Microsoft claims IE8 is 'a leap forward in web standards'

Microsoft may have failed the Acid3 test with the release of its Internet Explorer 8 browser, but that hasn’t dampened Redmond’s spirits a jot – in fact the company is busy making all sorts of noises about its new-found web standards credentials.

The software giant claimed on Friday that the arrival of IE8 represented “a leap forward in support for web standards” even though Microsoft notched up a miserable 20 out of a possible 100 in the Acid3 browser test.

Microsoft was keen to accentuate the positives by pointing out it had submitted 196 new test cases to the CSS 2.1 working group for inclusion into the CSS 2.1 test suite, although no agreement has been reached yet.

MS said its latest round of submissions meant it had contributed 7,201 tests to date.

“We’re working closely with the CSS working group to include the new tests in the official test suite. For now, these tests are available at the Windows Internet Explorer Testing Center,” said Microsoft’s Internet Explorer test manager Jason Upton in an official blog post.

“I encourage other browser vendors to contribute to the W3C’s CSS 2.1 test suite so those tests may be used by any browser under the W3C’s license,” he added. “Only then will those tests broadly benefit web developers.”

IE8, which is a Windows-only browser, finally landed last Thursday. It is the first version of Microsoft's browser to be compliant with some key industry standards including HTML and CSS.

Despite that many users were quick to grumble about the browser's disappointing 20/100 performance in the Acid3 test, the weakest score generated among the big name browsers on the market today.

The Web Standards Project developed the test as a means of measuring how well a browser adheres to certain web standards. ®