Internet Explorer 8 will not be technically done until Microsoft will sign off the code for Windows 7, which comes to the table with its own IE8 components. And yet, even after the Release Candidate of Windows 7 hit the web, Microsoft has started looking ahead to the next iteration of Internet Explorer. It's yet too early to say that the Redmond company has started the actual planning for IE vNext, but feedback for the next version of the browser is certainly welcomed. At the same time, Microsoft managed to point out that the successor of Internet Explorer 8 would be Internet Explorer 9.

In the Windows Internet Explorer 8 Expert Zone Chat (March 25, 2009) Eric Lawrence, a security program manager on the IE team, revealed that “For right now, we're all about listening. Listening to feedback on IE8, and what you folks think are most important for IE9.” Additionally, it appears that issues are already being identified and planned for fixing in Internet Explorer 9. “I have a bug filed on IE9 already for CTRL+S to map to "Save As",” Lawrence added. Still, of course, Microsoft will not discuss the deadlines for the development process of IE9.

With IE8 the Redmond company did not in fact announce any of the upcoming release milestones. The Release to web of Internet Explorer gold was only kept mum until mid-March, when the browser bits were actually made available. For Internet Explorer 9: “Schedule and release dates are not something we're ready to talk about at this point; we want to listen to your feedback and suggestions now,” Lawrence said back in March.

But what Microsoft is focusing on at the moment is gathering feedback on the current and future iteration of Internet Explorer. “As we begin planning for our next version (...) customer feedback will play an important role in prioritizing our feature set,” stated an IE team member. In addition, the software giant has started to gather feedback via Microsoft Connect. WinSuperSite posted an announcement from the IE Team indicating that feedback was welcomed for the development of Internet Explorer 9.

“We have added a new feedback form on Connect designed specifically to handle improvements for the next version of Internet Explorer. This includes not just feature requests, but all types of feedback including issues that currently exist in IE. Please continue to rate the submissions since we will look at the top rated reports first.

“Please be patient with the resolution of the reports you submit as we are in the research phase for the next version of IE. To shed some light on the status of your submissions, we’ll use a new field, Review Status, which will indicate whether we have reviewed the issue or not,” reads the message from the IE Team.