Want To Beta Test IE8? (Channel 9)

Recently, Allison Burnett, Program Manager for IE, posted to the IE Team Blog that they were looking for more beta testers to help them work out the kinks in the new browser. According to her post, she mentions that IE8 Beta 2 is “right around the corner" as she invites anyone interested in checking it out to become an official tester. This is a much bigger deal than beta-testing the latest Web 2.0 web app, I guarantee you. Official beta testers for IE 8 will really be helping the team get IE 8 ready for primetime. If you want to be a beta tester, just email the team at IESO@microsoft.com and tell them a little bit about yourself including why you would be a great beta tester for IE8. In addition to new features like web slices and activities, the new IE8's most dramatic change will be the support for web standards - by default, IE8 will run in standards-compliant mode. Even if you're not an "official" beta tester, you can give Microsoft feedback by joining the IE8 Technical Beta program on Microsoft Connect. And if you just want to download the beta and check out what it can do, you can download it from here.

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quikboy

Aug 07, 2008 at 3:12 PM quote reply

That sounds rather strange. Why not just wait until it publicly comes out? After all, this is still a beta anyway.

And the IE team could do a better job with bug tracking and all that. E-mailing and giving bugs like that. Ever heard of Bugzilla? Or the bug tracking forms for Webkit and Opera? Making things easier for your testers would be really nice.

I'm also shocked IE8 doesn't include any type of inline search at all. I mean, I need this feature if there's a really long page, and I just want to find something real quick, but not have to scan every text myself. Oh sure, there's 3rd party add-ons, but every modern browser should include something like this by default. Safari has a great (and I mean great) built-in inline search. You start typing letters in the special Find box, and the whole page dims like a screen is over it, and the first text result related to what you typed appears highlighted in a very deep yellow. With other related text in a bright white. And it's super easy to go to the next result.

Oh, and Safari is very graphical. Moving tabs is really swift feeling. And the download manager is very useful.

I'm also still waiting for a way to make custom skins/themes, spell check, dynamic zooming, tab history, and an easier way to manage bookmarks and RSS feeds and History, and search them instantly right from the address bar.
quikboy

Aug 07, 2008 at 3:12 PM quote reply

That sounds rather strange. Why not just wait until it publicly comes out? After all, this is still a beta anyway.

And the IE team could do a better job with bug tracking and all that. E-mailing and giving bugs like that. Ever heard of Bugzilla? Or the bug tracking forms for Webkit and Opera? Making things easier for your testers would be really nice.

I'm also shocked IE8 doesn't include any type of inline search at all. I mean, I need this feature if there's a really long page, and I just want to find something real quick, but not have to scan every text myself. Oh sure, there's 3rd party add-ons, but every modern browser should include something like this by default. Safari has a great (and I mean great) built-in inline search. You start typing letters in the special Find box, and the whole page dims like a screen is over it, and the first text result related to what you typed appears highlighted in a very deep yellow. With other related text in a bright white. And it's super easy to go to the next result.

Oh, and Safari is very graphical. Moving tabs is really swift feeling. And the download manager is very useful.

I'm also still waiting for a way to make custom skins/themes, spell check, dynamic zooming, tab history, and an easier way to manage bookmarks and RSS feeds and History, and search them instantly right from the address bar.
LarryLarsen A new world man putting the new world in order.

Aug 08, 2008 at 3:33 PM quote reply

I don't have IE8 on this machine, but I'm sure Control-F will let you inline search. But that's actually a good point (inline search). I mean, if a browser window has focus and I'm not clicked into a text entry field and I start typing, it should probably consider that the beginning of an inline search.