Up until now Microsoft has only wanted developers to test beta versions of the browser it hopes will kill off young pretenders like Firefox and Opera. But now it's calling for punters to help out.
"We believe that IE7, even at this beta stage, is a significant improvement and we want as many people as possible to try it", posted Microsoft on its blog.
The new beta is supposedly more secure than the current version, and features tabbed browsing and built in RSS feeds for the first time.
Meanwhile, PC magazine columnist John Dvorak argues that Microsoft shouldn't have got into the browser business in the first place.
"All of Microsoft's Internet-era public-relations and legal problems (in some way or another) stem from Internet Explorer", he says.
"Most of the smart money has been fleeing to Firefox or Opera. This means new rounds of patches and lost money."
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BBC News, ABC News, Wed 26 Apr 2006 at 9:19am
