Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is just around the corner, according to Microsoft. The Redmond company made available the initial Beta build of IE8 at the start of March 2008, a release announced by Dean Hachamovitch, IE General Manager, at the end of his MIX08 keynote. While Beta 1 was a developer-centric Build, Beta 2 will be focused on end users, and will bring a more complete feature-set compared to the first testing milestone of the browser. Allison Burnett, IE Program Manager, was the one to point out that the IE8 Beta 2 release is close, but failed to reveal the actual deadline for the delivery.

However, Microsoft is gearing up for a new wave of feedback following the availability of IE 8 Beta 2. In accordance with tester input, the company will fine tune the browser for RTW (release to web). According to Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business, the final version of IE8 will drop by the end of 2008, which means that the first Release Candidate builds of the browser will virtually be on the horizon after Beta 2 ships. In the end, with the Redmond company remaining shy of announcing a release date, tester feedback will ultimately determine when the browser is ready.

"Currently the only way to directly file a bug with the IE Team is to be a part of the IE8 Technical Beta program on Microsoft Connect. Beta 2 is right around the corner and we are expanding our reach! If you wish to be a part of making IE better by contributing great bug reports then please email us at mailto:IESO@microsoft.com and tell us a little about yourself including why you'd be a great beta tester," Burnett stated.

Microsoft has geared away from the feedback process associated with Internet Explorer 7 when it introduced IE8. The main difference is that IE8 has a closed Connect database. In the past, one IE product manager estimated that the volume of bugs submitted for IE7 was close to the 10,000 mark. The problem, however, was that the vast majority of this number was made up by trivial or irrelevant submissions, and not actual bugs. With a closed Connect database, Microsoft ensured that the number of bugs submitted would be kept down, nowhere near the 10,000 milestone, and that relevance would be kicked up a notch.

Only a select number of IE8 testers can directly submit bugs to Microsoft, while the general public can only vote on the issues already submitted. Outside of the limited pool of IE8 Beta testers, users can turn to the Automated Customer Feedback, the Report a Webpage Problem Tool and the IE Beta Newsgroup to serve input to Microsoft, according to Kellie Eickmeyer, Lead Program Manager.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 can be downloaded from here.