non-compliant browser means that you probably wont see the site as the designer intend. The browser will misinterpret (if render at all) the code – which is completely infuriating as a designer!!
Up until now every major browser, with the exception of Microsoft browsers, were standard complaint.
Internet Explorer 8
Internet Explorer 7
Internet Explorer 6
Firefox 3
Safari 3
What’s New in Internet Explorer 8?
Microsoft’s MSDN site lists many new features (as well as a list of standard complaint updates):
- 64-Bit Downloads
- Accelerators
- Accessibility and ARIA
- ActiveX Improvements
- AJAX Enhancements
- CSS Compliance
- Developer Tools
- Document Compatibility Mode
- DOM Storage
- HTML and DHTML Improvements
- Mutable DOM Prototypes
- Protected Mode Improvements
- RSS Features
- Search Suggestions
- Security and Privacy
- Selectors API
- Web Slices
- Zoom Enhancements
- Related Topics