CompetitiveBrowserDevelopment/IE-Notes

Internet Explorer

• Web Browser: IE
• Version: 8.0
• Release Date: 2008/2009; expected to be able to release new versions of IE every 12 to 18 months, but Wilson said an every-two-year schedule was looking more likely.
• Direction: standards compliance
• Emphasis: security, layout, CSS 2.1, increased compliane w/ Object Model, allow more flexible programming patterns; more client-side APIs for Ajax (like local storage and mashup security model)
• Features:
• Challenges: compatibility vs. standards-compliance connundrum which Microsoft has wrestling with its current and future IE releases. With a half-billion IE users out there, Microsoft takes its responsibility seriously to not break sites without solid reasons, Wilson told attendees

Notes:

• require Web site authors to "opt-in" to standards mode when developing IE 8.0 sites.
• more standards-complaint
  • authors then have to take responsibility for breaking pages.
• investing across layout, object model and Ajax development fronts
  • making IE 8.0 more compliant with CSS 2.1 layout standards
  • working to make the IE 8.0 object model more interoperable with that used by other browsers
  • provide more client-side application programming interfaces (APIs) to support local storage for mash-ups
• allow developers to more easily add extensions to its browser,
• invest heavily in advancing its Web development toolbar with the next version of IE.
• continues to see security as its No. 1 challenge with IE 8.0.

Possible Features:

• Online/Offline RSS Feeds and Reader
• Improved Bookmark Management
• "Locking" a page to prevent users from accidentally navigating away from it
• Adding a "Find on Page" capability
• Improving username/password management
• Restoring the "Image Toolbar" provided in earlier IE 7 test builds
• Changing the download mechanism, perhaps eliminating the initial download to the "temporary Internet files" folder
• Adding easily editable config files (similar to Firefox's userChrome.css and UserContent.css)
• Enabling draggable tabs from one IE window to another
• Configuring tabs so that each has its own private cookie cache
• Introducing new status bar info, possibly with fields such as "last accessed by user" and "window last updated"
• Enabling add-ons, such as stocks, movies, etc., a la Firefox

Unofficial news: The keyword for IE8 at this point seems to be "semantics", focusing on the context rather than simply the content. When you go to a website, IE8 scans and analyzes the content of the page to find out what the page is about, and then looks for additional information, whether it be ratings for a movie or the download link for a software. The retrieved information can be viewed in the sidebar, a new tab, or a pop-up window. It is also extensible so, although by default when you go to a page about a movie, you get information from IMDB only, with third party add-ons, you can can add that movie in your NetFlix cue, buy it from Amazon or eBay, or simply download it using BitTorrent.

The UI is also undergoing significant changes, becoming somewhat a hybrid of the tradition browser UI and the Office Ribbon. When visiting certain websites the UI morphs to display new buttons and options. For example when you visit MSN Soapbox, a button that allows you to upload videos, appears on the toolbar.

IE8 also improves the RSS Reader, and finally adds a download manager that can continue downloads across multiple sessions. Support for CardSpace and microformats also contribute towards making Internet Explorer 8 a true competition to Firefox.