Internet Explorer
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Microsoft May Have Leaked the IE9 Interface
Posted 08/25/10 at 04:48:24 PM by Ryan Whitwam
The Russian press site of software giant Microsoft may have gotten a little overzealous today and posted a screen shot showing off the new UI for Internet Explorer 9. The preview builds have this far shown no evolution of the interface, but everyone was expecting some big changes come the beta. Immediately after the image was posted, it was pulled back down, but ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley managed to grab the image first.
What we're looking at here is a vastly different look for Microsoft's browser. Frankly, that's a good start as IE8 was starting to look ancient compared to other browsers. The window is much more minimalist. Toward the left there are back and forward buttons, then immediately to the right is a unified Search/URL bar. As we continue across the top of the window, we come upon the tab area, which is on the same level as the URL bar. We can assume this area will dynamically shrink the Search/URL bar as more tabs are open. It could get cluttered, but will offer more space for the web page.
There really isn't much more to the interface. The Home, Favorites, and Menu icons are over on the right, much like Chrome. The top of the window has the Windows Aero glass effect going on, also like Chrome. The Russian site also mentions "tear off tabs" which will be an extension of Aero Snap for viewing tabs in a split screen view. We're very interested to see how this browser looks when the bets is finally released. Sources have previously stated that should happen in September. What are your thoughts about the new Internet Explorer UI?
Image via ZDNet
News
Windows 95 is 15 Years Old Today
Posted 08/24/10 at 07:29:06 PM by Ryan Whitwam
It was 15 years ago today that the first sweaty nerds managed to get their hands on Windows 95 after camping out all night. It could be had on a CD-ROM, or 13 individual floppy discs. Yes, things were different in those days. Windows 95 brought support for long file names, true 32-bit applications, and a spiffy (by the standards of the day) user interface. It was a big step forward in most respects.
Some critics of Microsoft, however, point to this time as the beginning of Microsoft's run as the bully. Internet Explorer came in the first service pack, and this kicked off the browser war that would eventually claim Netscape. But Windows 95 also offered support for faster hardware, leading to a renaissance in PC gaming that continues to this day.
The US Department of Justice eventually found that Microsoft acted unfairly in encouraging manufacturers to limit their sales of non-Windows PCs. It might be the success of Win95 that led them down that path, but we still have fond memories of the OS. So on this momentous occasion, we'd like you to share your memories of Windows 95. Was it running on your first PC? Did you wait in line to buy a copy?
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Internet Explorer Celebrates 15th Birthday
Posted 08/17/10 at 08:10:14 AM by Paul Lilly
Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser turned 15 years old this week, and after a decade and a half, it still has plenty of friends to party with, more so than any other browser on the planet.
Despite losing some ground to Firefox and relative newcomer Chrome, IE still claims a dominating 60.74 percent of the market. The latest version, as well as the upcoming IE9 release, are also light years ahead of where IE first started way back in 1995. Consider that the first official release checked in at just over 1MB and was based on Mosaic. Just three months later (November 1995), Microsoft would release Internet Explorer 2, the first cross-platform browser to support both Windows and Mac.
The big question mark is where will IE stand in another 15 years? Microsoft has been able to gain back some ground in recent months, but the overall trend in the past year or so has the competition gaining on IE, perhaps not swiftly, but steadily. It will be interesting to see how long IE can maintain its market share dominance.
On a related note, for a look back at browser development through the years, check out our "Surfing Since 1991: The Evolution of Web Browsers" feature.
News
IE9 Beta Available September 15
Posted 08/12/10 at 04:29:56 PM by Ryan Whitwam
The day is almost at hand folks, Microsoft has just made it known that the first beta for the upcoming Internet Explorer 9 will be available on September 15. There will be a lunch event on that day where developers will show off "the beauty of the web." Well, eye-rolling tag lines aside, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft can manage to put out a solid browser after previously faltering.
Internet Explorer 9 has been made available as a developer preview since March. In the intervening months, the browser has sped up, and become more standards compliant. Microsoft is building in support for the HTML5 web standard as well. The UI of the preview builds has not been that of the final build. We're hoping for Microsoft to really knock our socks off with a new and innovative design. We should find out on September 15. What would it take for you to get back on Microsoft's browser?
Image via ZDnet
News
Final IE9 Preview is Out, Beta Coming Next Month
Posted 08/04/10 at 07:38:32 PM by Ryan Whitwam
Microsoft has been slowly shepherding Internet Explorer 9 toward a final release for a few months now. Today, the software giant is making the final preview build available for download. Come next month, the first beta should be out as well. This final preview build is intended for web designers and app developers to test with. IE9 is expected to pack a new JavaScript engine and full HTML5 support, which may affect how pages render.
Initial tests of the JavaScript engine have show it besting Safari in the SunSpider benchmarks. The more full featured Acid3 test is giving the most recent build high marks; 95 out of 100. This new version has increased support for hardware graphics acceleration as well. The UI is currently not final, but we may see some changes when the beat ships. Have you been trying the preview builds? Let us know how they've been working for you.
News
Internet Explorer Gains Market Share for Third Consecutive Month
Posted 08/02/10 at 09:40:09 AM by Paul Lilly
For the third straight month, Microsoft's Internet Explorer trended upwards in browser market share, doing so largely at the expense of Mozilla's popular Firefox browser, according to Net Applications.
Internet Explorer gained 0.42 percent in July, and now commands 60.74 percent of the browser market. Firefox, however, was the biggest loser of the bunch, dropping 0.9 percent, while Google's Chrome browser slid slightly by 0.08 percent. As for the rest of the major players, both Safari and Opera gained a bit of ground to the tune of 0.24 percent and 0.18 percent, respectively.
That makes IE the biggest, having gained more ground than any other browser. More importantly (for Microsoft), this three month win streak shows that IE isn't going down with a fight, and might not be going down at all. Prior to this recent upswing, it looked as though IE was on its way to forfeiting its position as the world's most used browser.
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Microsoft: IE8 Batted Away 1 Billion Malware Downloads
Posted 07/26/10 at 07:23:34 AM by Paul Lilly
In a recent blog post, Microsoft bragged that its Internet Explorer 8 browser has blocked 1 billion attempts to download malware thanks to its SmartScreen Filter, which tattles on potentially dangerous websites and downloads websites by turning the browser red.
"Social engineering attacks like malware are a growing threat on at the Internet and are one of the most common risks to people's safety online," Microsoft wrote. "We introduced malware protection in Internet Explorer 8 as part of the SmartScreen Filter and have talked about it on the Windows Experience Blog a couple of times over the last year."
According to Microsoft, this milestone was made possible by continually investing in its back end service ever since IE8 launched back in March 2009.
"It's this investment that has kept us at the top of the socially engineering malware charts according to NSS Labs and has helped our customers stay safe online," Microsoft added.
Maximum IT
Adobe Reader, IE Dominate Vulnerability List
Posted 07/16/10 at 07:05:09 AM by Paul Lilly
M86 Security Labs released a list of the top 15 most observed vulnerabilities for the first half of 2010 and, surprise-surprise, Adobe Acrobat & Adobe Reader (No. 1) and Microsoft Internet Explorer (No. 2) took the top two spots.
It wasn't enough to just take the top spots, Adobe Reader and Microsoft IE overachieved (underachieved?) by claiming nine out of the 15 slots, with four of them belonging to Adobe and five for Microsoft.
The list also indicates a growing focus on exploiting Java-based vulnerabilities.
"Java is the next low-hanging fruit for attackers," says Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer at eEye Digital Security.
News
Savor the Moment, Microsoft, Your Browser Just Inched Upwards
Posted 07/01/10 at 08:48:10 AM by Paul Lilly
Perhaps inconceivable just a few short years ago, it now seems inevitable that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser won't hold onto its market share lead forever, and could fall to Firefox within the next 24 months or so. We say this because IE has been trending backwards in market share numbers, at least up until now.
Microsoft can breathe a sigh of relief in June, even if only for one month. For the first time in a long time, the world's most popular browser (in market share) increased its usage, stopping what's long been a slow, albeit steady decline. According to Web analytics firm Net Applications, IE's usage numbers inched upwards in June from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent. While promising, Microsoft knows not to read too much into this.
"We certainly don't judge our business on just two months of data, but the direction here is encouraging," said Ryan Gavin, senior director of business and marketing for Internet Explorer.
Meanwhile, Mozilla's Firefox browser slid backwards from 24.3 percent to 23.8 percent. And don't take your eyes off of Google's Chrome browser, which rose from 7.0 percent to 7.2 percent from May to June. Still settling in at fourth place, Apple's Safari browser climbed from 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent, while Opera declined ever-so-slightly from 2.4 percent to 2.3 percent.
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IE9 Bests Chrome in HTML5 Test
Posted 06/24/10 at 04:43:05 PM by Ryan Whitwam
Chrome has gained a large following in its short history on a reputation for speed. According to a new round of benchmarking, it looks like Internet Explorer 9 could actually give Google's browser a run for its money. We heard the new version had improved HTML5 support, but they weren't kidding. In the newly released Preview 3, IE9 managed to beat Chrome soundly on a test of HTML5 canvas speed. It's described as "orders of magnitude faster"
Hardware accelerated canvas rendering is one of the new features in HTML5. This sort of content is expected to become more common in the coming years. But it isn't all good news on the benchmarking front for Microsoft. The SunSpider JavaScript benchmark found the new IE9 preview to be 30% slower than Chrome.
Keeping in mind that this is still a preview build of the browser, we're feeling pretty optimistic. It's hard to see moving to IE as our main browser, but it would be nice if people had a decent browser on their PCs out of the box. Hit this link to see the video.
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