Microsoft has announced the availability of the Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 ^[1] for downloads, there are several enhancements in this version which includes better navigation and tab management changes, better safety, interpretability with other browsers and web standards.

The feature that excites us about IE8 is the private browsing which allows you to browse the Internet without storing anything in the history. They have also added a ability to reopen closed tabs in addition to restoring a entire browsing session.

In addition to that you will see a feature called Smart Address Bar which is quite similar to the AwesomeBar in Firefox 3 ^[2] and allows you to search across Favorites, history and RSS feeds as you type.

There are several other changes such as inclusion of IE8 Accelerators (formerly Activities) which allows users can find information quicker using pre-defined services. So for instance you can add a Map service, the next time you are browsing a webpage you can quickly find the address on the map using the Accelerator. Visual search is another addition which provides you with images next to search results.

If you are a dare-devil and want to test out these new features, you can download the IE8 Beta 2 ^[3] and give it a whirl.