MICROSOFT TO SILENT UPDATE INTERNET EXPLORER FOR EVERYONE

Microsoft has decided that the time has come to make sure that all users of Internet Explorer are using the most current version possible. To accomplish that goal, they’re turning on automatic updates.

Internet Explorer will quietly update itself just as Windows does. Starting in January, users in Australia and Brazil will be the begin receiving automatic IE updates. Microsoft will then gradually extend coverage to other parts of the world as time goes on. Ryan Gavin, Microsoft’s senior director for Internet Explorer, pointed out several benefits. The overall security of the Windows user community will be improved as outdated browsers are replaced, developers can focus their attention on building sites using modern web code.

There also won’t be any changes made to a user’s default search provider or home page. User preferences won’t be touched as part of this new Internet Explorer update process. You’ll simply be bumped to the most current version available for your version of Windows.

Microsoft hasn’t forgotten about its enterprise customers. The software giant will continue to offer Internet Explorer blocker tools so that network administrators can deploy new browser versions once they’ve been fully tested and won’t cause any application compatibility issues.

GOOGLE CHROME PASSES INTERNET EXPLORER TO BECOME TOP BROWSER IN WORLD

When Google Chrome launched a couple years ago, people knew that Google’s massive web presence and cross-promotional powers would help it gain market share quickly. But in just over 26 months Chrome 15 has surpassed Internet Explorer 8 to become the most popular browser in the world.

Yes, it’s a single browser version — and with Chrome’s silent auto-update mechanism, that’s the entire Google Chrome army against just one version of Internet Explorer. When you look at all versions, IE is still top dog at about 39% worldwide, with Chrome near 27%. That doesn’t make the feat any more impressive. In just two years, Google has managed to build, test, release, and promote Chrome well enough that it’s now a force to be reckoned with in the web browser market.

CHROME BROWSER SURPASSES FIREFOX IN USAGE

Google’s Chrome web browser surpassed Mozilla’s Firefox in global browser market share for the first time ever in November. Research firm StatCounter found that Chrome’s market share during the month was 25.69%, up 4.66% from last November, and that Firefox’s share was a hair lower at 25.33% during the month. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer maintained its lead with 40.63%. ”Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also,” StatCounter CEO Aodjan Cullen said. Internet Explorer remains the top browser in the United States with a 50.66% share. Firefox is the second most popular browser in the U.S. with a 20.09% share, down from 26.75% in November last year, and Chrome is the third most popular browser with a 17.3% share, up from 10.89% last year. Net Applications, another research firm, published similar results on Thursday.

RUMOR: SILVERLIGHT 5 MAY BE LAST AND ONLY WORK ON INTERNET EXPLORER

Could Microsoft's Silverlight soon be following in the footsteps of Adobe's Flash Player for mobile devices? That's still unconfirmed by Microsoft, but ZDNet's Mary-Jo Foley is reporting that she's heard from several sources who say that Silverlight 5 will be the last version of the rich media platform, and that it's not clear how long it will be supported after it's released later this month. What's more, another source tells Foley that the final version of Silverlight 5 itself might only work with Internet Explorer on Windows, as opposed to earlier versions that have also supported Chrome and Safari on both OS X and Windows. As ZDNet notes, however, the end of Silverlight wouldn't necessarily mean an end to all of the work Microsoft has done on Silverlight -- we've already heard about a Silverlight-like app framework that's coming in a future Xbox update, and many of the same principles can also be found in the Metro-style apps for Windows 8.

GOOGLE CHROME OVERTAKES FIREFOX AS UK'S #2 BROWSER

Google's Chrome is Britain's second most popular browser, a sign of the internet giant's increasing grip on the UK search market.

Three years after launch, Chrome last month captured 22% of UK users and marginally overtook Mozilla's Firefox browser, according to the web metrics firm Statcounter. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is losing market share to Chrome but remains the most popular browser for UK users with 45% – although it has a head start by being pre-installed on almost all computers sold in Britain. Apple's Safari is UK number four, with a 9% share.

ARE INTERNET EXPLORER USERS LESS INTELLIGENT?

A research firm posted an IQ test on its Web site and then compiled the results from more than 100,000 users. It found that there was no substantial difference between users of Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera. But Internet Explorer users had IQs below average.

That's a switch from five years ago, when IQs were more or less the same across all browsers.
The company, Aptiquant, bills itself as a "psychometric consultant." Its main business is creating tests to help businesses hire well. Now before all you Opera users get too satisfied with yourselves, there are lots of possible reasons why IE users scored so low:

• IE has about twice the installed base of any other browser, so IQs are more likely to tend toward the mean
• IE is the default browser of 95% of people who don't know how to download and install a new browser, which drags down the average. (Mac users in this boat stick with Safari.)
• People who use other browsers include a disproportionate number of computer geeks, which brings their averages up
• Online IQ tests -- or IQ tests in general -- are silly
• IE users really are kind of dumb
  

MICROSOFT'S INTERNET EXPLORER 9 TO RELEASE MARCH 14TH

The official release of Internet Explorer 9 will drop on March 14th, bringing along with it a massive overhaul that imbues IE with some desperately needed standards support, as well as a healthy speed boost and the benefit of hardware acceleration.

The first Platform Preview of IE9 dropped almost a year ago, and Microsoft has been consistently updating the previews and betas since then, fleshing out its HTML5 and CSS 3 compliance, along with improving its feature set. HTML5 and CSS 3 compliance are particularly nice to get, since IE8 doesn’t support HTML5 at all, and is at least part of the reason why the web has been slow to adopt the latest iteration of the standard.

Whether people will upgrade, though, is a big question. After all, Microsoft’s had a hard enough time killing off IE6, which still has a 12% share of the browser market after ten years. IE9 doesn’t even run on Windows XP, which is still one of the biggest operating systems in the world.

RUMOR: INTERNET EXPLORER 9 UNVEILING FEB 10

Microsoft has announced a media event for February 10th. WinRumors is reporting Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) release candidate will be unveiled. The invite states "Members from the Internet Explorer team (and some special guests) will be visiting San Francisco in two weeks to share some important news. I know it's an extremely busy news week already, but we're hoping you can join us."

WinRumors says an escrow build of IE9 appeared online on Friday and that Microsoft has added a location privacy setting to the browser.

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION WANTING TO CREATE NATIONAL INTERNET ID PROGRAM

The Obama administration is moving forward with creating a National Internet ID program. The program plans to give every American an online ID as part of an ambitious, and very ambigious, cybersecurity initiative headed up by the U.S. Commerce Department.

According to Commerce Sec. Gary Locke, the program won't be about national id cards or expanding the government, but will provide every U.S. citizen an ID they can use to sign into multiple sites, pages and platforms. Unfortunately, his explanation doesn't really say much and just leads to more questions.

Officially called the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace, the program is expected to solidify over the next few months so hopefully there will be more to report in the spring. [CBS News]

FIREFOX TAKES LEAD OVER INTERNET EXPLORER

Internet Explorer has been seeing some pressure in the form of incremental gains in market share from competing browsers such as Firefox, Safari and Chrome for some time. In September, Internet Explorer’s global market share had degraded below 50% with particular losses being experienced in the European market as demonstrated by a 6% drop compared to the same period in 2009. In December, it looks like Firefox was able to take advantage of IE’s vulnerability to supplant the browser in the European market for the first time.

StatCounter, the free website analytics company, reported that Firefox took the number one spot with 38.11% of the European market compared to IE’s 37.52%. Internet Explorer experienced nearly a 3% drop from September which allowed Firefox to edge up ahead of the previously dominant browser. Interestingly enough, Firefox can thank Google’s Chrome according to Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter’s CEO, who says:

This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share.

When you look at the gains of Chrome in Europe the numbers speak for themselves. As of December, Chrome had 14.58% market share in Europe compared to its previous market share during the same time last year of only 5.06%. Don’t expect Microsoft to put up a white flag anytime soon, though. When you look at North America it is clear that Internet Explorer maintains a dominant lead over other browsers with 48.92% market share compared to Firefox (26.7%) and Chrome (12.82%). If IE’s market share continues to erode in North America, Microsoft’s browser may soon find itself fighting a bloodier browser war on the home front as well.

MICROSOFT'S INTERNET EXPLORER 9 TO HAVE ANTI-TRACKING PROTECTIONS

Microsoft will debut anti-tracking technology as part of Internet Explorer 9, which will use “Tracking Protection Lists” (TPL) to better allow surfers control over which sites can see where they’ve been browsing previously. According to the company’s IE blog, the system will be similar to a “do not call” register for phones, with users creating lists of trusted or untrusted sites in their TPLs that set out which sites can access cookies, images, HTML and other code.

"We designed this feature so that consumers have a clear, straight forward, opt-in mechanism to enable a higher degree of control over sharing their browsing information AND websites can provide easy to use lists to manage their privacy as well as experience full-featured sites."

Sites will be able to create their own TPLs with details on external URLs that are necessary for full functionality, and users will be able to optionally accept or deny those TPLs. Microsoft is positioning it as an opt-in system, partly in response to a recent report by the FTC which criticized industry self-regulation on privacy and suggested that it had “failed to provide adequate and meaningful protection.” IE9 is scheduled to be released in early 2011. [Slashgear]

INTERNET EXPLORER CONTINUES SLIDE IN BROWSER WARS 2

Internet Explorer (IE) continues it's slide against an onslaught of browsers.  The perennial favorite has dropped to under 50% of the market, currently at 49.87%.  Compared this to Firefox making up 31.5% and Chrome coming up fast with 11.54%.  A number of other browsers, like Safari and Opera, make up the rest.  Interestingly, Chrome's market share has tripled in the last year.

Two years ago IE had over two-thirds of the market, but with a slew of new browsers that are faster and more configurable, the venerable browser just couldn't continue to compete.  Microsoft must have finally acknowledged the inevitable as it released an upgrade with IE 8 and a ground up redo with IE 9, currently in beta.

TehGayGeek's stats show that IE is the third most popular browser to visit the site at 22.62%.  The number one browser is Firefox at 34.73% followed by Chrome at 29.08%. [Engadget]

INTERNET EXPLORER 9 PUBLIC BETA RELEASED

Microsoft has launched a salvo against it's competitors today by releasing the public beta of Internet Explorer 9.

IE9 has been updated with a new user interface and design.  Taking cues from Windows 7, IE9 now allows for pinning of sites.  The have vastly improved the tab functionality and included One Box, where the address bar is also the search bar.  IE9 has finally added a download manager that works.

In addition to those changes, Microsoft has been hard at work, working on the performance of the browser.  While the beta is faster than the current IE 8, it is still slower than Chrome and about on par with Firefox 3.6. [Review at Engadget] [Download IE9 Public Beta]