Have you tried Internet Explorer 8 yet? As you know we were testing IE8 pretty early on. Microsoft announced yesterday the first release candidate (or IE 8 RC 1)  was ready for public consumption. We are so far pleasantly surprised with advancements since Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2. Most of the new features are centered around the area of boosting performance and stability. One of these key features, is the compatibility mode which allows sites now designed/working with Internet Explorer 8 to switch to the older IE browsing mode. It has now been streamlined IE 8 now consults a list of sites known to have problems  and automatically switches to compatibility mode when visiting these sites. Users are also still given the option to turn on compatibility mode for any problem site not on this list.

Now while we still prefer the alternatives browsers to Internet Explorer, Microsoft has made some great strides to join them in speed and ease of use. We also cannot ignore the current browser market share, which pegs Microsoft Browsers at about  70%, according to the latest figure. This is why attention must be paid to your site and how it performs in Internet Explorer before mass release. The team behind Internet Explorer know this and have a message to all those with a stake in creating web content: “The call to action now is for the community to download the Release Candidate, test your sites and services and software with the product, make any changes necessary for the best possible customer experience with IE8, and let us know about your experience.”

So don’t delay! Try the new Internet Explorer 8 release candidate and share your experiences. Update instructions can be found here.