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Microsoft has enabled HTML5 AJAX page navigation in Internet Explorer 8. The already available IE8 beta 1 is exceptionally supporting new features and functionalities, giving a top priority to the Web standards. The new navigation feature with a script allows tracking of travel log components. This facilitates client-side updates to be reflected to documents and hence supports better navigation.

The new addition only works on default IE mode and not on “Emulate IE7”. As defined by Ars Technica, a MS journal, the improvement works by treating windows.location.hash updates as navigation and tend to save it as the previous URL. This updates the previous URL (may be from previous hash fragment) in the Back button and Address Bar along with the other browser components. The new hashChanged event will be fired along with a “click” sound that will give an impact of a traditional Navigation.

Developers were constantly trying to incorporate this kind of a feature but only MS has posted details of using it with Silverlight. Microsoft’s Developer, Micheal Scherotter has provided  a brief guidance as how to incorporate AJAX navigation functionality with Silverlight 1.0 and Silverlight 2.0(beta 2) along with a source code. One of the MS team members focusing on AJAX features said that the new improvement will cater the basic navigation phenomenon without altering the AJAX app state.

Internet Explorer8 has already made some outstanding enhancements, in order to make the IE8 beta1 more feasible and flexible for designers and developers. Beta 2, that would be expected to focus end-users more, will be out in an upcoming month.