Dean Hachamovitch, General Manager for Internet Explorer, has posted today on the IEBlog about what’s next for IE8. Dean and his team have been busy analyzing all the data sent in since the release of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 (which is a huge amount data). Based on feedback received on the transition from the IE7 Beta to final release – the IE Team wants to be clear about the plan for IE8. Dean highlights what’s next for IE8:
We will release one more public update of IE8 in the first quarter of 2009, and then follow that up with the final release. Our next public release of IE (typically called a “release candidate”) indicates the end of the beta period. We want the technical community of people and organizations interested in web browsers to take this update as a strong signal that IE8 is effectively complete and done. They should expect the final product to behave as this update does. We want them to test their sites and services with IE8, make any changes they feel are necessary for the best possible customer experience using IE8, and report any critical issues (e.g., issues impacting robustness, security, backwards compatibility, or completeness with respect to planned standards work). Our plan is to deliver the final product after listening for feedback about critical issues.
If you haven’t already – download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 today and let the IE Team know what you think. You can also read my in-depth post on IE8 Beta 2 here.
You should also check out these 15 awesome IE8 demo videos as well to see some of IE8’s features in action such as the Favorites Bar, Web Slices, and Accelerators.