Microsoft stuck its proverbial thumb in the ever-leaking wall that’s been its protection against losing the browser market in recent years.

How’d they do it? By releasing yet another version of their market-dominating browser, Internet Explorer (IE).

IE8 was released yesterday to limited fanfare and little excitement among the browsing community — which is to say just about all of us.

Unlike Firefox, which challenged users to download record numbers of its updated browser, IE8 is being pushed out to users in much the same way all Microsoft products are unveiled these days: Almost apologetically.

That’s because most new Microsoft software seems to be almost a mea culpa for previous versions of programs the company produces.

In this case, IE8’s big claim to fame is its standards compliance. While other browsers have moved almost en masse in that direction, Microsoft always seemed to be toying with the idea but never willing to believe they had to conform to anything. Everything needed to conform to Microsoft.

But those days seem to be officially behind us. And now the software giant seems to be playing catch up, trying to reassure users that their browser is safe, secure and generally usable.

The browser includes a number of new security features including a Smart Screen Filter to detect phishing attacks, private browsing and technology to prevent clickjacking.

IE8’s Smart Screen can be controlled via one of 1,400 group policies that are set in Active Directory. The policy for the Smart Filter prevents end-users from visiting any site identified as a potential phishing site.

As users flock to Firefox, Safari and even the Google “Chrome” the new IE features seem more aimed at hanging onto users than actually converting new ones. With their share of the browsing public shrinking, it’s probably the most reasonable — if not aggressive — marketing strategy to use.

We’ll see how it works.

Tags: Internet Explorer, new, release, version