Microsoft will be releasing Internet Explorer 8 to render content in its most standards-compliant way by default. Giving top priority to Web standards interoperability helps web developers and designers drive toward the ideal of “write once, run anywhere”, freeing up more time to innovate rather than modify content for different browsers. This also addresses several development and design pain points from previous Internet Explorer releases.

However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. This creates a call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft has provided a meta-tag usable on a per-page or per-site level to maintain backwards compatibility with Internet Explorer 7. Adding this tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to render content like it did in Internet Explorer 7, without requiring any additional changes.

Site administrators should begin to get their sites ready now for broad adoption of Internet Explorer 8, as there is a planed beta release in the third quarter of 2008 targeted for all consumers. To learn more and get started, please follow the step-by-step instructions located at the following link: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=120024.

Additional Resources

The following links provide additional information you may find useful:

· Internet Explorer 8 main site: http://www.microsoft.com/ie/ie8

· Internet Explorer Team Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/ie

· Internet Explorer Developer Center: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/default.aspx

· Internet Explorer 8 Readiness Toolkit (for web designers and developers):
   http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/default.htm

· Microsoft Interoperability Principles: http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/default.mspx