IE8 on Acid

Microsoft announced that an internal build of Internet Explorer 8 passed the Acid2 test. The Acid2 test was created by the Web Standards Project as a standard test that makers of web browsers could use to test if their browsers had achieved a high degree of standards compliance.

Until that time there was some variance on what "standards compliant" browsers like Firefox, Opera, and Safari would display for a given page. Worst of all Internet Explorer 6 had many standards compliance issues, but it was hard to define an authoritative list of what they should fix in the next release. The Acid2 test provided a target for everyone to use and easily test.

Internet Explorer 7 came much closer, but still failed the test. Opera and Safari soon released versions that passed the test and the upcoming Firefox 3 will also pass the test. With today's news on Internet Explorer 8, all major browsers will pass the test. This means we should be entering a world where pages look the same on all browsers (at least whenever IE8 is released and widely adopted) and that is a great thing for web developers and the Internet.