A Microsoft Christmas Miracle

Just in time for the holiday season, Microsoft has let it be known that IE8 (due out sometime in 2008) passes the Acid 2 test in standards mode. This is excellent news for web developers, and quite refreshing to hear coming from the same people who said passing the Acid 2 test simply wasn’t a priority for IE7.

For those of you who may be unaware, Acid 2 is a test page for web browser vendors set up by the Web Standards Project (WASP). The intention was for the Acid 2 test to be a tool for browser vendors to use to make sure their browsers could handle some features that we as web developers would love to use. It’s a pretty intense little test. If your curious, the WASP walks you through each of the items that Acid 2 tests for.

The timing for Microsoft couldn’t have been any better. This announcement comes right after Opera announced they were filing a complaint against Microsoft for their lack of standards compliance.

Now just because a browser actually passes the test doesn’t guarantee it will be standards compliant, but this is most definitely a step in the right direction. Add to this the rumor going around that hasLayout will be taken care of now in IE8, and I must say I am getting a little excited here. Of course, with the beta version coming out in the first half of 2008, it will still be quite some time before IE8 takes over the market share currently owned by other versions of the browser. Heck, IE7 still hasn’t passed IE6 as the dominant Microsoft browser.

Not to be outdone, BetaNews claims that Firefox 3 Beta also successfully passed the Acid 2 Test. Looks like we may have a pretty intense battle for browser supremacy starting up here in the new year.