New browser versions are hotly anticipated in the client-side region of the Soak studio. Internet Explorer hasn’t lost its claim as the most popular browser worldwide but it has an awful lot of catching-up to do, as rivals Firefox, Safari and Opera are miles ahead with their support for Web standards. Unlike Outlook, IE has genuinely advanced in recent years and supporting versions 7 and 8 won’t compare to the nightmare of version 6.

What’s new?

Despite less-than-desirable Acid3 test results, the IE team have made huge advances with JavaScript performance – thanks to the introduction of SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) support. IE9 will also feature improved text rendering, support for some CSS3 (such as rounded corner border-radius goodness) and HTML5 features such as embedded audio and video.

Check out the official preview site: http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/

Curb your enthusiasm

IE9 won’t run on Windows XP, which will limit its uptake by businesses (our local Sainsbury’s still runs Windows 2000. I’m not sure how I suppressed a scream at the checkout)

Edit: As pointed out below, you can follow the IE team on Twitter or Facebook for regular progress reports, or to give a bit of direct feedback

Tags: internet explorer, microsoft