Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: Mixed Reactions - Possible IE 8 Issues
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Web developers have complained bitterly about Internet Explorer's lack of compatibility with web standards such as CSS, HTML 4 and XHTML. IE 8 was supposed to fix this issue, at least to some extent. Unfortunately, it hasn't. The Web Standards Project applied its Acid Test 3 to IE 8, and discovered that the new browser doesn't work nearly as well with CSS, HTML 4 and XHTML as Firefox and Google browsers.
Because Internet Explorer has historically been incompatible with certain technologies, web developers have needed to design their pages so that they could be viewed well by both standards-compliant browsers and by IE browsers. Sometimes they even had to code for particular variations of IE browsers, since Microsoft made significant changes between IE 6, IE 7, and now IE 8. Fortunately, IE 8 has a “Compatibility View” that allows users to view sites designed for earlier versions of IE. With any luck, this feature should lead to a little less hair loss and not as many long hours for web site developers.
Internet Explorer 8 offers more protection than earlier versions of the browser against malicious web sites, and a report by NSS Labs claims that it blocks two to four times as many malicious web sites as other browsers. The validity of that report has been challenged by Steve Ragan, writing for the Tech Herald, on several grounds. First, of course, it's a little suspicious because the funding was provided by Microsoft. Second, less than 500 known malicious web sites were used for the test. Third, all browsers were used in their “default” mode, when Firefox, Safari, and Opera boast a plethora of add-ons designed to provide layered security against attacks – the most effective kind of security currently known. To add insult to injury, the test featured an older version of Safari, despite the latest version becoming available a week before the testing period.
Microsoft has also claimed that IE 8 is faster than the other browsers on the market. This is by no means certain, as more than one reviewer has commented that it seems at least a little slow.
Another welcome new feature for Internet Explorer 8 is privacy controls. Among other things, they block third-party cookies. But a number of reviewers have said that they are too cumbersome to use, and expect many users to not even bother. (Those prone to conspiracy theories may wonder if that was the point of making them difficult to use).
Next: IE 8: Worth Using? >>
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