Maximum PC IE RSS Feed

Symantec Says IE Vulnerable to New Exploit

Paul Lilly — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:03:27 -0600

Internet Explorer users who have yet to upgrade to IE8 should take note. According to security firm Symantec, there's a pretty nasty Zero Day exploit that affects both IE6 and IE7.

"The exploit currently exhibits signs of poor reliability, but we expect that a fully-functional reliable exploit will be available in the near future," Symantec explained in a blog post. "When this happens, attackers will have the abilty to insert the exploit in websites infecting potential visitors."

Symantec said the attack requires JavaScript and recommends that users disable it. The security firm also suggested potentially affected users limit web surfing to only trusted sites until Microsoft releases a fix.

Image Credit: cybernetnews.com

Vista and IE Lose Market Share, Windows 7 Makes Gains

Paul Lilly — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 21:26:43 -0500

Out with the old and in with the new appears to be the theme for September. It doesn't even matter that Windows 7 hasn't been officially released yet, the Release Candidate has been solid enough for Vista users to leave their old OS behind and rock out with Microsoft's newest darling, according to market share data by web metrics firm Net Applications.

Vista's market share dipped by 0.18 percent in September, which isn't earth shattering, but it is the first time the OS has back tracked since January 2008. Windows 7, on the other hand, climbed 0.34 percent and now claims 1.52 percent of the market. Not bad for a pre-release OS.

On the browser front, Internet Explorer fared a little worse, losing 1.26 percent of its market share. The continued backwards slide has to be troubling for Microsoft, especially considering IE's market share set a new low of 65.7 percent. That's good news for Firefox and Chrome, whose market share jumped by 0.77 percent and 0.33 percent, respectively.

Mozilla Sides with Microsoft Against IE-into-Chrome Plug-in

Paul Lilly — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:00:28 -0500

Turns out Microsoft isn't the only one concerned about Google's Chrome Frame, an extension which embeds Google's Chrome browser in Internet Explorer. Emerging as an unlikely supporter in Microsoft's corner, Mike Shaver, VP of Engineering for Mozilla, added his thoughts in a blog post.

"Running Chrome Frame within IE makes many of the browser application's features non-functional, or less effective," Shaver wrote. ""These include private browsing mode or their other security controls, features like accelerators or add-ons that operate on the content area, or even accessibility support."

Shaver when on to say that the users would be "seriously hindered" in understanding the web's security model and how their browser operates. A better solution, says Shaver, is if Frame-friendly sites explained to users that their site worked better in Chrome.

Image Credit: topnews.us

Firefox Claims IE 6's Lost Market Share

Paul Lilly — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 15:35:48 -0500

Firefox continues to chip away at Internet Explorer's market share, with Microsoft's browser posting its largest loss last month since November 2008.

Of course, we're still talking about small numbers overall. IE fell 1.1 percentage points to 66.6 percent in August, so it's in no immediate danger of yielding to Firefox, the main beneficiary who gained 0.8 percentage points to 23.3 percent. But the downward trend has to be cause for concern for Microsoft. In the past 12 months, IE has unwillingly given up 8.6 points of browser share.

On a positive note (for Microsoft), IE8 gained 2.7 percentage points in August, more than making up for IE6's 2.4 percentage loss, which is the biggest drop since December 2007. IE7 also took a step backwards, however, to the tune of 1.9 points.

While Firefox and IE duke it out for the top spot, Chrome is on pace to replace Safari as the No. 3 browser in 11 months. And if Google's aggressive campaign to promote Chrome pays off, we could be looking at a 3-way slug fest for the most used browser on the planet.

Microsoft Explains Why They Can't Pull The Plug on IE 6

Andy Salisbury — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:48:31 -0500

For some time now there has been plenty of talk about killing off IE6. Digg has prevented users on IE6 from certain activities, Facebook has been hinting at its users to upgrade since February 2009 and YouTube is supposedly going to cut off support altogether. But, according to a recent post on the IEBlog, Microsoft is committed to keeping support – at least for the lifespan of XP.

“The engineering point of view on IE6 starts as an operating systems supplier. Dropping support for IE6 is not an option because we committed to supporting the IE included with Windows for the lifespan of the product. We keep our commitments,” said the post. “Many people expect what they originally got with their operating system to keep working whatever release cadence particular subsystems have. As engineers, we want people to upgrade to the latest version. We make it as easy as possible for them to upgrade. Ultimately, the choice to upgrade belongs to the person responsible for the PC.”

Microsoft has stated that they plan on keeping Extended Support for XP until April 8, 2014 – so if you’re an IE6 user, you’ve got roughly four more years to enjoy your ancient web browser.

But, if you are interested in making today the day you upgrade, be sure to check out these great alternatives!

Firefox 3.5
Google Chrome
Internet Explorer 8

Do it for the children.

Image Credit: Microsoft

Internet Explorer Loses 11.4% Market Share in Just 3 Months

Paul Lilly — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 08:44:52 -0500

How's this for irony - Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft's best browser to date and, save for IE7, might be the company's most ambitious update to the IE series yet, but for the first time in over a decade, IE's market share appears to be in trouble.

According to StatCounter, a free online stats tool, Internet Explorer has coughed up 11.4 percent of the browser market share since March. This despite IE8 continuing to show strong growth, though much of that growth is coming at the expense of IE7, as Microsoft has been aggressively pushing its latest browser version.

Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari, and Google's Chrome browsers are the ones responsible for 'stealing' away IE users in the past three months, with Firefox claiming at least half of the IE defectors.

What browser are you using?

As Predicted, Safari First to Fall in Pwn2Own Hacking Contest

Paul Lilly — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:05:46 -0500

It was a year ago that security researcher Charlie Miller walked away with $10,000 for hacking into a MacBook Air with Safari in just two minutes during the annual Pwn2Own competition, and earlier this month Miller predicted Safari would be the first to fall at this year's event. Miller made good on that promise this week by using a prepared exploit to gain full control of the device in about 10 seconds.

"It's not easy, but this worked with one click [from the Safari browser]", Miller said.

Miller had discovered the exploit last year, which allows a remote attacker to take over a machine if a user clicks on a malicious URL. Details of the exploit, which Miller isn't allowed to divulge, will be shared with Apple from contest sponsor TippingPoint so that Apple can develop a patch.

On the same day, a 25-year-old computer science student at the University of Oldenburg in Germany demonstrated exploits in IE8, Safari, and Firefox, earning him a cool $15,000 ($5,000 per exploit), along with getting to keep the Sony Vaio P series notebook he used (Miller pocketed $5,000 and a MacBook Air).

While three major browsers succumbed to hacking attempts on day one, no mobile exploits have yet been successful. Mobile exploits carry the biggest reward for contest participants, with TippingPoint offering $10,000 for each successful exploit in the major smartphones.

Browser Battle: Nine Browsers of Today and Tomorrow Compared

Paul Lilly — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:30:00 -0600

Anyone who may have thought the death of Netscape would signal the end of the browser wars, boy were they mistaken. In fact, it could be argued that it was at that point it all began. It didn't take long for Mozilla's Firefox to emerge from Netscape Navigator's ashes, and over time, Firefox would win over enthusiasts with a potent combination of speed, security, and an unprecedented level of customization.

But what started as a two-man battle is quickly growing into all-out warfare. Prepare to be overwhelmed by an onslaught of new browser releases in the coming months as Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Opera Software, and Google all vie to provide your vehicle for navigating the web. Each one brings something new to the table, whether it be blazing fast performance or a unique feature-set. Don't worry if you haven't been paying attention - we jump in the trenches with whole lot of them and get to know each one on a personal basis.

(story edit: moved Chrome to non-beta section, and corrected relationship of Apple to webkit)

Stable Releases

Internet Explorer 7
Feeling the pressure from Mozilla's popular Firefox browser, Microsoft ended a five year hiatus after burying Netscape in the ground and finally jumped back into the browser game with a long overdue update. The IE team went back to the drawing board and totally reworked the browser's rendering engine, also adding tabbed browsing and add-ons to the mix, and then finished it off with a facelift.

Firefox 3
Just how popular has Firefox become? Enough so that when Mozilla announced it would be releasing Firefox 3, power users lined up to download the new version, promptly setting a Guinness World Record for most number of software downloads in 24 hours. And rightly so. Better memory management, improved security, an aptly named AwesomeBar, and several other improvements made the best browser on the market even better.

Opera 9.6
Diehard Opera fans might take exception to referring to Opera as an alternative browser, and with the release of 9.6, they have a point. Several speed enhancements made the already fast browser even snappier, but our favorite feature is the new magazine-style RSS feeds.

Safari 3
Apple's DNA is evident in its Safari browser right from the get-go. Hardly surprising given that it began life on the Mac OS X operating system in early 2003. In the summer of 2007, Safari shed its Mac-only shackles and surfed over to Windows with claims of performing up to twice as fast as the competition. Soon to be old news, Apple is gearing up to replace Safari 3 with a significantly faster fourth version.

Chrome 1.0
Google surprised everyone when its Chrome browser showed up on the web unannounced, and while there's clearly much work to be done, it's hard not to get excited over better tab management. Chrome treats each tab as its own process, so if there's a bug in a website's code that causes a crash, you only lose a single tab and not the entire browser. Bodacious!

Upcoming Releases

Firefox 3.1 Beta 2
Initially intended as a 'fast-track' update to Firefox 3.0, lingering bugs in 3.1's new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, likely means IE8 will ship first. And that's okay with Mozilla, who contends that its much more concerned with getting the new browser right than it is with beating Microsoft to the punch.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2
There's a good chance Microsoft will release IE8 later this month and some wonder whether or not the web will promptly be broken. That's because Microsoft is putting a much greater focus on becoming web standards-compliant. The downside? All those sites specifically coded for IE, including Microsoft.com, fall under IE's incompatibility list. D'oh!

Opera 10 Alpha
The only browser of the bunch to be in a pre-beta state, we include it here because it's one of the first browsers to fully comply with the Acid3 test with a 100 percent pass rate (Safari 4 being the other). If the new build can live up to its promise of a 30 percent performance boost, Opera may finally find its way onto more mainstream machines.

Safari 4 Beta
Apple says its new Safari 4 browser is up to 4 times faster than the previous version, and according to its own testing, it destroys the competition when it comes to JavaScript performance. A redesigned UI and a smorgasbord of added features makes Safari 4 Apple's most ambitious browser to date.

Start Your Rendering Engines

IE7 (Trident V and JScript 5.7)
Microsoft has been using the closed-source Trident framework dating all the way back to IE4 (Trident I). Since that time, Trident has been tweaked for each new version of Internet Explorer, receiving significant changes starting with IE7 (Trident V). A greater focus was put on standards compliance, and at long last, IE finally brought support for transparent PNG images. Trident's main advantage is IE's marketshare, so even though other rendering engines are far more compliant with web standards, the overwhelming majority of users are surfing the net with Trident. Anyone else suddenly craving some gum?

IE8 (Trident 4.0 and JScript 5.8)
Another IE release means another version of Microsoft's core layout engine. Now in version 4.0, the latest Trident iteration finally manages to pass the Acid2 test, but still scores low on the updated Acid3 test. But even more concerning for Microsoft is that this newest version just might 'break the web'. There has been so much tweaking under the hood that thousands of popular websites (2,400 and climbing) that formerly ran fine on IE no longer render correctly with IE8. Even Microsoft.com appears on MS's Compatibility View list, which is a list of websites known to render improperly on IE8 and are automatically rendered in IE7 compatibility mode. But what about the rest? A 'Compatibility View' button promptly 'fixes' borked sites that haven't been identified as such.

JavaScript is still handled by the JScript engine in IE8, now in version 5.8. Performance has been cited as a the number one goal for optimizations made to JScript, one of which includes the introduction of native JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

(Image Credit: Microsoft)

Firefox 3 (Gecko 1.9.0 and SpiderMonkey)
Netscape may have died an untimely death at the hands of Microsoft, but its soul lives on. We're talking about the open-source Gecko rendering engine, which started life at Netscape in 1997 and has been used with every version of Firefox. Gecko's main advantage is that it was built specifically to support open internet standards, but is also adept at rendering most web pages built for IE. The cross-platform engine also boasts support for a wide range of operating systems.

Also starting life at Netscape is Firefox's SpiderMonkey Javascript engine written in C. It's the same engine Yahoo uses for its Widgets, and can also be found in various other applications.

Firefox 3.1 (Gecko 1.9.1 and TraceMonkey)
This latest version of Firefox upgrades the Gecko engine from 1.9.0 to 1.9.1, bringing with it a few key changes that bely the incremental naming scheme. As expected, compliance with web standards is improved, but the update also ushers in support for border images, a private browsing mode, and enhancements to the AwesomeBar.

Garnering a lot of attention on the web is Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Mozilla essentially supercharged SpiderMonkey by adding native-code compilation and optimizations called "Trace Trees" (PDF). In TraceMonkey, frequenly executed code is traced and compiled, and the next time that same code is called upon, the compiled version is used. This tracing technique has already shown impressive performance gains and it looks to get even better over time.

Opera 9.6 (Presto 2.1.1 and Futhark)
The second youngest of all the major rendering engines, Opera 9.6 continues to use the closed-source Presto platform first released in November 2002. Because it's not freely distributed, Opera is the only desktop browser to use the Presto engine, although it can also be found on a number of licensed third-party apps and devices, most notably the Nintendo DS and DSi, Wii Internet Channel, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and above, and Adobe CS2 and above.

Both Opera 9.6 and 10 also use an ECMAScript/JavaScript engine called Futhark. Futhark balances speed with memory usage, which has allowed other next-gen browsers to catch up and leap ahead in terms of raw performance. However, the Opera team is already working on a new JavaScript engine called Carakan (pronounced Tsharakan). Citing internal testing, Opera Software claims the new engine is already two and a half times faster than Futhark, and has the potential to be 50 times as fast.

Opera 10 (Presto 2.2 and Futhark)
The next version of Opera sees an upgrade from Presto 2.1.1 to 2.2, and with it a claimed 30 percent performance boost on the web over the previous version. But it gets even better. Presto has always done exceptionally well with web standards, and the Presto 2.2 engine is one of the first ever to score a perfect 100/100 on the unforgiving Acid3 test (Apple claims it beat Opera to the punch, but we're content to call it a tie).

(Image Credit: Opera)

Chrome 1.0 (WebKit and V8)
The future looks bright for WebKit, the open-source rendering engined used by Google's Chrome browser. The WebKit platform has already found a home on Google's mobille platform Android, Palm webOS, and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. There's even been talk of both Microsoft and Mozilla switching to WebKit in future versions of IE and Firefox, respectively. While not as standards compliant as Presto, the WebKit framework is considered fast and highly versatile.

For JavaScript duties, Google developed the open-source V8 engine written in C++. Not only has V8 been tuned for speed, but according to Google, the JavaScript engine handles resource management exceptionally well by reclaiming memory used by objects that are no longer required in a process.

(Image Credit: Google)

Safari 3 (WebKit and JavaScriptCore)
Many PC users never even heard of Safari until 2007, even though the browser had been in existence since 2003. That's because up until just two years ago, Safari was only available on the Mac, and only people with cooties own Macs. A series of security threats and vulnerabilities immediately following Safari's Windows debut meant PC users were at a high risk of getting cooties too.

Safari 4 (WebKit and Nitro)
Apple's newest browser is built aroud the WebKit platform, but to lay claim as the fastest browser on the planet, Apple also developed a new JavaScript engined called Nitro, which is Apple's version of WebKit's Squirrelfish engine. According to Apple, this helps Safari execute JavaScript code up to 30 times faster than IE7 and more than three times as fast as Firefox 3. A new look and a bevy of features has given Safari a new outlook in life.

User Interface

Internet Explorer 8

Unlike the jump from IE6 to IE7, there isn't too much terribly different about IE8's UI compared to the previous version. Microsoft seems content to stick with the browser's redesigned layout, even if end users don't feel the same way. A new Favorites bar finds its way onto IE8, as does a new Safety menu option, and the Read Mail button now shows up on the toolbar by default. The rest of the layout remains virtually unchanged, including Microsoft's decision to move the Home, Refresh, and Stop buttons to the opposite side of the Back and Forward buttons.

It didn't take long for Microsoft to emulate Mozilla's recently introduced AwesomeBar. Microsoft calls it the Smart Location Bar in IE8, and as you type in URLs, IE8 sifts through your bookmarks and recently visited sites to try and guess your destination. But unlike Firefox, IE8 groups your search results, searches through RSS feeds, and lets you delete entries to prevent them from showing up in the future. Advantage: IE8.

Has Maximum PC gone toxic? No! Those green tabs are part of IE8's new tab grouping feature called Groups. Opening new tabs from within an existing one places them all next to each other in a color-coded group. You can then ungroup individual tabs, close out an entire group, or move tabs from one group to another.

Also notice that only newegg.com appears in black in the address bar, while the rest of the URL is grayed out. This is by design and intended to make it easier to identify what domain you're visiting. This also serves to help end users from being fleeced by spoof sites.

Firefox 3.1

Like Microsoft, Mozilla made only subtle changes to its latest browser's layout, none of which are evident at a glance. But after a little digging, we did manage to uncover some differences in the UI. One such change is that when you now drag a tab, a semi-transparent thumbnail appears under the cursor. Should you drop the tab anywhere other than the tab bar, the page will instantaneously appear in a new browser window without having to reload. Pretty groovy, eh?

Firefox's awesome AwesomeBar gets even more, er, awesome in 3.1. The core functionality remains the same, only now you can customize the search results using different tags. If you start a search with ^, Firefox will only look through your history. Other tags include * (bookmarks), + (tagged pages), @ (URLS), and # (page titles only). Awesome!

Chrome 1.0
Given the buzz that surrounds Google, we'd venture to guess you've already played around with Chrome. And if you're like us, you retired the minimalistic browser after the geek factor wore off. When we say 'minimalistic,' we're not referring to Chrome's feature-set, but the sparse UI, even more so than either IE7 or IE8. All the navigation tabs -- Back, Forward, Refresh, and Home -- sit to the left of the Address bar. Almost all other controls lay buried beneath a pair of icons to the right. It's the perfect layout for neat freaks and anyone whose mantra is 'less is more.'

Google still has some work to do with how Chrome handles an over-abundance of tabs. Once the tab bar is filled up, Chrome will squish new tabs to make them fit instead of creating a new row or making the overflow accessible via a pull-down menu. After awhile, tabs become so small that even the favicon is no longer visible, creating a fun game of 'find the hidden tab.'

Andrew Orlowski of The Register referred to Chrome as Google's "Trojan Horse for bundling Google's Gears onto your PC." Regardless of whether or not that was the intention, integrating Gears into Chrome comes in handy even if you decide not to use Chrome as your primary browser. What this does is create application shortcuts for websites that open in standalone windows, and not in a traditional browser window. Creating a Gmail shortcut, for example, gives you quick access to check your mail without opening up a browser.

Opera 10

Opera fans who attended the browser's Ninth Act will feel right at home in Act Ten. That's because the entire layout remains exactly the same, at least at this early stage (remember Opera 10 is still in Alpha). Navigation buttons appear comfortably to the left of the Address bar, with a Tab bar sitting above.

Out of the box, no other browser sports the same level of customization as Opera. Several toolbars and panels are at your disposal, and little nuances like the little camera icon in the lower right-hand corner add to Opera's appeal. By clicking on the camera, you can choose to disable all images, which could come in handy if your internet is on the fritz or you still roll with dial-up (*shudder*).

There's also a fit-to-width button, which squishes an entire page into your browser's frame to eliminate horizontal scrolling. This can come in particularly handy not only on smaller displays, but when some inconsiderate cretin posts an obsecenely long link in a forum thread (you know who you are) breaking the tables. Likewise, Opera's integrated zoom lets you shrink or expand web pages from 30 to 1000 percent the original size.

Safari 4
Put Safari 4 side by side with its predecessor and you'd think the two were completey different browsers. And they really are. Safari 4 sheds its Max OS X digs for a brand new look that appears far less out of place on a Windows desktop. Gone are the bubbly vertical and horizontal scroll bars, now replaced with the clunky looking bars familiar to any longtime Windows user.

Safari 4 also simplifies its navitation layout. The Refresh button has been integrated into the Address bar, and the Menu bar has been completely removed. Those options now appear in a pair of buttons in the upper right corner. The UI is very similar to Google's Chrome browser, just not quite as slimmed down. Tabs extend to the top, just like in Chrome, affording end-users a little more real-estate for those sexy full-page hardware spreads. Safari 4 makes better use of the Bookmarks toolbar, allowing you to not only add individual bookmarks, but category folders as well. A pull-down menu gives you quick access to any of your favorites contained inside.

We really dig the Top Sites feature, which shows the most often visited sites arranged in rows of thumbnails whenever you open the browser. Alternately, a button in the left-hand corner brings them within view if you've changed your homepage or navigated away.

iTunes users will feel right at home navigating through bookmarks and website history via Safari 4's Cover Flow interface. Safari displays a thumbnail preview as you scroll through your favorites and recently visited websites. Whether or not it adds to your browsing experience is up for debate, but it sure looks slick.

Start typing in a URL and Safari will try to guess where it is you're wanting to go based on your bookmarks and previously visited sites. Yes, this is the same as Firefox's AwesomeBar, only here it's called Smart Address and Smart Search. And yes, it's just as snazzy in Safari as it is in Firefox.

Setting the Standard(s Support)

Internet Explorer
Microsoft not only set out to improve standards support with IE8, but because so much of the web has been coded with previous versions of IE in mind, Microsoft also had to focus on backwards compatibility. No easy task, IE8 does finally pass the Acid2 test, which is a test designed by The Web Standards Project (WaSP) to expose any flaws in how a browser renders properly coded webpages, but scores only a 20 out of a possible 100 on the newer, and much more stringent, Acid3 test.

By comparison, IE7's Acid2 results look like a bad acid trip gone even badder (to pass the test, a browser must properly render a smiley face graphic), and scores a miserable 12 out of 100 on the Acid3 exam. In this respect, IE8 signifies a huge improvement over IE7 in standards compliance, but it still lags behind every other major browser on the market.

Putting IE8's struggles with Acid3 aside, Microsoft made enough changes under the hood to essentially 'break the web.' In other words, existing websites developed with legacy IE behavior in mind might have trouble rendering properly on a more standards-compliant browser. To combat this, Microsoft built a Compatibility View feature into IE8. For popular websites Microsoft has already identified as being coded for previous versions of IE (including Microsoft.com), Compatibility View kicks in without any user intervention. For all other sites, the end-user can click the Compatibility View button located on the toolbar to manually force IE8 to emulate IE7. While this may seem like a kludge, the alternative was to let the web fend for itself, a sticky proposition given IE's dominant market share.

Firefox
One of Firefox's claims to fame is that it has always been much more standards compliant than Internet Explorer. HTML, XML, XHTML, SVG 1.1, CSS, ECMAScript, DOM, PNG images with transparency, and several other web standards have been implemented in Firefox, and support has gotten even better in version 3.1. The latest build scores 93/100 on the Acid3 test, putting it far ahead of IE8, but still trailing Opera and now Safari as well.

Perhaps deserving of more buzz than its getting is Firefox 3.1's support for the CSS @font-face rule. With this ability, web developers have the option of specifying web fonts that must be downloaded for their website to appear as they intended. To prevent any delays from occurring, Firefox will first render the web page using available fonts, and then update the display as soon as the missing fonts are downloaded.

Opera

One of the first browsers to support Cascading Style Sheets, the Opera browser has since added a plethora of open and published standards to its repertoire. Opera was also the first Windows browser to pass the Acid2 test, and if that weren't enough, Opera was one of the first to score a perfect 100 on the Acid3 test (a case could be made that Safari 4 beat Opera to the punch, but we're content to call it a draw).

Like Firefox 3.1, Opera 10 adds web font support. The latest version also boasts improved HTML5 support and a host of other developer-friendly additions, which so far appears to be the major focus of Opera 10.

Chrome

In theory, Google's Chrome browser should have an advantage right out of the gate. Google says that within 20-30 minutes of each new browser build, it can be tested on tens of thousands of different web pages because of Google's massive web crawling infrastructure. In reality, Chrome really is a fairly standards compliant browser, scoring a 79/100 on Acid3 test, enough to come out on top of IE7 and Firefox 3.

Safari

Given that Apple ~~gave birth to the WebKit rendering engine~~ forked KTHML (from the Konqueror browser) for Webkit, it would make sense the company knows best how to rev it up. Not only in terms of speed, but also in following the rules of the road. So it shouldn't be too surprising to see Safari 4 surf through the Acid3 test with a perfect 100/100, whereas Google's WebKit-based Chrome trails behind.

Like Firefox 3.1, Safari 4 implements support for HTML 5 media tags. This paves the way for web developers to offer audio and video content right inside the browser without requiring plugins.

Security and Privacy

Internet Explorer
As the most targeted browser on the planet, the onus falls on Microsoft to ensure IE doesn't leave millions of users as sitting ducks. IE7 ushered in a defensive mindset that hadn't been attributed to previous versions, and for the first time, browsing on IE felt secure. Active X controls no longer ran by default, users are protected from an attack called cross-domain scripting, and a new phishing fliter warns users who are about to visit a malicious website attempting to harvest personal information.

In IE8, even more safety guards are put in place. Phishing and malware protection has been revamped with a new SmartScreen Filter. When visiting a known phishing site, not only does the Address bar turn red, but the entire browser window as well. To click through to the questionable site anyway, users must first click on 'More information' before the option to 'Disregard and continue appears.' Even then, the Address bar remains red for as long as you stay on the unsafe site.

In addition to anti-phishing measures, the SmartScreen filter hones in on sites and servers known to distribute malware. Should you attempt to download from one of these locations, a dialog box appears letting you know you may be in for more than you bargained for.

One of the most talked about features in IE8 is the new InPrivate browsing mode, or more candidly referred to on the web as 'porn mode.' InPrivate browsing leaves no traces of your browsing session behind, such as cookies, cached files, browser history, or other incriminating evidence. This isn't just helpful for hiding your tracks when looking up Katie Morgan's latest acting role, but is also useful for gift shopping during the holidays or birthdays. Other possible uses include looking up banking information on a shared computer, researching health issues, and anything else you want kept private.

Firefox
With its continued rise in popularity, Mozilla no longer has the luxury of resting on its laurels when it comes to Firefox's security. Building a secure browser has always been at the forefront of Mozilla's goals anyhow, only now Firefox has grown into a worthwhile target for hackers.

As an incremental upgrade, much of the same core security components in Firefox 3.0 find their way into 3.1. Phishing attempts are still thwarted with a less than subtle warning, and clicking a website's favicon brings up a security report. Clicking the 'More Information' button reveals whether or not the site is storing cookies on your PC, if you've saved any passwords for the site, and how many times you've visited that web page in the past.

Sites like Playboy.com, MacLife.com, and DetroitLions.com should all see an increase in hits once the next generation of browsers roll out, because nearly all of them include some form of privacy browsing to cover your tracks. In Firefox 3.1, you can initiate Private Browsing mode from the Tools menu. Only the files you choose to download and bookmarks you create are saved, everything else vanishes as if the session never took place. Kind of like the Detroit Lions' 2009 season.

Opera
Because of its low market share, Opera doesn't often find itself the center of security attacks. Nevertheless, the Opera team has generally been lightening quick to plug up security holes and vulnerabilities.

There hasn't been a whole lot said about the security in Opera 10, but one change forthcoming is that widgets no longer have network access turned on by default. In theory, this new security model should should help prevent hackers from exploiting errors in widgets.

Neither Opera 9.6 or the new Alpha build offer a true privacy browsing mode, though that could change as development continues on Opera 10. For the time being, users can cover their tracks by clicking on 'Delete Private Data' in the Tools menu. The downside is that all data will be released, not just the cache from the current browsing session, making it an all or nothing affair.

Chrome
Google's Chromium team approached security from the standpoint that no matter what you do, eventually your browser will be compromised. That would normally spell doom for an otherwise healthy system, but in Chrome, running processes in a permissions-based sandbox keeps malware isolated from the OS. In this multi-process architecture, each tab is a treated as a separate process, none of which are given rights to write files to the hard drive or pluck information from sensitive areas. An added benefit to this approach is that if poorly written web code causes a crash, it only affects the individual tab it was loaded in, not the entire browser.

(Image Credit: Google)

The downside to Chrome's sandboxing approach is that it depends on Windows for its security, making it susceptible to vulnerabilities in the OS. In addition, legacy file systems, like FAT32, don't support security descriptors, preventing some USB keys and other devices from being protected by the sandbox.

Maybe you're a Miley Cyrus fan but don't want the whole world to know it, or at the very least, your immediate family. With Chrome's incognito option, you can surf wherever you want on the web in a new browser window that runs in read-only mode. Once you close the window, all traces of your activity are wiped out.

Safari
If Apple added (or plans to add) any underlying security enhancements to Safari 4, it isn't saying what they are. The same security and privacy features present on version 3.2 are also present on version 4, only now they're being more actively marketed (note that none of Safari 4's security features are listed as 'new').

While there doesn't appear to be much new in version 4, Safari already boasts some modern security measures, including phishing protection, pop-up blocking, antivirus integration, and a Private Browsing mode. There's also a 'Reset Safari' option to erase all traces of your browsing with a single mouse click.

Add-Ons and Themes

Internet Explorer
Both IE7 and IE8 support third-party add-ons, a feature Microsoft seems interested in pushing more aggressively in IE8. In the latest beta build, Microsoft includes an ieaddons.com bookmark on the Favorites Bar, while also adding two new IE8-only features called Accelerators and Web Slices.

Accelerators make routine tasks a cinch without having to navigate away from the page you're viewing. Just highlight text from any website and a blue Accelerator icon appears above the selection allowing you to look up driving directions, find items with an Ebay search, translate text, define words, and a handful of other tasks depending on which Accelerators you have installed.

Web Slices offer a similar convenience as Accelerators, but in a different way. If a Web Slice is available on a page -- an Ebay auction, for example -- a green icon appears. Click it to add the Web Slice to the Favorites Bar, and whenever you want to quickly check the status of the auction (or sports scores, stock quotes, Digg updates, and so forth), click the newly added Web Slice to bring up a preview of the site.

Firefox
Simply put, no other browser boasts the same level of versatility and customization options as Firefox. To date there are over 6,000 add-ons available and more than 600 themes to choose from.

Browser updates sometime ruin compatibility with certain add-ons, however the most popular extensions usually see very little, if any, downtime. And as for Firefox 3.1, Mozilla says that of the 906 add-ons that make up 95 percent of add-on usage, 35 percent are currently considered compatible

Opera

Instead of integrating into the browser like Firefox's add-ons do, Opera's catalog of Widgets run outside of the browser as a separate Window. Once installed, Widgets are accessible by clicking on (*drum roll*) 'Widgets' in the Menu bar.

While you can't customize Opera's core functionality, you can change its skin. There are roughly 1,000 skins to choose from, which can be narrowed down based on editor's picks, top rated, new skins, and the most popular (as determined by the number of downloads).

Chrome

What do Chrome add-ons and the Tooth Fairy have in common? Both offer the promise of big rewards, but neither one exists. However, this won't always be the case. In a design document, Mozilla developers outlined plans to add extensions to Chrome sometime in the future, and if Chrome is to compete with Firefox, it will need to follow through with that promise.

Sticking to its minimalistic guns, Chrome doesn't offer any themes or skins either, at least not out of the box. User-created themes are available, but they require replacing a hidden DLL file or using a third-party themes manager like XChrome.

Safari
Here again is another browser without an official extension architecture. And unlike Opera, which boasts several extensible features out of the box, mouse gestures and other features power users have come to rely on aren't built into the browser.

The situation is even worse for Windows users. Sites like PimpMySafari.com offer several user-created plug-ins for Safari on Mac OS X, but no such luck for the rest of us who own and operate a real PC. Not unless you can get excited about Real Player, Adobe Reader, and a small handful of other ho-hum plug-ins.

Performance

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

According to Apple, Safari 4's new Nitro engine lives up to its name by running JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE7 and three times as fast as Firefox 3. We put these claims to the test with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, which benchmarks only the core JavaScript language. When the dust settled, Safari 4 certainly lived up to the hype, but the situation turned much more competitive when throwing Firefox 3.1 and Chrome into the mix.

Celtic Kane JavaScript Benchmark

In addition to JavaScript performance, Celtic Kane's benchmark also sprinkles in a litte bit of DOM and rendering testing. and here again Apple's Safari 4 leads the pack, though the gap it put between itself and IE7 isn't as dramatic this time around. You might wonder why, at least according to this test, Safari 4 performs 50 percent better than Chrome when both are WebKit-based browsers. At least part of the difference can be attributed to using different JavaScript engines (V8=Chrome, Nitro=Safari 4).

V8 Benchmark Suite

Built by the V8 team (as in, Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine), take this one with a pound of salt. The V8 Benchmark Suite purports to test pure JavaScript performance while simulating other web application tasks a browser may have to contend with. We could have called this one from the outset, but Chrome comes out on top, however just barely edging out Safari 4.

Our Real World Impression

Running web benchmarks only tell a part of the story. So many variables are involved that it's impossible to come up with a completely reliable performance yardstick. Will your web browsing experience really be improved threefold (or more) on Safari 4 than IE7?

In our testing, the answer is no. However, we did notice a difference among browsers, just not as pronounced as the benchmarks indicate. Safari 4 and, to our surprise, Internet Explorer 8 felt the snappiest, though neither version of Firefox ever felt slow by comparison.