IE8 Aims to Let Web Designers Focus on Rich Content

Mark Long, newsfactor

Microsoft previewed its next-generation Web browser this week during the MIX08 conference in Las Vegas. The investments Microsoft is making in Internet Explorer 8 "will enable developers and designers to deliver a range of seamless, connected experiences across the continuum of Web applications, rich clients, mobile and other devices," said Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie.

What IE8 will give Web-page designers is the built-in tools they need to reduce the challenges and complexity of delivering Internet content, said Dean Hachamovitch, the IE team general manager.

"What developers want to do is deliver amazing experiences, but what developers end up doing is spending too much of their scarce time getting things to work," Hachamovitch said. "The Web gets better when developers can spend more time innovating, and it is with that outcome in mind that we started work on IE8."

Embracing Standards

Microsoft's newly launched IE8 beta download is squarely aimed at developers, who are expected to provide the software giant with crucial feedback. "The key here is that we are only partway done now and there's a lot more to come." Hachamovitch said.

One IE8 goal is to enable developers to quickly build Web sites for multiple browsers, Hachamovitch said. "Today, differences between browsers simply waste too much developer time," he noted.

Microsoft is also moving to embrace standards to further the goal of achieving Internet interoperability, Hachamovitch noted. "Long-term we believe this is the right thing for the Web," he said.

IE8 features improved support for standards such as XML and cascading style sheet (CSS) designs for the Web. Moreover, the browser incorporates tools for quickly debugging HTML, CSS and JavaScript in a visual development environment, Hachamovitch said.

Online Crowd Pleasers

Hachamovitch also unveiled two IE8 innovations, called Activities and Webslices, that promise to enhance the Web-surfing experiences of browser users.

"Activities are about how developers can integrate their Web sites into the rest of the Web," Hachamovitch said, "and Webslices enable developers to reach beyond their pages and deliver directly to their users the content that they care about the most."

Activities are contextual services that enable a Web page's visitors to "look up" relevant information hosted at other Internet sites without leaving the Web page under view. Users will also be able to "send" content from a page at eBay's site, for example, to another application.

In general, developers won't find it challenging or difficult to make this work, Hachamovitch said. "There's a standard description of how an Activity works and eBay just had to fill in the parts that are unique to their site," he said.

By contrast, WebSlices are snippets of individual Web sites to which anyone may elect to subscribe and automatically receive update notifications when the content changes. These snippets are displayed on the browser's main toolbar no matter what Web page a user may be visiting.

From a development perspective, all that is required is a simple markup, with "no add-ins, no code, no complexity, and no need to create an RSS feed," Hachamovitch said.

And to protect Web surfers from phishers operating deceptive Web sites, IE8 now incorporates a Safety Filter that analyzes the full string of any URL. The top-level domain name is then displayed in the browser's address bar, enabling users to quickly confirm that the site they are visiting is actually the one they want.

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