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With the majority of web surfers still using a version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft had better be working quickly on IE8.

Just as with Vista, it was a long time between drinks for users of Internet Explorer 6. Yes, Internet Explorer 7 is available, but plenty of users decided to defect over to Firefox, with smaller numbers using Maxthon, Opera and other browsers instead.

My personal preference is still Maxthon, now in a 2.0 beta release, with many of the goodies intact from the previous Maxthon 1.x versions, but it’s still a bit too buggy for my liking, so I’m using both IE7 and Firefox 2.0 on my Vista equipped computer.

While Firefox 3.0 alpha, codenamed ‘Gran Paradiso’, won’t be finished until at least a year, it’s already been worked on for over a year, according to Mozilla Vice President of Engineering, Mike Schroepfer.

It is only recommended for developers or testers, it’s an early milestone that shows the Firefoxers are serious about extending their market share even further. Once again, it’s important for existing Firefox 2.0 users not to upgrade – alpha releases are very early test versions.

New features are being added to modernize Firefox for the Web 2.0/Web 3.0 world, with developers hoping that support for the ‘Cairo graphics library’, with ‘Scalable Vector Graphics’ (SVG) and Canvas specifications are also set to be better supported, will ensure that web pages look identical no matter what device they’re viewed on, be it a PC running Windows 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista, Linux, Macs and small screen devices.

It’s also hoped that Web applications will look and perform just like their desktop software counterparts, something that only Microsoft, with the Outlook Web Access 2003 edition, seems to have nailed really well so far, with companies like ThinkFree Office doing a pretty good job of creating solid web apps too and the ‘new’ Yahoo Mail looking like a pretty decent clone of an version of Outlook with tabbed email browsing, as it were. No doubt there are other examples but few in the mainstream consumer audience would truly be aware of them.

Whether that actually turns out to be true is something we’ll see as the beta version of 3.0 is released and the final version gets into people’s hands and onto the computers and portable gadgets.

Planned enhancements include better browsing, better bookmarking, better privacy features and other as-yet unannounced features, with the emphasis being on the internal plumbing so far, rather than any radical changes to the interface.

Interestingly, support for older operating systems will be dropped, forcing those who refuse to upgrade to a newer operating system to use Firefox 2.0, an older version of IE or a different browser. There’ll be no Firefox 3.0 for Windows 95, 98 and ME, while Mac owners still stuck on OS X 10.2 or earlier will get no Mozilla love either.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing – these older operating systems are effectively obsolete and are a clear and present security risk even today to those who insist on using them, so if a love of Firefox forces users to upgrade, it’s a good thing for those users and the Internet at large.

With some European countries, like Germany, already having over 30% of users choosing a version of Firefox, Microsoft cannot afford to ignore Internet Explorer as it did with IE6. In the early days of the 1990’s Netscape Navigator/Internet Explorer browser wars, Microsoft fairly regularly churned out new versions. But after IE6 things went quiet, with Microsoft missing out on the tabbed browing revolution for years.

When IE7 was launched, Microsoft’s IE website said that ‘We heard you’. Well, finally! People had only been complaining for years. All that can really be said is: Microsoft, the web users of the world hope you’re still listening. Let’s see a new IE8 sometime in 2007 – perhaps even by mid 2007. There is some early information on IE8 at websites like InternetExplorer8.net but it's all still early days yet.

Now that Vista is out the door, you’ve got plenty of resources to pump into a better, safer web experience for all, and with most users still on IE, you’ve got a real responsibility to ensure that your users are not only safe online, but enjoy the best web browsing experience possible.

That’s clearly isn’t the case with IE7, with it missing many features available in other browsers. The clock is ticking, and the numbers of defectors are rising. Mozilla aren’t sitting still, nor are Maxthon or Opera.