Today the world's most popular browser just got a whole lot better.

We launched in English, German, Simplified Chinese and Japanese, and then follow with another 21 languages in mid-September.  You can download IE8 Beta 2 now at http://ww.microsoft.com/ie8

The bottom line is that IE8 is faster, easier and safer.  To get a feel for the new IE8 experience, check out the videos here, download the product, and try it out.   Here are some AWESOME features:

• Accelerators - Highlight an address, click the blue button and hover over "Map" or try Right Clicking a Page and Choosing Translate with Windows Live. Check out the new IE Gallery that has cool accelerators and slices from Digg to FaceBook to Ebay
• Web Slices - Visit Live Search, search for "Seattle Weather" (or major city relevant to your region), hover over the rich search result and click the green button.  Click it to add a Weather Web Slice to your Favorites Bar.
• Search Suggestions - Go to your Instant Search Box (top right) and type a search to see search suggestions in action.
• Navigation - Use the new Smart Address Bar to quickly find sites you've visited before.  The Smart Address Bar searches your history, favorites AND feeds for pages that match what you're typing.
• Security:  IE8 has the best security features in the market today from its updated Smartscreen phishing and malware filter to domain highlighting to the industry leading cross-site scripting filter so I feel my machines, my identity and my family will be safer on the Internet.

Below are just a few things that IE8 has that Firefox doesn't:

• Out-of-the box integrated Accelerators put your favorite blog, mapping, mail, search and other services a click-away
• Built-in Privacy mode keeping you in control of what information you share and with whom, both on your PC and on the web
• Rich visual search results and instant answers from partners like Wikipedia, New York Times, and Amazon
• Intuitive tab grouping and color coding to mirror the way you browse and help organize your browsing experience
• Automatic tab-level crash recovery for uninterrupted browsing