Is Microsoft Getting Ready to Let the Internet Explorer 8 Genie Out of the Bottle?

Microsoft is gearing up to let the Internet Explorer 8 genie out of the bottle. Like all things connected to the Windows platform, the future version of Internet Explorer, along with products such as Windows Vista Service pack 1, Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows 7, fall under the strict Windows Omerta, imposed by Steven codename Translucency Sinofsky, the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group — the user experience of Microsoft Windows and Windows Live services.

Microsoft has repeatedly declined to be in the least transparent on IE8, offering the argument that it cannot discuss the future of the Internet Explorer browser as long as it does not have a firm plan in place. This is why, one year after the Redmond company made available Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP Sp2 and Windows Server 2003, IE8 is still a mirage for users and developers. But there is life after IE7, and IE8 might as well be on the horizon.

At over one year since IE7 dropped in October 2006, Microsoft drew the line on the browser version and revealed an install base of over 300 million worldwide. At the same time, Tony Chor, IE Group Program Manager posted a stay tunned message focused on Internet Explorer 8. "While we’re happy with how well IE7 is doing, as always, we continue to listen to our customers and find ways to further improve Internet Explorer. Look for more news on this front in the coming weeks," Chor stated.

At this point in time, however, there are little details available about IE8, except a possible release date sometime in late 2008, early 2009. In the meantime, Mozilla is preparing to drop the second beta for Firefox 3.0 by the end of December 2007. Microsoft too is dogfooding IE8, but little has transpired outside of Microsoft.

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