XML News from Thursday, October 19, 2006

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 7 (Windows XP only). According to general manager Dean Hachamovitch:

The Phishing Filter and the architectural work in IE7 around networking and ActiveX opt-in will help keep users more secure. IE7 also delivers a much easier browsing experience with features like tabbed browsing (especially with QuickTabs), shrink-to-fit printing, an easily customizable search box, and a new design that leaves more screen real estate for the web site you’re viewing. IE7’s CSS improvements are incredibly important for developers as many of you have made quite clear. I also think IE7’s RSS experience and platform are important, powerful, and innovative."

Five years ago this release might have been state-of-the-art. Today, it's a browser that still doesn't fully support CSS, still doesn't recognize the right MIME types for XHTML and XSLT, still doesn't pass the Acid 2 test, still doesn't support SVG, MathML, or XForms, and can only be considered an improvement by comparison to previous versions of itself. There's nothing here that will impress Firefox or Safari users.