It has been the best browser from its initial launch in December 1994 to its death (almost dead, and bought by AOL) in 1998. It was buried by AOL in 2008.

Netscape navigator was not defeated, but was murdered, by Micro$oft. Sometimes, this is  often referred as the First Browser War. As a long time user of Navigator, I always believe Navigator was murdered. The murder is Mirco$oft. The ammunition used by the murder mainly includes: 1). monopoly in PC operating system; 2). huge cash pile; and 3).the uninformed mass.

So, The notorious Internet Explorer dominated in almost all Windows PCs, and the digital dark age started. The antitrust slap on M$ could not revive Netscape Navigator. Thankfully,  the Firefox, somewhat linked to Navigator and Mozilla, and Chrome, from the Chocolate Factory, lighted the sky.

Now, Micro$oft wants us to go back to the dark ages again, in mobile devices, by eliminating browser choices for users on Windows RT (aka, Windows on ARM, or WOA). Giving Internet Explorer exclusive access to some system functions is the key strategy of M$ to eliminate third party browsers on such devices, because this gives IE an unfair competitive advantage against other browsers.

Although Windows RT will very likely fail (hopefully), just like the crappy Windows Mobile, it does matter for us.  Given the huge cash reserve and bad record of abusing the monopoly power) of M$, the damage to technology invention and consumer choices can be profound.

Let’s say “NO’ to Micro$oft, and use a better browser, always, on PC, and on mobile devices.

Now Kindle owners can enable password-protect purchases, disable access to specific content libraries, and block access to the Silk web browser. Parents now can control what their kids can use by blocking adult contents, some apps or movies. Of course, they can also block any purchases by kids, the major concern of many parents.

These actually are the major missing feature as a content consuming tablet when Fire debuted in last November.  Similar to previous updates, this is also an over-the-air update. Of course, you can download the update and transfer it to your Fire.

With more and more tablets in the market, especially those with the Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich), the sales of the Fire has plummeted since January.

The rumored Google Nexus tablet (manufactured by ASUS), the killer of Fire,  will very likely debut in next month’s Google I/O 2012.

Today, I read a report claiming Internet Explorer provides the best browser battery life (i.e., drain your battery at a slower pace). It sounds like an April 1 joke.

Usually I did not pay much attention to such benchmarks: I rely on my own “experience”. That’s the major reason I switched from Firefox (which is far better than  Internet Explorer) to Chrome (which is current my favorite browser). User experience is the key factor to decide which browser is better for you.

Actually based on the same test, Google Chrome is the fastest since September 19, 2011.  This is consistent with my experience. The battery test results probably indicate that the Internet Explorer draws less juice because it is slower, I guess.

Anyway, the test is not reliable at all. For example, the reported confessed that:

Out of all browsers, Google Chrome stood out as the most troublesome. Most of the tests I made with this browser did not finish successfully. First, I had issues with the browser crashing in the middle of testing. I reinstalled Chrome and the problem was fixed. Then, many tests simply did not end well and Peacekeeper was not able to record the results, for unknown reasons. Also, during most tests, the screen of my laptop was becoming active at random intervals, as if mouse or keyboard movements were detected. I found this strange, as my laptop was simply sitting on a table, not bothered by anyone. This lowered the battery lifetime when testing Google Chrome, as the screen consumed more energy than in the tests made with other browsers. Again, the cause for this behavior is unknown and it was encountered only when testing Google Chrome.

Anyway, if you really want to compare the performance of browser, just visit web pages and web pages…. Then, you will notice Chrome actually is not only the fastest, but also probably the most battery efficient. Browser is built for browsing, not for testing.

It seems people suddenly start to concern about their privacy. Do Not Track becomes a popular word, although most people do not really understand it. Even the politicians want to express their interest in solving this issue.  The White House last week unveiled a “Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights”.

Mozilla reminded us that they invented Do Not Track in February 2011. If it was Apple, it was probably patented already, and now everyone would have had to pay for it except Safari users (they already paid when they purchased the fruity toy). According to the official page:

Keep My Opt-Outs is an extension for users who aren’t comfortable with personalization of the ads they see on the web. It’s a one-step, persistent opt-out of personalized advertising and related data tracking performed by companies adopting the industry privacy standards for online advertising

Anyway, this is not new. For Firefox users, some have used this feature for some time. For Chrome users, the Chocolate Factory also handed out the do not track tool since last January in Chrome Store: Keep My Opt-Outs.

If you are really worrying about your privacy, use these tools. For IE users, the simple solution is to change to Firefox or Chrome, NOW.

In our safe surfing guide series (part 4), we recommended you to dump IE and choose a better web browser, e.g., Chrome or Firefox, or SeaMonkey. Today, you get another reason to dump it forever!

On Feb. 20, Microsoft claimed that Google has been bypassing the user-defined privacy settings in Internet Explorer by using incorrect P3P identification terms:

Technically, Google utilizes a nuance in the P3P specification that has the effect of bypassing user preferences about cookies … By sending this text, Google bypasses the cookie protection and enables its third-party cookies to be allowed rather than blocked

Google’s response gave us a clearer picture.:

Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P”) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites.

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational. A 2010 research report indicated that over 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

If the privacy settings in your browser is so easy to pass, it just proved IE is crappy. And, it was, it is and it will be!

Anyway, if you are still using IE, it is time to change, change for better web browser.

According to some reports, Microsoft Antivirus and Security products ( Microsoft Forefront and Microsoft Security Essentials) started to mark google.com as as being a severe threat called Exploit:JS/Blacole.BW in the Valentine’s day. A V-day gift for Google.

Surely, Microsoft quickly (4 hours) fixed the issue, and as usual, explained this is another technical issue.

Of course, I was not affected because I am using Avast!, one of the best free antivirus software. We used it for many years without major issues.

I just feel a bit sorry for those who are still using M$ antivirus or internet security software.  If you are using Windows (90% of our readers are still using it on desktop), you need antivirus for safe surfing as explained in a previous post.

But you need better quality antivirus software. If you are are M$ Av user, change to avast right now.

A war M$ is losing. Sorry it is just our hopes.

Anyway, this is a smart move to stop or at least to slow down the losing of market share (to Chrome and Firefox). M$ won the browser war against Netscape by bundling IE to Windows since Windows 95. But is has been a  loser in the same battlefield against Forefox, nor against Chrome.

Security, speed, and W3C standard are the major reasons tech geeks abandon IE. IE 8 and IE 9 did has some improvement in security and speed. But the compliance to standards is still not as good as Chrome or Firefox.

So, M$ silently updates the IER browser for most users; a lot of users will not know because they already switched to other better browsers.

The Carrier IQ website claims that the program has been installed on more than 140 million devices. If you are using Sprint+Samsung or Sprint+HTC, you should check your phone today.

Are you one of the victims?

Plain is better!

Everyday millions of third-party add-ons are installed for Firefox. Some of them can impose serious privacy and security holes for the computer.

Finally, in the latest release, Firefox 8 disables third-part add-ons. This is a correct step among so many mistakes in recent releases.

According to the official Mozilla Add-ons Blog:

These add-ons installed by third parties present a number of problems: they can slow down Firefox start-up and page loading time, they clutter the interface with toolbars that often go unused, they lag behind on compatibility and security updates, and most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons.

So, in the Firefox 8, users must opt in to add-on installation. This means Firefox will disable the add-on until the user has explicitly opted in to the addition.

Anyway, this is a positive move. What do you think about this?

It is another sandbox you enjoy!

One of  the safest web browser is Google Chrome browser, which is becoming more and more popular. The security features include:

1. Sandboxing. Almost all  browsers now have tabbed browsing, even IE has it for long time. But Chrome differs itself from others by implementing sandboxing. The tabs have individual processes with sandbox capabilities which restrict privileges for third-party apps. This (sandboxing), according to Google and security experts “prevent malware from installing itself on your computer or using what happens in one browser tab to affect what happens in another. The sandbox adds an additional layer of protection to your browser by protecting against malicious web pages that try to leave programs on your computer, monitor your web activities, or steal private information from your hard drive.”
2. Alerting. Chrome alerts about bad sites, most importantly, very accurately. IE also tries to do the similar thing, but it is totally unreliable. Chrome’s phishing and malware detection is very impressive and it can be a good compliment to your anti-virus software.
3. Self-updating. Auto-updating is nothing new, even M$ rolled out updates every month. But self-updating in Chrome is truly non-intrusive: no bullshit and updating itself only. No popups, no restart, no reminders.

Remember, browser itself can provide very limited protection for safe surfing. You still need other tools and measures, as explained in our safe surfing guide series, antivirus, anti-malware and webmail.

Anyway, try to download and use Chrome today, if you haven’t.