<IT WORLD> Microsoft's bid to outfox the rivals
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Microsoft this week pushed out the first release candidate
for the next iteration of its globe-dominating web browser, Internet Explorer.
IE8 RC1 was made available to the public on Monday as the software moves out of
two beta testing phases and nears completion. The big question for the company
will be: is it enough to persuade people to come back after seeking an
alternative browser?
Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 has been losing ground to competing browsers
Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari for several months simply because it is slow,
cranky and full of security
holes. The software giant is hoping that it can claw back some of that ground
with IE8, which focuses on improved security, privacy and functionality.
The new browser promises to be more compatible with web standards, which is
bringing a sigh of relief from thousands of web developers who were forever
updating their code to comply with each new version of IE. However, webmasters
who have built websites specifically for earlier versions could now face a big
redesign as many will find their layouts broken in IE8. Well aware of this,
Microsoft has added a compatibility mode button, which allows you to view a
site as it would have looked in IE7.
Tabbed browsing has been improved; you can now restore previously open tabs if
the browser has been accidentally closed, though this is nothing new to Firefox
users. Tabs can also be color coded for ease of navigation and grouping and a
"tab isolation" feature allows specific tabs to be closed if a dodgy website
crashes the browser, which is a common occurrence with older versions of IE.
Searching naturally uses Windows Live Search but you can also add your own
engines now, additionally it can offer predictive searches for repetitive terms
and add-ons to search third-party websites such as Wikipedia without having to
visit the site. Another add-on called Web Slices will check your frequently
accessed pages and notify you of updates to them. Microsoft seems to be
following the Mozilla school of thought, with a lot of emphasis on plug-ins or
add-ons so you can really customize your browser - there are plenty to choose
from for IE8.
Security has always been the big beef with IE and, yes, version 8 has been
improved on that front. The company touts it as its most secure browser to date
but considering its track record this is no great achievement. There have been
a number of notable improvements though such as advanced phishing protection,
traceless private browsing - or porn mode as some like to call it - and a new
feature to prevent "clickjacking", which is a system used by hackers to steal
personal and financial data.
On the performance front it will have a lot of work to do to catch its snappier
rivals, and although IE8 has been tweaked under the hood the speed factor may
still be elusive considering that it still has a fairly large memory footprint
when multiple tabs are open. This may improve though with Windows 7, which
should be far more efficient at memory management.
It is unlikely that IE8 will persuade the ever-increasing hordes of Firefox
fans to return to a Microsoft browser, though it does offer plenty of new
goodies to entice the still undecided to give it a look or those currently
using the flaky IE7 to stay with the product.
Meanwhile the European Commission continues to pile on the pressure from
findings that Microsoft violates antitrust law by installing IE as part of
Windows. The EU conclusion last week stated that "Microsoft's tying of Internet
Explorer to the Windows operating system harms competition between web
browsers, undermines product innovation and ultimately reduces consumer
choice". The company has eight weeks to respond but we could find that European
Windows customers are forced to select a browser when they set up a PC. This
may not be a bad thing, as Microsoft has been choosing peoples' browsers for
years.
Gaming
Reports by research group Media Control GfK International released this month
indicate the start of possible new trends in the entertainment industry. Global
revenue for entertainment software exceeded that from home movie sales for the
first time in 2008. Video games, bolstered by the popularity of the Nintendo
Wii, took the lead with a rise of 20% to US$32 billion in worldwide sales,
while combined DVD and Blu-ray sales fell 6% to $29 billion. Total sales of
packaged media grew 6% globally to $61 billion in 2008 and it is expected that
the gaming slice of this will grow to represent 57% in the next 12 months, up
from 53% in 2008 and 47% the year before.
Blu-ray sales are generally on the increase as the format becomes more popular,
while DVD sales are still falling, blamed on the global economic downturn. It
has been predicted that 2009 will be another good year for the gaming industry
as publishers and the three major consoles - Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's
PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii - slug it out to offer more compelling
titles to a wider audience in an effort to reel in more gamers.
Internet
Google and partners, in their latest contribution to the network neutrality
debate, announced plans on Wednesday to allow web surfers to determine whether
Internet providers were blocking content or purposely slowing networks. The
search company, by providing 36 servers in 12 locations across the US and
Europe, will allow academic researchers to analyze network data.
Google's Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, known for his work with the US
government on the early Internet protocol in the 1970s and '80s, stated: "When
an Internet application doesn't work as expected or your connection seems
flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP
(Internet service provider), the application, your PC (personal computer), or
something else?"
The research will be good news for users, who are often at the whim of their
Internet service providers, which usually blame the local machine for any
connectivity loss. These include the likes of Comcast, which was on the wrong
end of the US Federal Communications Commission's vote to uphold a complaint
about the company blocking file-sharing services.
The new services, which can be found at MeasurementLab.net, include a number of
diagnostic tools to test networks, bandwidth, and whether your provider is
blocking peer-to-peer applications. There will be more to follow as the boffins
at Google strive for more transparency over the way Internet providers control
and route network traffic.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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Gaming
