Microsoft Does 180 On Internet Explorer 8 Default Standards

It looks like Microsoft has changed their position on the default settings of the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 after receiving massive criticism from the design community.

At first, Microsoft’s gameplan was to make IE 7 compatible behavior as the default setting for IE 8.  But Ray Ozzie, chief software architect for Microsoft, said that’s no longer the strategy.

“We have now decided to make our most current standards-based mode the default in IE 8,” he said.

The new browser will still have three different configuration modes altogether – the “super standards” mode, which is now the default.  Next is the an IE7 standards mode, which will act like the current browser.  And last is IE6’s “standards mode” which is not expected to get much use at all.

Ozzie said the decision would result in “concrete benefit to Web designers if all vendors give priority to interoperability commonly accepted standards as they evolve.”