Internet Explorer 8 beta cannot properly display Microsoft’s site

I’ve recently downloaded a new version of popular internet browser, Internet Explorer 8 beta. In a few days I’m going to test its performance against Firefox, Opera and Safari the same way I did before.

Meanwhile, I’m going to test drive IE 8.0 to see how it feels and if it could be a real competitor for Firefox or not.
So far I found kind of surprising thing: Internet Explorer 8 cannot properly display even their own (Microsoft) sites. Take a look are the screen shots below. It also has issues with www.digg.com and some others.

Damn you, web standards! Why there are no standards which are looking good in any version of IE? Now you have confused Microsoft team to the point, so they cannot focus even on testing their own web sites!

Shame on you, web standards!

internet exlporer 8.0 issues with microsoft site

right side of the page:

internet exlporer 8.0 issues with microsoft site

66 comments ↓

#1 meneame.net on 03.07.08 at 2:48 am

Internet Explorer 8 Beta no llegГі a mostrar correctamente un sitio de Microsoft…

La imagen muestra que ni los propios testers de microsoft probaron la mismisima p{agina de MicrosoftMarketPlace…

#2 copada.net on 03.07.08 at 3:26 am

Internet Explorer 8 Beta no llegГі a mostrar correctamente un sitio de Microsoft…

La imagen muestra que ni los propios testers de microsoft probaron la mismisima p{agina de MicrosoftMarketPlace…

#3 Dan on 03.07.08 at 8:13 am

And this surprises you? Microsoft laughs in the face of standards organizations, opting only to create their own nonsense standards. MSIE will never be a viable browser until Microsoft is FORCED to comply with existing standards, which is unlikely to ever happen.

#4 wanttoberich.wordpress.com on 03.07.08 at 8:14 am

hahahaha …. the guys at microsoft never get it right

#5 mechwarrior5 on 03.07.08 at 8:20 am

It’s only in beta. It’s not supposed to be a browser that you can surf the web in, but rather a browser for developers to test out how it displays their website, which it seems microsoft still has a lot of work to do

#6 Noud on 03.07.08 at 8:20 am

IE just sucks.

#7 nathix on 03.07.08 at 8:41 am

you find that in any web browser, some elements in websites change resize with the font size and that other elements don’t, this can really mess them up like this.
i find it looks most disgusting in myspace.com, or any good site that use javascript elements.

i think firefox is the best web browser, not because its that much faster, the speed difference is mostly neligible anyway, but the addons are that of legend!
adblock plus with element hider, tab mix plus, stuumble upon, cooliris, upity, down them all and of course customize google! try them out

#8 Eric on 03.07.08 at 8:55 am

lol, its called BETA for a reason… omg.

#9 Jenny on 03.07.08 at 9:14 am

Haha, thatz just weak of microsoft, but then again it’s only beta.

#10 mossface on 03.07.08 at 9:40 am

Man, that’s just hilarious. Anyone who’s done web development knows what a POS IE is already. I’m curious, are they moving further away from the standards with IE8, or are they moving closer? Are we going to have to come up with another generation of IE hacks to get the stupid program to behave?

#11 ZombieLoffe on 03.07.08 at 9:40 am

Keep in mind this is a beta version. I assume they’ve implemented only a small portion of the rendering engine and even less backwards compatability. E.g., sites completely ignoring web standards won’t render correctly. I’m a bit worried they change their tune again, though, and decide to scrap the web standards approach… that’d drive many web designers into despair (again).

Anyway, let’s hope the IE team really pulls this off… it’d be hugely helpful to the web design community.

#12 LOLNUX on 03.07.08 at 9:59 am

Haha… wow. Sides are hurting XD
This cracked me up.
M$ you’ve just pushed yourself further into the deep shit.

#13 aranhil on 03.07.08 at 10:32 am

now thats priceless :))

#14 Leon on 03.07.08 at 10:34 am

It’s because a lot of sites have hack for internet explorer, which are activating in IE 8. However, as IE 8 works differently to IE 7, the pages wont display properly.

#15 Stefan on 03.07.08 at 10:34 am

It is beta software… It will not work properly… that means bugs are still to be fixed..
Meh, why bother… Ubuntu all the way… why waste my time upgrading all the programs I install in Windows , one by one when in Ubvuntu I can do it with one click? I upgraded from 7.04 to 7.10 from within the Operating System. How cool is that?
Firefox and Opera are not competitors for IE… IE cannot compete with itself..

#16 Warbz on 03.07.08 at 10:51 am

LOL, This is priceless.

#17 horsedrowner on 03.07.08 at 11:06 am

I know about websites not being rendered as it should be but microsoft’s own site… lol :p (Stumbled, of course)

#18 Step on 03.07.08 at 11:23 am

Here we go again….

#19 paul j on 03.07.08 at 11:30 am

another pile of doodoo from MS.

#20 No name on 03.07.08 at 11:58 am

Maybe the web developers used the usual tricks to make the site render correctly in IE 7. This breaks the “more-standard-compliant” IE8.

That is why they proposed the totally ridiculous X-UA-Compatible Header/Metatag (both have been proposed)

I personally just shit on IE when creating websites. I don’t even bother to take a look how its rendered there. But alas, we have a good hotline explaining to complaining visitors/customers that Valid-(X)HTML is valid (X)HTML and that they should complain to the vendor of their browser. (or get another one)

#21 danny on 03.07.08 at 12:07 pm

hi. i’m also having problems with lot’s off websites.. i already unistalled IE8

#22 Snake on 03.07.08 at 12:45 pm

Go OPEN SOURCE.

#23 Tjeerdoo on 03.07.08 at 1:12 pm

LOL funny post ! stumbled upon it :)

microsoft has a long way to go when it comes to browsing & web standards

#24 Brad on 03.07.08 at 1:35 pm

This is probably because their website is using loose.dtd
I dont have a reason for digg.com
Also their web team is probably not on the same level with their IE development team.
Web designers most of the time just get into the “well shape it so that it works” because thats all their boss cares about… I’m sure when IE8 is released their site will render quite fine with it.

Iono.. my 2cents

#25 Lucas on 03.07.08 at 3:25 pm

Ha haa ha That’s golden :)

#26 PharkPhace on 03.07.08 at 4:47 pm

Ha-ha! Macrosux shoots their own foot again.

#27 Schnellschuss-Links vom 06.03.2008 bis 07.03.2008 | Werbeblogger - Weblog Гјber Marketing, Werbung und PR » Blog Archiv » Schnellschuss-Links vom 06.03.2008 bis 07.03.2008 on 03.07.08 at 4:52 pm

[...] Internet Explorer 8 beta und die Widowsseite Tja, das ist halt doof, wenn man endlich Webstandards einführt und dann die eigenen Seiten es nicht bringen. [...]

#28 Boing Boing on 03.07.08 at 5:39 pm

this is so web 3.0

#29 iphreaki on 03.07.08 at 6:18 pm

rofl…
classic microsoft quality…

#30 puft on 03.07.08 at 6:41 pm

It’s a beta. What do you expect? Surely a piece of beta software not performing to spec is not news.

#31 Axel on 03.07.08 at 6:48 pm

Keep us posted with your findings about IE8 Beta2, RC and RTM will you?

#32 johney on 03.07.08 at 7:21 pm

Just reinforces the fact that IE was Bill Gates’s shit directly coded into a web browser.

#33 Michael on 03.07.08 at 7:45 pm

IE8 has too many flaws. I was not able to play a video from CNN News. It kept freezing up and I had to do a cntl alt delete.

#34 Ryan Grange on 03.07.08 at 8:17 pm

Please tell me that was a tongue in cheek comment about standards not looking good in IE.
It seems only fitting that Microsoft’s programmers wouldn’t be able to follow a standard. Look at the messes that are the MS Office file formats.
It’s okay though, it turns out the programmers at Opera and those beatnik hippie freaks (tongue firmly planted in cheek there, guys) working for the Mozilla Foundation are capable of turning out browsers that can follow the standards. No Microsoft necessary.

#35 mike23 on 03.07.08 at 8:26 pm

self-owned.

#36 Tim on 03.08.08 at 12:07 am

Wow, a beta that doesn’t work properly. Well done for noticing this!

What will your next post be?

“Unfinished Road to Road Building Business STILL BUMPY!!!”

#37 Bobby on 03.08.08 at 12:08 am

It’s in Beta, what do you expect?

#38 Dwayne Charrington on 03.08.08 at 12:08 am

It’s funny you post this. I posted an article like yesterday predicting that IE 8 will still suck as much as IE 7 and previous releases, this further backs up my post wouldn’t you think?

- Dwayne Charrington.
http://www.dwaynecharrington.com

#39 guessing on 03.08.08 at 12:12 am

They are probably using web standards finally!

#40 Magnus on 03.08.08 at 4:28 am

Oh dear, more trouble for us web developers :(

#41 Some guy on 03.08.08 at 6:26 am

And Microsoft just owned themselves. again.

#42 Jamie on 03.08.08 at 7:05 am

It has a problem with live mail for me as well, and for any website that I design in Visual Studios using master pages

#43 Ben on 03.08.08 at 8:46 am

That’s exactly the reason I switched to Firefox. Loads of pages weren’t loading properly with IE as it was, but I drew the line when I wanted to look at stuff for the vista sidebar and microsoft’s gallery didn’t load on IE yet perfectly on Firefox.

I don’t usually care about this browser business - it has to be said that I am happier with Firefox now…

#44 Aidan on 03.08.08 at 9:52 am

Good old microsoft!

#45 LucasC on 03.08.08 at 10:03 am

ROTFLOLcopter!

#46 Quicklinks 08.03.2008 | Datenblackbox on 03.08.08 at 10:05 am

[...] Microsoft Internetexplorer 8 kann die Microsoft Seiten nicht darstellen [...]

#47 Mauricio on 03.08.08 at 11:57 am

I wonder why does the World get a clue and switch to MICROSOFT STANDARD S for Bill’s sake!
but seriously…. in some sense, I wish IE8 get rid of all IE hacks…

#48 Jas on 03.08.08 at 12:05 pm

Why bother with IE?
FIREFOX rulez!

#49 fez on 03.08.08 at 12:34 pm

Just wondering if you could add a screenshot of how the site is supposed to look–I can’t see the problem. Thanks!

#50 MSonders on 03.08.08 at 12:40 pm

Seriously? It’s a Beta, the first one that. Give it a rest.

#51 Brian on 03.08.08 at 4:11 pm

First post!

And wow, IE is just getting worse and worse…I’m gonna stick with my open source browers ;]

#52 j on 03.08.08 at 6:18 pm

I have IE 8 Also and I hate it, like your experience mine won’t display websites either (like myspace.com) so i dumped it and used firefox.

#53 ellama on 03.08.08 at 6:31 pm

very sad…

#54 Will on 03.08.08 at 6:34 pm

It also doesn’t support windows update

#55 dave on 03.08.08 at 9:56 pm

Dude, you’re using BETA software, and then making a blog post blasting it. Its BETA you dipshit, did you expect 100% perfect results on every page?

#56 Mr.Beta on 03.09.08 at 12:32 am

IE8 Beta, is a BETA version.
What do you expect?

#57 Jake Lazaroff on 03.09.08 at 1:20 am

Which web standards don’t “look good” in IE8? Remember, this is a *beta* product - there are clearly some kinds that need to be worked out of the rendering engine. As far as web standards go, I assume you’re aware that it passes the Acid2 test (http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2007/12/19/internet-explorer-8-and-acid2-a-milestone.aspx)? I’m usually loathe to support a Microsoft product, but this one actually looks decent. More than decent - it looks *good*.

#58 Liam on 03.09.08 at 3:57 am

Was we expecting anything less from redmond though?

#59 Digital on 03.09.08 at 5:54 am

And…?

Bottom line, good for them. I’m glad microsoft has finally gone ahead and started to get their act together on web standards. They’ll get it fixed, and I’m not going to cry with it not working for a few weeks.

I’d much rather a slight graphical issue, then 2 web standards… and good for microsoft growing up and stepping back.

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#61 Big Bad Al on 03.09.08 at 8:52 pm

IE8 will be the first version of IE that’s actually standards compliant by default (though you can switch back to Microsoft’s previous non-standard behavior if you want). Because IE7 and earlier were not compliant, web developers often need to choose between making their website look correct in IE or correct in every other browser, and a lot of them pick IE. I’d bet that windowsmarketplace.com has chosen to make their site conform to Microsoft’s standards and not the web’s, and it therefore won’t display correctly in a standards compliant browser like IE8.

#62 amj2008 on 03.12.08 at 6:17 am

it is completes nonsense, IE8 works…

see it for yourlves at windowsmarketplace.com

#63 Pavel Senko on 03.12.08 at 8:21 pm

amj2008: now it works.
When I was visiting windowsmarketplace.com with IE8 it didn’t.

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#65 kathy on 03.23.08 at 7:08 am

hm.. just wondering.. if you are using the vista beta os, and it crash as and when it likes, attract virus like bees to honey, would you still gracefully accept the mistakes and say its just beta only?

some mistakes are acceptable in beta version.. while some mistakes just show that the product itself skipped the entire testing stage.

#66 Pavel Senko on 03.23.08 at 11:05 pm

kathy,
Beta version assumes that all internal testing is done as per specs. W3C specs has been out for a while (a few years?).

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