The Internet Explorer Weblog has announced that the second test version (beta) of Internet Explorer 8 will be released in August.

Whether you like IE or prefer Firefox or Opera, the release of IE8 will be a significant event and it will be interesting to see how it affects web sites. The various idiosyncrasies of IE have forced web developers to tweak sites so that they are compatible. As IE follows web standards better, some of these tweaks may break web sites. I'd better check all of my web pages soon.

If you want to take a look at Internet Explorer 8, it can be downloaded from the Microsoft web site. Do bear in mind this is a test version, so it's best to run it on a non-critical computer, or maybe in a virtual one.