Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Beta2 has a keystroke logger suggestion tool similar to used by Google for its Google suggest feature.  Unlike the Google Chrome IE8 keystroke feature is not enabled by default, IE8 beat2 users has to enable this feature. Microsoft does not enable Suggest site feature by default but they are asking using users whether they want to use Suggested feature or not after the IE8 beat2 installation. This makes a huge difference as compare to Google’s Chrome because Google Chrome enables this feature by default.Microsoft Suggested site privacy statement privacy statement does not provide any information how long Microsoft server will keep user data as compare to Google where Google has clearly mentioned that they will delete the user data after nine months. Only thing I like to see in this is that Microsoft has to make a clear statement how long they will kept user data.

Microsoft Suggested site privacy statement

Suggested Sites is an online experience designed to show you which websites you visit most, and to provide you with suggestions of other websites you might be interested in visiting. When you turn on Suggested Sites, your web browsing history is sent to Microsoft, where it is saved and compared to a frequently updated list of websites that are similar to ones you visit often. You can choose to pause or stop this feature from sending your web browsing history to Microsoft at any time. You can also delete individual entries from your history at any time. Deleted entries will not be used to provide you suggestions for other websites, although they will be retained by Microsoft for a period of time to help improve our products and services, including this feature. Any websites you visit while InPrivate Browsing is active will not be sent to Microsoft.

When Suggested Sites is turned on, the addresses of websites you visit are sent to Microsoft, together with some standard information from your computer such as IP address, browser type, and regional and language settings. To help protect your privacy, the information is encrypted when sent to Microsoft. Information associated with the web address, such as search terms or data you entered in forms might be included. For example, if you visited the Microsoft.com search website at http://search.microsoft.com and entered “Seattle” as the search term, the full address http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?q=Seattle&qsc0=0&FORM=QBMH1&mkt=en-US will be sent. Address strings might unintentionally contain personal information, but this information is not used to identify, contact or target advertising to you.
Statistics about your usage of Suggested Sites will also be sent to Microsoft such as the time that websites were visited, which Website referred you, and how you got there (e.g., by clicking a link or one of your Favorites). This information, along with the Website addresses and past history, will be used to personalize your experience, as well as improve the quality of our products and services. Microsoft will not use any information collected to identify, contact or target advertising to you.

How to turn on Suggested Sites:

• In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button.
• Click Suggested Sites. A check mark will indicate Suggested Sites is turned on.

How to turn off Suggested Sites:

• In Internet Explorer, click the Tools button.
• Click Suggested Sites to clear the check mark and turn Suggested Sites off.

Note: Turning off Suggested Sites does not clear your history.

To delete your browsing history (with or without turning off Suggested Sites), follow these steps:

• In Internet Explorer, click the Safety menu.
• Select Delete Browsing History

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There is being a lot of talk is going on about the Google’s Chrome and Mozilla Firefox JavaScript engines. IE8 Beta1 has optimized core scripting engine and script debugger. Let’s see  IE8 Beta2 JavaScript features

Scripting Engine: IE8 Beta2 includes native support for JavaScript Object Notation (JSON). Developers can use a native JSON object to serialize and de-serialize JScript objects. This feature makes Internet Explorer 8 the first browser to support JSON natively.

Script Debugger: IE8 Beta1 comes with Script debugger and IE8 team made it even better in IE8 Beta2. IE8 Beta2 Script debugger include let’s you to see the code in syntax colored manner that you see in most of the code editors. Console show all errors at one place and developers can use "console.log" feature to log errors. IE8 Beta2 console is extensible, means developers can add their own commands through custom scripts.

Script Profiler: Script Profiler is a new feature in IE8 Beta2. Script Profiler help developers to find and fix performance bottlenecks, resulting in a  better Script that will be efficient and run faster on browsers. The Script Profiler comes with an easy-to-use UI and powerful features such as ‘Call Tree View’ and ‘Export’ functionality. The Profiler output can be exported to tools like Excel so you can visualize the execution times through charts and graphs.

What’s New for JScript in IE8? Video

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As the tagline of upcoming Bollywood flick, Karzzzz says, “Vengeance is back”. Firefox 3 was really a top notch browser, which helped Mozilla, making its presence much dominant, than IE. But, Microsoft is back, with their new version of IE, competing for the “Best Browser for Windows” title, yet again.

Beta version of IE is officially available for download on Microsoft’s site, for quite a time now. For past few days, we went on testing this new iteration of IE, and for a sweet surprise, it actually surpassed our expectations. Obviously we don’t expect very much from IE, since the launch of Firefox 3, but still IE 8 is quite comparable to FF3, in terms of stability, security, faster loading, crash recovery and other such useful features. Only thing that IE still lacks is the number of addons available to download, to customize your experience the way you want it. Here is what we found about this new browser in the market.

1. Security :- A really important issue, with any browser. IE8 definitely, is quite an improvement in this area, over its previous version. It easily clears the Acid test, making sure, that your experience with web is quite secure. Since its a beta version only, it definitely needs further improvement to be as secure as FF3, but still we have to wait a little more to see if IE8 is really secure and bug free.
2. GUI :- Just by the looks, one can say, that it is made according to Windows Vista’s looks, which feels really catchy, than FF3’s default GUI. Although, FF3 has got some addons to improve its looks, in its arsenal, but on Windows Vista, IE8 definitely feels better than FF3. In beta version, though, we found few GUI issues, that were there in previous version of IE also, worth mentioning. The worst of all is the top menu bar, which takes up a full line, and shows only six menus. It would have been nice, if we can change its size just like a toolbar. Maximum no. of tabs shown at a time should have been less, so that tabs are easily.
3. Faster loading :- Well, sorry Mozilla fans. But i have tried IE8 on a very old configuration too. It loads really faster than FF3. And it is even better at memory management. FF3 takes up nearly double memory space, for same 6 tabs, compared to IE8. Really a nice work, by guys at Redmond.
4. Tabbed browsing :- A ripoff of FF3’s offering, its really well implemented. Tab grouping is another nice aspect, offered inbuilt in IE8, although for Firefox, add ons are available.
5. Crash Recovery :- Something every one wanted to see in IE, after it has already being implemented in all other competing browsers. Finally with this iteration of IE, its here, and to much of our relief, it works flawlessly. And even better, it just doesn’t asks for restoring your previous session once like in FF3, but gives you an option to come back to your previous session, anytime, during the next session. So, even if crashed, and next time, you by mistake clicked on cancel instead of Restore, not everything is lost. Also, re opening a closed tab, is finally supported. Again, a rip off of Firefox’s offering, but a point scored for IE8, nonetheless.
6. Address bar & Search bar :- Again a copy from FF3’s feature list. Address bar displays results from your web history, RSS feeds too, just like FF3. May be they should add desktop search, too alongwith this browser, just like Vista’s start menu. Although search bar is defaulted to Live Search, with an option to change it to other search providers, but still when we tried adding Google in that list, it just didn’t accepted it. Adding Wikipedia, amazon, etc. too was a lot of pain. We can expect to get this issue resolved, in final version. Still, displaying web results alongwith thumbnails, is real cool, and should be copied in FF3 too.
7. Accelerators :- Nice innovation really. Although, adding other accelerators is a real pain, but that is just a bug, waiting for a fix. Anyways, it was really helpful to use those accelerators, really. I was easily able to cut down on my internet usage by 15% easily. Really helpful for everyone.
8. Webslices :- Once again, a very innovative thought. It lets you get the latest info on a webpage without even navigating to it. Really a useful way, to keep an eye on stock quotes, or your favourite news site, or may be on a bid you placed at amazon. It is really useful and at times cool enough. Although, since this is just a new idea, not many websites are available which offers creating webslices of their pages. May be soon enough, we will see a better implementation of this feature, and a lot more sites, supporting it. Firefox developers, time to write one more add on for your FF3, this feature is a real killer.
9. Safety Filter :- Have you ever got this warning that this page may harm your computer, while navigating from Google’s search result page. But wait, what if you would have come to that link directly. Definitely, this issue needs to be addressed. And here we have it. The same malicious web filter, in Google search engine, has been made redundant with this Safety filter in IE8. One more feature, we would like to see in FF3 as an add on.
10. Performance :- Apart from Javascript, every where else, FF3 came crashing down to IE8. IE8 is twice as faster in rendering any graphically extensive site, than FF3. With Microsoft trying hard to gain an upperhand in graphically intensive sites, with its light weight Silverlight, on for Adobe’s Flash player, this high difference in performance is obvious. Something where FF3 needs to play catch up soon.
11. InPrivate mode :- Also called “porn mode” by nearly everyone, this feature is once again, a nice innovative idea. As expected, not even a single information is stored about your web browsing, even if it crashes. That means if you visited a site, that crashed IE while in InPrivate mode, sorry to say, but Automatic Crash Recovery won’t help. Obviously that’s what we call a good implementation. One more point scored for IE8.

In all, IE8 is a very good browser, worth upgrading if you are using IE 7 or previous versions. It is not so secure as other browsers, but still enough secure for a regular user. And the other new good features provided alongside rip offs of features from other browsers, make it real worth giving a try. Switching from FF3, would not be a good option at this point as IE8 still lacks proper implementation, and few bugs are waiting to be taken care of. But that may soon change, once the final version is out, which is expected to be much stable and bug free. Its time to see, which one of these two browsers, get more of user’s attention. With google’s Chrome set to be released soon, this war is really going to be tough, which is definitely a good news for users.

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Consumers can now download Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 version. IE8 is available in 32- and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008. In addition to English, IE8 Beta 2 is available in Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), and German. Additional languages will be available soon.Internet Explorer 8 makes it easier to visit sites you’ve been to before with the new Smart Address bar and enhanced Favorites bar, works with your search provider to suggested likely searches based on what you type into the instant search box, groups tabs to match the way you browse the web and gives you Accelerators and Web Slices to keep you closer to the sites and services you use every day.

Internet Explorer 8 improves upon our protection against social engineering “phishing” attacks in Internet Explorer 8 because the new SmartScreen™ Filter helps protect against malware sites and downloads.  Internet Explorer 8’s new Cross-Site Scripting Filter helps protect users against Cross-Site Scripting Type-1 reflection attacks, one of the most common attacks against websites.  We have also introduced new features that help protect users’ privacy with an enhanced Delete Browsing History experience.  InPrivate™ Browsing mode protects users’ privacy locally on their machine by not recording cookies, Temporary Internet Files and history while browsing.  InPrivate™ Blocking gives users choice and control over their online privacy while respecting the value exchange of 3rd party content on the web.

The new Compatibility View mode in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 helps ensure that users can use all the sites they use today without display or functionality issues.  Compatibility View represents a big improvement over “Emulate IE7” mode in Beta 1 because compatibility can now be set on a site by site basis rather than for the whole browser session and has been enhanced to be compatible with more sites.  The new architecture of Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 helps ensure that a single tab crashing does not cause users to lose their whole browser session, and crash recovery restores the crashed site and content.  With new features to manage, enable and disable browser add-ons, users have better control over what code is running inside their browser and can easily disable toolbars or browser helper objects that are causing instability or performance issues.

IE8 Beta 2 includes a number of new features, such as:

• InPrivate™ Browsing: Enables users to browse the Web with greater confidence, without any evidence of searches or sites visited retained by the browser.
• InPrivate Blocking: Helps prevent third-parties that serve content on a Web page from tracking the user’s Web surfing activities.
• SmartScreen® Filter. Helps protect against phishing Web sites, and sites known to distribute malware.
• Performance improvements: Reduces the time that users must wait when starting the browser, opening a new tab, or loading a page.
• Enhanced “Find on this Page”:  Enables users to find text on a Web page more easily, in a way that does not obscure any of the page’s content.
• Redesigned “New Tab” Page: Provides links to use an Accelerator, activate InPrivate browsing, reopen closed tabs, or restore the last browsing session.
• Enhanced Address Bar: Provides matches as the user types across History, Favorites, and RSS Feeds, searching against all parts of the URL string (and the page title) instead of just the beginning. Allows mistyped entries to be removed from the address bar
• Enhanced Tabbed Browsing: Tabs are grouped and color-coded so user can quickly discern which are related. Users can easily group or ungroup tabs, and can reopen closed tabs.
• Enhanced Instant Search Box: Real-time search suggestions (including images) and inclusion of Web sites in the user’s History make it easier to find content of interest.
• Performance and memory improvements: Enable developers to deliver more responsive and robust Web experiences.

IE Gallery, launching with IE8 beta 2, is a place for you to share, rate and review Activities and Web Slices designed for Internet Explorer 8.  Partners and publishers big and small can use it to share their own content and customers can use it to discover new ways to connect with their favorite web sites and services.

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On August 25,2008 Microsoft has described some of the privacy features that may come with IE8. IE8 new privacy features help users to control their privacy in a better manner and this makes end uses life really easy to manage and delete information while their web browsing. Microsoft has introduced total four InPrivate™ Browsing, Delete Browsing History, InPrivate™ Blocking and InPrivate Subscriptions. Now let’s have a closer look to all these features.

InPrivate Bfowsing: InPrivate Browsing is very useful when IE8 users accessing Internet from public places. A users launches a new InPrivate browsing window to go online.

While InPrivate Browsing is active, the following takes place:

• New cookies are not stored
  • All new cookies become “session” cookies
  • Existing cookies can still be read
  • The new DOM storage feature behaves the same way
• New history entries will not be recorded
• New temporary Internet files will be deleted after the Private Browsing window is closed
• Form data is not stored
• Passwords are not stored
• Addresses typed into the address bar are not stored
• Queries entered into the search box are not stored
• Visited links will not be stored

Delete Browsing History: Another new feature that has been added in IE8 is the way in which IE8 delete browsing history. Previous version delete all browsing history including cookies and other useful information that a user may not willing to delete including cookies and preferences. IE8 solves this problem by adding an option that lets you keep cookies and temporary Internet files from websites saved in your Favorites list. To avoid having your favorite sites “forget you”, simply add them to your Favorites, and make sure the “Preserve Favorites Website data” checkbox is selected. IE will preserve any cookies or cache files that were created by websites in your favorites.

InPrivate Blocking: InPrivate features keep track of information about third party content providers that collect your browsing information and provide to other Websites. IE8 automatically block providers who have collected information about a user on more than 10 sites. Users can also choose which content they block or allow, and learn more about third-party content.

Microsoft Said

Microsoft also hopes to help users better control the type of information that Web sites might share about them with third parties. Companies that provide content to Web sites often collect information about people who visit those sites, but end users sometimes don’t know the information is being collected.If the content provider supplies content to multiple sites, it can compile valuable browsing information about users who visit those sites

Thanks to CIO

InPrivate Subscriptions: InPrivate Subscriptions are simply RSS feeds of Regular Expressions that specify sub-downloads to block or allow. Anyone can publish an InPrivate Subscription on their website, just as they can offer an Accelerator or Web Slice on their website.

Microsoft is expected to release another beta of IE8 this month and release the final code before the end of this year

Source : IE8 official Blog

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A new study released by Net Applications shows that Microsoft Internet Explorer loosing it’s market shares. Last year internet Explorer has approximately 79% browser market share and after one year it only has 73% of browser market share. Mozilla’s Firefox is Internet Explorer’s main competitor. The web browser now holds 19 percent of the market, and is rapidly expanding the number of people that are using it. Over the last year, Firefox’s market share raised more than 4 percent, from the 14.65 percent it owned last summer. The browser’s latest version acquired 1 percent of the global market during the first day of its release.

The bad news for Mozilla is that the main people who downloaded Firefox 3 where users upgrading from Firefox 2. Even though the company’s latest version of the browser has managed to get about 4 percent of the web browser market, only less than 1 percent have been people that previously used other companies’ products.

Apple also hit the jackpot with Safari, increasing the number of people that use it from 4.71 percent last year, to 6.31 as of this month. The reason for this seems to be the increased popularity of the company’s products, and the fact that each Apple computer comes with Safari

Browser Market Share July 2007

Browser Market Share June 2008

Source : Market Share and efluxmedia

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer,Firefox

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We use anti-virus software to to check computer for virus and for other malicious things. Now computer users can also check their browser security by using these two free online services.

The Scanit Browser Security Test page
The Verisign Browser Check page

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Internet Explore and Delicious users now start using a Add-on for Delicious. The add-on was released in beta last month, but is now apparently finalized. This New Add-on makes a tight integration with Internet Explorer making it easy to search, sort, and view your bookmarks.. It automatically syncs throughout the day with your del.icio.us account and makes it easy to keep your bookmarks at your fingertips on any computer you use.

After installation is done Internet Explore users have to restart the browser.

Features in Delicious Add-on for Internet Explorer

Toolbar

With the new toolbar you can view bookmarks and tags for quick and easy access.

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IE8 has one very good feature that is WebSlices. Using WebSlices users can subscribe to a portion of webpage. WebSlice is just work as RSS Feeds works, where user get can subscribe and get updates without going to visit individual WebPages.

IE8 Beta 1 allows users to discover and add WebSlices to their Favorite Bar. Just below the address a dedicated row is also there, that give users to easy access to their WebSlices. WebSlices detects changes and notifies users for changes and users can directly preview these updates from Favorites Bar or directly go to the website for more information.

At the end of this post I have included one video for IE8 WebSlices.

How to use IE8 WebSlice?

There are four aspects of IE8 WebSlice user interface.

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Web browsers are become common avenue for hacker to deliver malware and start attack on any computer. Running Internet Explorer in protected mode provides an extra level of security and data protection for windows users. Internet Explorer protected mode, no one can modify or change system files or settings without the permission of user.Protected Mode requires the user to confirm any activity that tries to put something on your machine or start another program. By ensuring the user consents to these kinds of actions, the likelihood of automated and/or unwanted software installation is reduced. This feature also makes you aware of what a website is trying to do, giving you a chance to stop it and take time to double check the trustworthiness of the website.

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