Exclusive sources close to the Internet Explorer development team are reporting that latest internal builds of IE8 have deactivated the new 'super standards compliant' mode. Worse still, this change is likely to be permanent if hushed proposals at the software giant are to approved.

Current beta releases of IE8 sport the new Webslices feature allowing users to subscribe to a portion of a web page in a manner similar to RSS. Senior executives at Microsoft have suggested that focusing on innovation within the consumer browser market in similar ways would provide a greater return for shareholders than attempting to improve standards support in the popular browser.

Going forward, it is unclear if this paradigm shift will continue to the development of IE9 or if this decision solely affects the current product development cycle for IE8. Our sources declined to name individuals involved in the discussion, but an announcement is expected on the public development blog imminently.

Minor CSS changes unrelated to standards support are still expected when the new browser version ships later this year. The introduction of the blink parameter for the text-decoration CSS property, a change described as "important for the dynamic nature of the web", is one of the enhancements more controversial among the community.