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Social Web surfing tool Me.dium is one of the first apps ready for Internet Explorer 8 beta, which Microsoft unveiled at Mix '08 in Las Vegas Wednesday.

The browser add-on enables users to chat with each other and see which Web pages they're visiting. This release takes advantage of new WebSlices and Activities features within IE 8.

With WebSlices, users can subscribe to dynamic updates of specific parts of Web pages they visit, with new content displaying within the Me.dium sidebar.

Activities capabilities enable users to bring up maps or Web searches of highlighted text on a page. The Discovery activity offers real-time content recommendations related to the pages users are browsing. The feature maps and ranks the popularity of users' ongoing activities.

Upon Microsoft's request, the Me.dium (more here) team reportedly built the tool for IE 8 within a week.

For the sake of security, Me.dium allows stealth settings so users can hide from each other, and it shuts off at bank sites.

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Mixing it up with Microsoft

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Users testing IE 8 can download Me.dium here. Some rival social browsing tools, however, don't require installation.

The extension, also available for Firefox, added support for IE 7 in September.

Me.dium is ready for Internet Explorer 8.

(Credit: Me.dium)

Opera Software's Hakum Wium Lie says Microsoft's plans to improve Internet Explorer's support for Web standards is a step in the right direction.

But, adds Wium Lie, the chief technology officer at Opera, more work is needed. Lie told CNET News.com on Wednesday that Microsoft's move addresses only one of several concerns that the browser maker had raised with the European Commission.

"Microsoft's announcement is good news for the web. Microsoft is now back in line with other browsers. It means that IE8 will do less damage for standards on the web than we feared earlier. It can still do damage -- it seems that Microsoft will implement their misguided "version targeting" scheme where pages can request to be rendered by a certain IE rendering engine," Wium Lie wrote in an email response.

Opera CTO Hakon Wium Lie

With IE 8, Microsoft plans to have three rendering modes: the new standards-compliant mode, the IE7 rendering engine, as well as an option for displaying older Web sites. Because of the default shift, Web sites that want IE 8 to use its IE7 engine will have to add a tag to their site's code.

Wium Lie said Microsoft's standards support in IE 8 "partially addresses" concerns that Opera voiced to the European Commission.

Opera had also called upon Microsoft to support browser interoperability tests, known as Acid2 and Acid3. "IE8 also has the opportunity to do good things for the web," Wium Lie wrote. "For example, it may pass the Acid2 test by default and the IE team may have started working on Acid3. We don't know yet if this is the case. It seems that Microsoft doesn't use the word "pass" and "Acid2" in the same sentence."

"We have seen several interesting announcements lately, " Wium Lie said, referring to the IE 8 standards pledge. "However, they have a long record of saying the right things while doing something different. It remains to be seen what their products look like when they ship."

Microsoft last month also pledged better interoperability with open-source software, just days before the EU slapped the company with a $1.35 billion fine for making interoperability information too expense and difficult to access.

(Credit: Channel 9 / Microsoft Corporation)

Standards, standards, standards.

That's the general theme of a video about the next version of Internet Explorer, which will unsurprisingly be called IE 8. Details thus far have been scarce, but in a half-hour video with IE General Manager Dean Hachamovitch and Architect Chris Wilson produced by Microsoft's Channel 9, the two discuss the importance of standards, compatibility, and interoperability with the upcoming browser.

We also get a (faraway) sneak peak at a development build of the new hush-hush browser. The key takeaway? IE will finally be able to render the Acid 2 test correctly, which has historically been one of the toughest Web standards and compliance tests around.

Microsoft originally intended to add additional compliance support into IE 7 (including the Acid 2 test), but it didn't make it into the shipping build. It was then put in a lower priority on the bottom of a large "wish list" of improvements for future updates, but to no avail, as Microsoft focused its resources on building IE 8.

No version of IE has been able to pass the test, while mainstream competing browsers like Opera and Apple's Safari have managed to be compliant for the last few years. Mozilla's upcoming Version 3 of Firefox is also set to pass the Acid 2 test, though the current shipping version of Firefox (version 2) won't cut the mustard.

The real importance of standards compliance is a two-party problem: one for developers who have to laboriously make their sites work with as many browsers as possible, and another for the users who simply may not be able to use a site because it's been designed only for a limited number of compatible browsers. The Acid 2 test isn't the final solution, but it manages to put any browser through its paces with a seven-part test.

Still no word on other IE 8 user features--or a release date.

Update: According to Paul Thurrott, we can expect the browser to make its way to users in the first half of 2008. Thurrott also has some details on potential interface changes, including a mention of it sharing some characteristics with Office 2007--sans the "ribbon."