IE7 Beta Due This Summer

In an apparent policy reversal, Microsoft has said that it will release a beta of IE 7 this summer (Microsoft previously said that IE updates would only be available with Windows upgrades). Details seem to be scarce at the moment, but a Q&A with Mike Nash, their Corporate VP of Security, revealed this much:

“We’re very excited to announce at the RSA Conference today that this summer we’ll release a beta of Internet Explorer 7.0 for Windows XP with Service Pack 2, which will have even more enhancements to security and privacy protections. These enhancements align very closely with the three core tenets of Microsoft’s security approach that I mentioned earlier. Internet Explorer 7.0 will be the most secure browser we’ve ever released, building on and surpassing the success of the SP2-enhanced Internet Explorer 6.0. We don�t plan to ship it until it meets our quality bar, which we�ve set pretty high. […]”

So, while it looks like they’re primarily focusing on securing their browser (which isn't a bad thing), I’m hoping that they’ll improve IE’s standards compliance as well — oh, what I wouldn’t give to be able to use adjacent sibling or attribute selectors.