IE7 and CSS support: expert comments

Everyone agrees that the seventh version of Internet Explorer has advanced in many respects compared to the sixth version of the browser, released five years ago. There was support for RSS, tabs, a search box, and the interface has changed in the style of the new Windows Vista operating system. However, web developers care about something else: how are things with web standards support in the new browser? This was recently told by Chris Wilson , head of the IE browser development team. His words are commented on by independent experts .

A few months before the official release, beta versions of the new browser became available on the Web. Even then, independent web developers began to criticize Microsoft for failing to provide normal CSS support again. Lead programmer Chris Wilson said that in IE7, CSS support was actually significantly improved, and many important features were implemented, and various bugs that spoiled the lives of web developers were fixed.

However, independent tests for compatibility of different browsers with W3C standards showed that IE7 is not much different from IE6, and both are far behind Firefox and Opera in all that relate to compatibility with CSS, XHTML, DOM. In particular, the overall level of compatibility with CSS 2.1 in the seventh version of the browser has grown from 51% to 55%, while Firefox and Opera have compatibility levels of 93% and 96%, respectively.

W3C consortium officials declined to comment on the extent to which IE7 supports network standards.