It looks like IE8 is about to be released for beta, there is a Microsoft site up that has various links for downloading the beta of the upcoming browser. None of the links on the page currently work but there are several versions looking to be made available very soon. With SXSW just around the corner it looks like they may be releasing it to the public for beta testing within the next week or two (hopefully sooner). With their announcement also that the browser will work by default in standards mode things are looking good for Microsoft’s next browser version. Once IE8 is released I will update this page with the news. Until then just keep checking back here and on the link to see if it is available for download.

Update: IE8 beta Is now available for downloading!

Update2: I’m not impressed so far, lots of sites are broken on it (this site, CNN, HP, etc). It also does not in fact pass the acid2 test like Microsoft had previously claimed. So far it is a big let down in my opinion. They have added a few features that are irrelevant if it doesn’t render web sites properly. I’ll have a better write up after some testing.

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As I am sure most of you have heard, Microsoft has made an unsolicited offer to Yahoo in the sum of $44 billion.
The Sunnyvale, CA based business started in January of 1994 at Standford University by two graduate students Jerry Yang and David Filo. The orginal website was called “Jerry’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” In April of that same year they renamed the company “Yahoo.”

There are a ton of news articles out there on the topic right now, it is going to be an interesting situation to watch. With Yahoo! and Microsoft struggling against Google in the search arena, anything is possible.

New York Times: An Offer Yahoo Can’t Refuse

TechCrunch: What would a combined Yahoo-Microsoft look like?

Washington Post: Microsoft Offers To Buy Yahoo for $44.6 Billion

Reuters: Microsoft says Yahoo would help it turn a web profit

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As some of you may be familiar with the acid2 test and some may not, I’ll give a little information to help you understand what it is. The acid2 test is a CSS test, a web standards test really. The test creates a simple smiley face image using CSS, browsers that are compliant (safari, opera) show the smiley face just as it is intended. Browsers that are not show something entirely different. IE6 shows something that doesn’t even make sense and IE7 equally shows something that makes a little more sense but not much. Firefox is almost there*, definitely much closer then IE7 though.

However, IE8 which is set to release sometime in early 2008 has passed the acid2 test and will be released passing it as well. This is all according to the IE Blog over at Microsoft, some pretty exciting news about Internet Explorer users (and haters). Hopefully the IE hacks of the past will be no more with the release of IE8. We can only hope that there will be some kind of update to IE7 that will make it compliant also.

*Update: Firefox 3 Beta does pass the acid2 test, thanks Asa.

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The announcement of Microsoft Silverlight comes as somewhat a shock to a lot of the design community, with Microsoft introducing a new flash competitor things could start to heat up in the design world. Especially sense they are also developing Microsoft Expression Blend and Microsoft Expression Designer. They have already released Microsoft Expression Web which was the replacement web design product for Frontpage (which was utter crap). So far Expression Web looks like a good program, as far as standards go at least. (more…)

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Microsoft recently announced in a press release that they will be acquiring Adobe Systems for $14 billion. This move would further make Microsoft the largest software company in the world and risk bringing Apple down from their recent explosion of popularity by totally monopolizing the industry. Could this means that Adobe products in the future may not work with OSX? (more…)

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