IE 8 Looms

Microsoft is starting to talk more about Internet Explorer 8. This will be an important next thrust in the browser wars (sort of like WW I with huge armies and trench lines that slowly move back and forth). IE8 features (a) real standards compliance (sites can work unchanged with IE8, Safari and Firefox!), (b) performance optimized for the most important use cases and (c) really interesting performance accelerators, and (d) nauseating but essential work on making this compatible with IE7 (non-standard) designed websites. I've been using the IE8 Beta for some time. RC1 is now available. It's worth experimenting with. It really does do some important common tasks faster (many fewer steps). It will be interesting to see if and how this deflects the browser share statistics