newbTech » Web Browsers

Microsoft IE 8.0 Browser Security best of all browsers?

dee — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 09:30:00 +0000

Erm.. surely it can’t be true? Where has Firefox and Chrome gone? Could this be just another marketing hype released to coincide the release of Microsoft IE 8.0?

Just like the article announcing how IE8.0 beat Safari and Firefox in the Pwn2Own contest (forgetting to mention the wee lil fact that Google Chrome actually outlasted it.. – article from ITPro)…

NSS Labs recently released a paper that touts putting all the current browsers through over 154,000 individual tests over 12 days and coming up with some "interesting" results. In particular they were testing the browsers’ capability to intercept and stop Malware.

The tested applications included Safari, Chrome, IE8, IE7, Firefox and Opera. The article itself makes for an interesting read especially for the skeptics amongst us.

The actual article can be read (pdf format) by clicking here: Test Report

If you get a chance, please do have a quick squiz at the tests they performed and while they tried to be as unbiased as possible, most people will read it as very much a pro-microsoft article. Even withstanding the fact that IE7 was one of the lowest rated browsers in terms of malware security.

They did mention that Firefox added sites to their block list faster than IE, they went on to add that Firefox identified significantly fewer malware sites.. i just don’t like that word i guess… Also, i’m unsure if they used any add-ons in Firefox…

Still.. have a gander.. make your own mind up. As for me, I’ve got IE8, Chrome and Firefox installed on my machines and funnily enough, find an excuse to use them all at some point or other…

Let me leave you with an excerpt from one of their conclusions… surely the gap cannot be this much?

Again, the link to their PDF article is here: Test Report

Get Shareaholic

Internet Explorer 8 is now out..

dee — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:55:00 +0000

Microsoft just released a new version of it’s web browser today. Packed with features and add-on’s, its trying hard to retain its user base. A lot of people prefer Firefox as their browser, but the fact remains that with the advent of technology such as Ajax etc, a lot of developers out there are trying to provide a richer user experience and sometimes, providing this level of interactivity results in issues when rendering the pages in any browser other than IE.

It will be interesting to see if this new version is smaller, faster and more secure than the previous versions. I thought I’d upgrade my work machine just to see how easy it is to upgrade and see if there are any major differences in browsing experiences.

I’m assuming at this point that most people out there are now on IE7, so this will be an upgrade.

Step 1

Started by navigating to the IE8 Homepage and clicking on the huge download link and saved the application to my PC. It was a 16meg download for me (it automatically detected my language set, so other language sets may differ slightly in size).

File downloaded and hit Run to start the install. It starts off with the obligatory "customer satisfaction survey" opt-in dialog:

Followed by the obligatory "License Agreement":

Step 2

Finally, we are ready to install.. ticked the Install Updates box and hit Next and waited for the magic :)

Now this is where it got a little misleading. The actual download doesn’t happen until at this point.. however, this went really quickly, so maybe it may be downloading a few more things to add to the application.

At this point, i had IE7 windows open to see if it will trap that and cater for it.

When installing, it installs the Core Components first, and then the updates and finally finishes. The total install time took around 5 minutes.

Restart the machine after installation is complete.

Once the machine was restarted, starting up IE, resulted in some more configuration dialog boxes. This includes the Phishing Filter if you had installed the Windows Live toolbar. It gives you options to set up "Express" or custom. These dictate the amount of add-on’s that will be installed and run on IE.

I decided to use "Express". Hit Finish and i was taken to their "Thank You" page.

Sooo, what are the major features? In addition to lots of add-ons, accelerators and speed, the major one that i must note is the little button on the right hand side of the Address URL bar:

This may be a button you’ll press often :) its for "Compatibility View" and allows sites designed with older browsers in mind to render better. We tried IE8 on some of our client sites without this mode, and the pages didn’t render well at all. Hitting this button made things lot better.

In terms of add-on’s, there is an entire site dedicated to all manner of add-ons. These allow you to personalize your IE experience and makes interacting with common sites and applications easier.

Its still early days in terms of reviewing its performance against Chrome or Firefox but initial dreads on it being bloated and slow may be wrong. I’m holding onto my opinions on this web browser for now.

Relevant links:

Get Shareaholic

New Version of Google Chrome out

dee — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:27:00 +0000

For those who may not know, Google Chrome is Google’s version of a web browser. Currently the market is dominated by clients such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari, etc.

Chrome is Googles’ attempt to create a light and fast browser first released around 6 months ago.

While its still a relatively new application and subject to little quirks, I’ve very quickly made it my primary browser in terms of general use :)

Note: The latest version of Chrome may not play nice with Windows 7 (read: slow), so please be aware of that if you are interested in installing the latest version and you are running Windows 7 beta.

We will write up a quick article on how to download, install and configure Google Chrome soon, but for now, here is the news item regarding its latest version:

From Reuters (Mar 18):

Google released a new version of its Chrome Web browser on Tuesday, as the search giant continues its efforts to get a foothold in a market dominated by Microsoft Corp.

The new Chrome represents the first major update of the software aimed at the general public since Google entered the browser business six months ago.

It offers Web surfers faster performance and a handful of new features, such as auto-filling of personal information on online forms and a new way for users to drag around tabs of different Web pages within the browser window.

Google was a distant No.4 in the browser market, with 1.2 percent share of the worldwide market in February, according to market research firm Net Applications.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominates the market, with a 67.4 percent market share in February, while the Mozilla foundation’s Firefox browser had a roughly 22 percent share. Apple’s Safari browser had an 8 percent share.

Last month, Google officially joined the European Union’s antitrust case against Microsoft, describing the browser market as "largely uncompetitive." The EU has charged Microsoft with abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows personal computer operating system.

According to a post on Google’s blog on Tuesday, the new Chrome beta loads certain types of Web pages 25 percent to 35 percent faster than the current version of the browser.

The new features were previously available to programmers using the "developer" version of Chrome, but Google has now packaged all the updates together into a more reliable beta test version that is available for download.

Google also has a more polished, so-called stable version of Chrome, based on the older beta version.

Get Shareaholic