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Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 8 in beta mode and ready for download.Although the IE8 beta was geared for web developers, Microsoft does not restrict its download status. In fact, it is even encouraging everyone to try it out and see for themselves how useful IE8 is. But like all other software that comes out in beta stage, users are still advised to exercise caution when downloading IE8 and installing it on their machines.

So what can loyal users of IE expect from the latest version of Microsoft’s browser? IE8’s new features can actually be categorized into three: interoperability and compatibility; built-in tools that help both first time and experienced developers and designers get pages built right;browser capabilities that enable innovative experiences.

Putting those features in layman’s terms, here are some new features of IE8:

• Crash recovery feature similar to Firefox - IE8 will attempt to restore the last open tabs before system crashed.
• Activities feature - simplifies various tasks such as sending links, web pages, images or snippets to Digg, Windows Live Maps, Facebook, Dictionary.com and other online services sans copying and pasting.
• Web slices - lets users to subscribe to just a portion of a web site, web slices can be embedded into web pages as well as be added to IE8’s favorites bar.

A few hours after its release in beta mode, there were already mixed reactions from people who have installed IE8. Some had experience more browser crashes. While others think that there was not too many new features in IE8 compared with IE7.

But the most important question to ask before IE8 becomes official is, could it get back its old users who shifted to Firefox?

Read [Microsoft IE8]