In a surprise move at the MIX08 Conference, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 8 is now available for download.
The list of enhancements include:
- Facebook Integration — Get status updates directly from your browser
- eBay Integration — You can use their new “webslices” to subscribe to individual portions of a page.
- Live Maps Integration — Highlight text on a page, like an address, then right-click and choose “Live Maps” to see a preview map in a small pop-up window.
- Better support for AJAX pages
I haven’t downloaded yet, but I’m just about to. Once you get it, leave a comment and let us know what you think!
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/Install.htm
Mickey says
Not off to a good start. I’ve downloaded the install file twice (for XP) and both times the installer had aborted with a “file corrupt” message…
Mickey says
I’ve now got it installed on a couple of my PCs, and I’m pretty pleased.
One funny note — when trying to run Windows Update from this PC, it tells me that “this requires at least Internet Explorer version 5”. I rebooted, reinstalled, no dice.
Fortunately, there is button in IE8 to “Emulate IE7” and that does the trick.
Jim Spencer says
Let’s just hope that they iron out the kinks really fast and that IE 5.5 and IE 6 are deprecated immediately.
jess says
Amen, Jim! I spend way too much time getting pages to work with IE. So far IE 8 isn’t doing all that bad on the acid standards test. Is standards compatibility too much to hope for?
Jim Spencer says
There is hope! A recent SitePoint newsletter shared very promising insights into IE8 treatment of CSS and even claims that IE 8 has moved ahead of competitors in terms of standards compliance. I love Firefox and my 40 plugins, so I have not rushed to install or test IE 8 for myself.