Also featured in Silverlight 2 are SOAP and REST (Representational State Transfer) support and capabilities for cross-domain networks, for calling services on a network. Sockets-level programming for the client is enabled as well.

While the predecessor Silverlight 1 focused on video, Silverlight 2 has emphasized .Net development and transactional functions.

A rich UI framework in Silverlight 2 is based on Microsoft's Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) technology. "What this gives you is a really rich way to use controls to build your sites," Guthrie said. Data binding, styling, and animation are enabled.

Silverlight has a default look and feel but also can be customized; beyond setting styles and colors, implementers can control templating capabilities and do custom state changes.

Silverlight developer tools include Microsoft's Visual Studio 2008 and Expression tools. These tools and XAML can be used to help position Silverlight as a platform for serving up display advertising. Previews of Visual Studio and Expression Blend capabilities for Silverlight are now shipping.

[ See also the InfoWorld Test Center's review of Visual Studio 2008 ]

Microsoft on Wednesday announced a beta release of its Expression Studio 2 tool, featuring PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) in the Expression Web tool and Silverlight support. The beta is accessible from the Microsoft Expression site.

In conjunction with the Silverlight 2 beta, Microsoft is shipping via an open source license 2,000 unit tests that cover Silverlight.

Microsoft also plans to improve WPF later this year, offering more controls, streamlined setups, and improvements for startup performance and graphics.

With Internet Explorer 8, CSS 2.1 support will help developers and designers write pages once and have them render properly across different browsers, Microsoft said. A WebSlices capability enables users to mark parts of pages as WebSlices and monitor information. A Favorites bar displays WebSlices visuals.

New navigation features for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) also is featured in Internet Explorer 8, focused on the back/forward navigation stack and address bar. Enhanced protection from deceptive Web sites is featured, as are phishing filter enhancements.

Microsoft representatives did not have information on when Internet Explorer 8 or Silverlight 2 would be ready for general release.

Also announced at Mix08 on Wednesday was a preview of SQL Server Data Services, providing a building-block, on-demand service for developers and businesses seeking data storage.