Executive Summary:
The scoop on Microsoft Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 1, which is aimed squarely at Web developers and portends interesting trends for future Web development. |
Summaries of in-depth product reviews
on Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows
www.winsupersite.com
Office Live Small Business 2
Pros: Small-business-in-a-box functionality;
simple setup; elegant Web site designer; can
add functionality as needed; supports Mozilla
Firefox
Cons: Search marketing tool supports only
MSN/Live Search and Ask.com
Rating :
Recommendation : The first major update
to Microsoft Office Live Small Business service
for small businesses is well implemented, with
a friendly new pricing model and useful new
features. Now, instead of offering the service
with tiered pricing, Microsoft is offering the
free version to all customers, then tacking on
additional features on an a la carte basis so you
can purchase only what you need. Some of
the new features are quite well designed: The
Storage Manager is a shopping-cart application
that lets you sell products from your own Web
site or via eBay. And the Web-based Web page
designer is surprisingly full-featured. Sadly, the
search-marketing tool is a weak link: It can’t
place your ads on Google or Yahoo!.
Contact : Microsoft • 800-426-9400 • www.microsoft.com
Discussion: www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_sp1_rc1.asp
Internet Explorer 8.0 Beta 1
Pros: Interesting new functionality; Webstandards
adherence; performance improvements
Cons: Beta 1 is for developers only and incomplete;
rendering changes may break internal sites
Rating : n/a
Recomendation : Microsoft is doing a
huge about-face with Internet Explorer (IE) 8.0,
so any businesses that are relying, knowingly
or not, on rendering quirks of previous IE versions
will want to test intranet and external sites
on the first IE 8.0 beta right away. Microsoft is
abandoning its so-called Quirks Mode rendering
model in favor of a default Web-standards
rendering mode that should work like Mozilla
Firefox, Apple Safari, and other standards-based
browsers. IE 8.0 is aimed solely at Web developers,
but that’s the right user group this early in
the schedule. Ladies and gentlemen, start your
browsers: It’s time to test those sites.
Contact : Microsoft • 800-426-9400 • www.microsoft.com
Discussion: www.winsupersite.com/reviews/ie8_beta1.asp
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