February 27, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Microsoft (microsoft.com) says it plans to launch a test version of Web browser Internet Explorer 8 by the end of June at the very latest, announced a company official in a blog post on Tuesday.
This past December, Internet Explorer 8 successfully completed the “Acid2 Face” test, which measures the extent to which a browser conforms to a series of widely used Web standards. The new IE 8 browser plans to offer improved support for Ajax programming and increased security, says Microsoft.
Microsoft is working to ensure Internet Explorer 8′s compatibility with websites designed for earlier versions of the software. Many corporate IT departments, as well as the federal Department of Transportation, chose not to adopt IE 7 when it was released in October 2006 because their websites did not properly run on the Web browser.
The company also formally launched today Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 at an event in Los Angeles, California. Microsoft plans to release Small Business Server 2008 later this year, as well as ship a public beta of its Silverlight 2 Web presentation technology in the next few weeks.
