Does Internet Explorer 8 support HTML 5?

IE8 beta 2 supports two APIs from HTML5: cross-document messaging and non-SQL storage.

IE8 beta 2 doesn’t implement the HTML5 parsing algorithm or the new elements (no <canvas> or <video> support).

There are also bug fixes that align IE8 better with HTML5.

Also are supported HTML5 hashchange event and ononline, offline event

HTML5 is still in draft spec (and will be for a loooong time). Why bother?

According to http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc288472(VS.85).aspx#html, IE8 will have "strong" HTML 5 support. I haven't seen anything discussing exactly what "strong support" entails, but I can say that yes, some HTML5 stuff is going to make it into IE8.

You can read more about IE8 and HTML 5 support here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/giorgio/archive/2009/11/29/ie8-and-html-5.aspx