SEATTLE — Microsoft gave early testers their first glimpse of its next-generation Web browser Wednesday and said Internet Explorer 8 will adhere to the same standards as competitors’ programs.
Microsoft’s browsers, including the current Explorer 7, gained notoriety among Web developers for handling Web-page code differently than Mozilla’s Firefox, Apple’s Safari, now-defunct Netscape Navigator and others.
For the most part, major non-Microsoft browsers and outside developers who built Web pages worked with agreed-upon technical standards, while Microsoft was accused of adding proprietary code to those standards. The result: Web pages that looked good in Explorer but broke on other browsers, or vice versa.
Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft’s IE general manager, said that in early IE 7 days, his kids would hear about broken websites and ask, “Daddy, did you guys break the Web?”
“And most of the time, I could honestly say, ‘No.’ But, you know, Web developers might answer that question a little bit differently,” he said.
Microsoft said the new version of the browser, when complete, will support industry-standard versions of the code that tells browsers what Web pages should look like, including CSS 2.1, by default.
“That’s a big deal,” said Chris Swenson, a software-industry analyst for NPD Group.
While most Web surfers might not feel a huge impact, Swenson said it will bring “a sigh of relief” for developers, who will spend a lot less time tweaking Web pages to work with different browsers.
Microsoft unveiled a few features in the new browser. For example, users will be able to “Send to Facebook,” “Map with Live Search” or “Define with Dictionary ” with a quick click.
