Ask DLS: What do you make of IE8's giant incompatibility list?

Filed under: Internet, Microsoft, Ask DLS, Browsers

It's no secret that Internet Explorer has a history of thumbing its nose at web standards. IE8 is supposed to change all that, bringing improved (how could it not be?) compliance. An unfortunate side effect, however, is that some sites that have been designed to display properly in IE7 (or older) don't look so hot in the new version.

I particularly like one excerpt from the IEBlog: Site owners are *always* in control of their content. That's important to remember in case you were thinking the browser had something to do with why a site looks fine in Firefox, Chrome, or Opera but not IE.

How, then, to avoid these problems? Why, with the incompatibility list, of course! Sites added to it will automatically load in "compatibility view," thus providing the average user with a more hiccup-free browsing experience. Trouble is, the list is getting big. Stupid big.

ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley reported that the list currently contains 2,400 sites that don't render properly in IE8. Even better is the fact that the list includes some pretty major sites, like Yahoo! and Google. Google? How does a web browser not render Google correctly?

What do you make of the list? What does it say about the state of Internet Explorer and web standards?

Topical addon: The Register has published a post about Norwegian websites banding together to urge users to upgrade from IE6 to a "more compatible" browser so they don't have to hack up their code.

Ask DLS: What do you make of IE8's giant incompatibility list? originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 19 Feb 2009 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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