So far all that we've known about Internet Explorer 8 was that they finally decided to push for web standards, and for that I'm extremely grateful. Microsoft has, however, posted an IE 8 Readiness Toolkit likely in preparation for MIX08 which starts today and runs until March 7th. In the toolkit they have download links (which we've posted at the end of this article) as well as a feature guide.

The other day, the Web Standards Project released the Acid3 test that will push browsers to a new level. I'm sure many of you are already familiar with the Acid2 test which has become famous because of the often discombobulated block-like smiley face most browsers produce.

February was a good month for almost all of the browsers out there except for Internet Explorer, according to Net Applications. From December 2006 to August 2007 Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was able to maintain a substantial 79% marketshare. In the last 6 or 7 months, however, they've been dropping just under 1% each month.

Microsoft made a decision over a month ago that Internet Explorer 8 will not use their "super standards" mode by default. They said that websites would be able to opt-in to having IE 8 render sites in a standards-compliant way, but they thought it would be best if they broke as few sites as possible.

Microsoft has started to send out emails to select individuals indicating that Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 is right around the corner. The email is targeted to people whom they would like to receive feedback from before they open the doors to the general public, and no specific date for the IE8 Beta release has been given.

There was a lot of excitement when we wrote about the Greasemonkey script that could be used to switch between multiple Gmail accounts. At that time Thilak commented about a Firefox extension that basically accomplished the same task. With it you create user profiles that you can switch between, and it uses a different set of cookies for each of the profiles.

The Internet Explorer team is at it again pointing out that Internet Explorer 8 is looking to closely follow the web standards we've all become accustomed to in other major browsers. Earlier they demonstrated that IE 8 currently passes the Acid 2 test, and the IE blog actually admitted their lacking of compliance with the standards in the past:

When using your web browser there are a lot of things that you can do to speed up your efficiency and productivity, particularly when it comes to keyboard shortcuts.

The December 2007 market share stats for operating systems and web browsers are in. I wouldn't say any of the numbers are that shocking because patterns have emerged for many of them, but looking back one year ago shows some pretty impressive results.

IE7Pro just released version 2.0 to the public, and it has a few notable new features. For starters it has been modularized which will help increase its stability, and there is also a 64-bit version available on the download page. The biggest news, however, can be summed up by looking at the screenshot above.

Microsoft has been receiving a heap of criticism lately for their Internet Explorer web browser, and the Opera antitrust suit just added more fuel to the flames. People want to see Internet Explorer follow the standards that other web browsers have already complied with, and that will hopefully increase the number of sites that are compatible outside of the IE realm.

Opera issued a press release today announcing an antitrust complaint that they filed with the European Commission. In the complaint they argue that Microsoft should be required to unbundle Internet Explorer from Windows, and that the browser should follow the Web standards that many other browsers are already compliant with.

I'm not sure about you, but I have a collection of bookmarks that is almost unmanageable. Some of the bookmarks I probably haven't touched for years, and I thought it was time for a little spring winter cleaning!

Have you ever wondered how browsers have evolved over time? I'm sure many of you can recall using early versions of Netscape as they were pushed out the door, but some of the new features and interface designs have happened so slowly that it may be hard to appreciate the browsers we currently have.

Have you ever been on a page with a ton of animated GIF's, and all you're trying to do is read the content? It can get quite distracting, but if you're using Firefox or Internet Explorer just hit the ESC key. Doing so will immediately pause all of the animated GIF images on the page. Go ahead, try it with this image:

Microsoft has done what I never expected them to do...they removed the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation that was previously needed to download and install IE 7! This news comes straight from the Internet Explorer blog, and this is their reasoning for doing it:

After being around for barely more than a year Microsoft is on the verge of releasing a pretty big update to their Live Search. As of right now Microsoft is rolling out a Beta version to select testers, and don't be surprised if you see a new look the next time you visit Live Search.

One of the most notable features available in Opera 9.5 Alpha is the new bookmark synchronization feature. With it all of your bookmarks, among other things, are stored on a remote server so that no matter where you go your bookmarks are accessible. It's a truly great feature which takes almost no thought to use.

WordPress.com is the home of nearly 1.4 million blogs, and in a days time they receive upwards of 12 million pageviews. There’s roughly 75,000 new posts among those blogs each day, along with 30,000 comments (not including the ones caught by Akismet). For that reason WordPress.com is an accurate measure of what tools the blogosphere is using.

A month after Vista was released marked the beginning of an amazing application called Start++. It adds features that make the usefulness of Vista’s Start Menu more than double what it is out-of-the-box. The primary focus of the application is on the "startlets" which helps the Start Menu’s search box perform similarly to keyword searches in Firefox and Opera.