While Microsoft has muted all details associated with Internet Explorer 8.0 and will deliver a preview of the future of its browser at the end of April and the beginning of May 2007, Mozilla is getting ready to release the first public beta of Firefox 3.0. Microsoft is at the present time only dogfooding Internet Explorer 8.0, and that is a pre-alpha version. Meanwhile, Mozilla has already reached alpha 2 level with Firefox 3.0, codenamed Gran Paradiso.

Furthermore, it seems that Firefox 3.0 will beat Internet Explorer 8.0 to the market with no problems. While Microsoft has failed to confirm the actual release date of IE8, sources from the company have presented contradictory statements in this regard.

While participating at MIX06, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates revealed that Internet Explorer releases will be delivered at a rate of 9 months to one year. At the 2007 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a Microsoft representative forecasted that it could take as much as two years before the final version of IE8 will be released to users.

Mozilla however is not waiting around for Microsoft. In this context, Firefox 3.0 is scheduled for its first public beta this spring. Additionally, Brendan Eich, chief technical officer for Mozilla, announced that the final version of Firefox 3.0 is planned for late Autumn, 2007.

Firefox 3.0 will enable users to access web applications and services including Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Google Docs & Spreadsheets while working offline, after they download the necessary data, via a set of APIs.