Microsoft has released Beta 2 of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8. This is a wider beta release of the browser which has many improvements over Beta 1. It has features which were introduced by Firefox 3 a long time ago (well not exactly a loooong time ago but yes before IE8).

IE8 Beta 2 has features like InPrivate Browsing which prevents information from being saved on the local system (which is used for browsing). This of course protects your privacy if you are surfing from an internet cafe or a computer that does not belong to you. This would be effective, of course, if the public kiosk has IE8 installed in the first place .

Then there’s SmartScreen Filter which obviously is similar to FF3’s phishing filter that blocks access to a suspected phishing or malicious site by instead displaying to the user a warning screen.

There’s Search Suggestions which of course suggests users with most common search queries.

For some marked feature improvements, I must mention that IE8B2 has incorporated a lot of features that were introduced or available in Firefox 3. Features like a brand new address bar which integrates bookmarks, pages in your history and also some suggested sites if you allowed suggesting of sites (this feature is new in IE8 Beta 2), were already there in FF3 but were noticeably absent from Beta 1 of IE8.

Some additional tabbing features have been introduced (which are very important to me and which I always missed if I had to, once in a blue moon, use Internet Explorer) like Duplicating Tabs, Reopening of closed tabs and so on.

One interesting feature in IE8 Beta 2 is tab grouping. Tab Grouping works when you open a link from an existing tab and that opens a new tab. Both the tabs are then collectively given a new color and are considered ‘grouped’ together. Of course you can always ungroup them.

While Beta 1 was aimed primarily at Web Developers and was supposed to be a preview technology, Beta 2 is intended for a wider use.

Let us hope it delivers what it aims for. Although there’s no date set for the release of IE8 yet but I have a feeling it may get a release by either Jan or March next year.

Make sure you read the release notes of IE8 Beta 2 which has outlined compatibility issues with some major sites and if you happen to visit them, stay clear of IE8 Beta 2 as of now.

***Update: IE8 Beta 2 has some layout issues with the Write Post Page of WordPress 2.6 (that’s what I’ve got on my blog). I am still exploring more with IE8 and will keep you posted about the discoveries. It may include new posts on the blog as well.

Take a tour of IE8 Beta 2 and decide if you would like to jump the gun and run with the Beta.

Download IE8 Beta 2 here.

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