Despite the web community’s eagerness to know more about the future of Microsoft’s next browser, Bill Gates confirmed it will be called IE8, but with no further details on the matter.

Microsoft General Manager Dean Hachamovitch said at the “Mix and Mash” Conference in Redmond this year that they needed more time, and limited himself to joking about the possible names of the future browser – “IE7+1” or “IEVIII.”

“You will hear a lot more from us soon on this blog and in other places,” Hachamovitch said. "In the meantime, please don't mistake silence for inaction."

In the meantime, while everyone waits for the MIX conference in March 2008 for more details, Gates does not seem too happy about the situation: “I'll have to ask Dean what the hell is going on. I mean, there's not like some deep secret about what we're doing with IE.”

He added that he does not “know where Dean is in terms of if he's willing to commit what's in IE8 and what's not in IE 8. In terms of standards support, he'll see that it's a glass half full. It adds a bunch of new stuff we didn't have before; it doesn't add everything that everybody wants us to do.”

Considering the high competition from Firefox, the silence policy does not appear to be a PR friendly one, being far from the campaign everyone in the web community expected. But Microsoft promised more details are on the way, continuing to keep the mystery on the subject.