The announcement of the next version of Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9 has caused me to also stumble upon an article that talks about what we should all be looking for in the next version of the Microsoft Internet browser.

I’m a happy user of Mozilla Firefox, which is mainly due to the ability to extend the functionality of the browser with the various plugins and add-ons I’ve found over the years to help me get more out of my Internet experience.

I’d say the big thing that Microsoft should be sure and add to their next browser is much more opportunities for extending the features of the browser.

As I think about those options, I begin to wonder why all of these add-ons couldn’t be developed in an open XML architecture that would allow the same plug-in to run on various browsers. That would take away some of the advantage of what Firefox has available to it compared to the other major browsers.

The other items that should always be addressed with a browser include a collection of "S" items. New browsers should achieve a goal of speed, security, standards and social media.

The standards could be covered with an open architecture. The popularity of a variety of social media tools should be easily integrated into your web experience as well. We should always expect security as an absolute bare minimum.

Post from: EveryJoe

Looking for a New Web Browser

I’m going to contradict myself a bit now with that argument. When it comes to screen real-estate, I want an effective use of space. This argument may be less of a rant on size though and more of a rant on flexibility and personal preference.

This was recently made clear to me as I was trying to customize the display and organization of my toolbars in Mozilla Firefox.

If we take a look at the graphic above, there’s an illustration of what I’m talking about here. Layered towards the back of the graphic is how my collection of toolbars currently display in Mozilla Firefox 3.5.1. Taking up quite a bit of screen space.

My preference, after manually editing how I’d like things to be organized in a graphics program, is the way the color graphic is displayed. It’s a little hard to tell perhaps, but my Firefox related toolbars are stacked horizontally at the top, with the bookmarks bar below, then followed by my Google Toolbar and StumbleUpon toolbar’s stacked horizontally at the bottom. Three lines of toolbars instead of the previous five lines of toolbars.

From what I can tell, in Firefox, toolbars are locked and cannot be stacked horizontally to save space. Am I missing something that will allow me to do that?

Post from: EveryJoe

How Do I Customize Mozilla Firefox Toolbars to My Desires

The four extensions that were dead with the upgrade were the following:

• coComment
• Google Gears
• Google Notebook
• New Tab to Window

The tab function was okay to lose as moving tabs around was a specific feature added in the new version of Firefox 3.5. coComment I enjoyed using, but figured I could do without it if necessary. I’m kind of surprised that Google Gears wasn’t prepped for the upgrade and I no longer use Google Notebook, having ditched it for Evernote instead.

Post from: EveryJoe

Four Add-ons DOA After Firefox 3.5 Upgrade

Combine the lack of Google Toolbar support, along with missing a number of my Firefox extensions I’ve become dependent on and I just couldn’t make the full switch.

My friend said he felt the same way, but forced himself to use it for awhile and see if he could be productive without the extensions. He decided the speed increases in the browser were worth the lack of extensions. He still has Firefox installed on his machine, but it’s not his default browser. He uses Firefox when he needs to use one of his extensions.

I’m not sure I notice a huge speed increase on most sites, but as to be expected, Google sites do load significantly faster in my opinion. What I started to become more curious about was which browser had less of a processor footprint on the machine while running.

I decided to open the same page in each browser and then take a look at the memory and CPU usage for each in Windows Task Manager. Here are the results:

• Firefox 3.0: 04 CPU / 181,020 K Memory
• Internet Explorer 8: 00 CPU / 85,080 K Memory
• Google Chrome: 00 CPU / 27,300 K Memory

The results weren’t really shocking. I expected Firefox to be heavy because of all the extensions I’m using. Chrome would be light because there’s nothing running but the browser itself. IE8 sits in the middle.

I’ll keep playing with Chrome, but I still don’t see it replacing Firefox for me anytime soon.

Post from: EveryJoe

IE8, Firefox 3 and Chrome Processor Overhead

I have a collection of web pages that open in tabs automatically when I start my browser each session. This gives me a variety of launch tasks to take advantage of as I start my work day and other periods after coming back to the computer.

• Gmail – gives me the opportunity to check my "business" email account for items of interest
• Yahoo! Mail – is the email account I use for mainly email from friends and family
• BrightKite – give me the opportunity to "check-in" wherever I’m working that day
• Startlike Outdoors – serves as a launch and portal page with a great picture of nature to start my day

Maybe you want to open your banking page, or your company’s intranet site, or your email, or anything else you can think of to open. Whatever you want to see first to get your day started.

You can do this with your own browser and select your own start pages in Mozilla Firefox. In Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet Options and the "General" tab. You just place each page you want to startup on a separate line.

Let your computer be your new morning paper. Nothing will replace that first cup of coffee though right?

Image: Composite of browser tabs and opened tabs shown together

Post from: EveryJoe

A Welcome to Your Browsing Day – Firefox

I’ve had to use the compatibility feature on a couple of sites, ones that I’ve developed for clients, so there’s so more work for me to take care of and make sure those are up to par.

I’m still using Firefox as my browser of choice. I still say that the main reason I stay with Firefox is because of all of the plugins and extensions that are available on this platform. Hopefully IE8 will get more activity from developers and Microsoft will keep improving this browser. Competition is good for everyone. Let’s hope both of these browsers keep pushing each other.

Post from: EveryJoe

Now Running Internet Explorer 8

Turns out, you are better off logging out all accounts even at home.

I recently read somewhere that the Internet Explorer 8 is getting ready to protect users from clickjacking attacks. A little digging, and I found a lot of literature on this subtle attack called CSRF that is being dubbed “the sleeping giant” of web vulnerabilities.

Cross-site Request Forgery
Suppose Alice closed her bank page without logging out and that the session is still alive. Now she opens an apparently harmless webpage but with a tiny obscure image referring to a “post” page of bank. That is, the page that is executed after the confirmation, the page where the actual transaction takes place.

While Alice is going through that apparently harmless webpage, a transaction is being executed on her behalf.

This kind of attack where a part of one site cross-refers a different site is cross-site request forgery.

Now, the above explanation is a very simplified version. In reality, bank sessions are more secure, but the CSRF done is equivalently more subtle and cunning. It is a good thing that most banks expire sessions automatically after a few minutes of idleness.

Clickjacking
ClickJacking is a term which encompasses multiple techniques that can be used to trick the user into unwittingly clicking an obscured or hidden web element, usually resulting in an unwanted transaction.

Read more about Clickjacking, about what IE8 is doing to defend users against Clickjacking, and about the CSRF.

One way to be on guard is to use different browsers or browser profiles for normal browsing activity and activity where logins are necessary.

Post from: EveryJoe

Why Log Off Your Accounts?

Milo discovered a product especially useful for enterprises of all sizes called Nightwatchman, a good news that Microsoft didn’t lay off anybody in the Vista team. I knew that they didn’t touch the Silverlight team, but frankly I’m surprised about this because Vista hasn’t been very profitable to Microsoft. Or has it? One bad news is the Windows 7 minimum requirements. It may not be a good experience to try it on my netbook which just meets the minimum requirements and my laptop which is old enough to even miss the minimum. But if anyone is interested, you can get the Windows 7 look into Windows XP. He also found a couple of amusing videos, one called “how to say i love you.” and another a confirmation of love, a marriage at Taco Bell. Recession, aye?

Jason found a few websites that can assist you in unique ways: one for helping educate your kids, one a calendar to help others, and another to scan your computer online. He covered a lot of Windows Powertoys, a mobile media browser and found another reason to continue loving Zune. He also has a couple of how-tos for selecting non-linear text in a word document and sharing Outlook calendar availability. One bad news, I mean another one, is that Microsoft is shutting down MSN Groups.

Claire thought out loud about the gap between Linux and mainstream users, learnt something new about less (which all you Cygwin users may find useful), discovered a wonderful browser called Kidzui which attempts to make the Internet a more kid-friendly place.

Juan wonders whether the Mac is not invincible anymore and whether Apple really needs to make a netbook. He is glad to find a symbol cheat widget and an app that can save his day with a bunch of drawings. The latter isn’t my cup of tea. He along with Jayvee found out about Apple’s stand on piracy.

Post from: EveryJoe

A Massive Tech Channel Roundup

On Windows XP, the installation needs two reboots – one after uninstalling IE8 Beta 2 and another after installing IE8 RC1. On Windows Vista, a single reboot after the installation will suffice. On Windows 7, this is not expected to work at all. (Windows 7 already comes preinstalled with an IE8 beta version.) Read the complete installation instructions here.

I installed the software on both my desktop and laptop, both currently running on Windows XP, and my biggest complaint is that after the first reboot (uninstalling IE8 Beta 2), when the installation of IE8 RC1 step ends, the second reboot takes place without a prompt. It is bad that a reboot is required in the first place. Any other work you may be doing in the meantime (because installation takes a few minutes) could be lost. Keep that in mind if you are trying to install it.

Another age-old issue is that IE automatically sets itself as the default browser though it is not much of a problem. That said, I welcome Microsoft’s new generosity to allow custom non-Microsoft search engines and accelerators to be set in the user preferences.

IE8 RC1 appears to be running faster than IE8 Beta 2, which itself has considerably improved over IE7. The software has been made more secure and Microsoft seems to be taking pains to be more compliant to the global web standards. The latest version is definitely a big step in the right direction for the future of the Internet Explorer.

Image Source: Internet Explorer.

Post from: EveryJoe

Internet Explorer 8 Release Candidate 1

Meanwhile, Michael Howard, a principal security program manager at Microsoft, made a clean post about what they have learnt from the latest bug and why they couldn’t detect it in the first place. It is a very interesting read, especially if you can put aside your demands for infallibility of security engineers and appreciate the honesty.

Whenever a security threat becomes known, Microsoft gets a lot of attention that it would prefer not to. This is leading to the exodus of the Internet Explorer users to other browser options. Gregg Keizer of ComputerWorld covers a story that says that IE’s European share fell under 60% for the first time. A more interesting part of the story is that Firefox’s user share has stalled too, after the release of Google Chrome.

Brad Linder on Download Squad discovered a tool to backup the Internet Explorer Settings. Also in the post are links to tools that can backup Firefox profiles and Opera data.

After finding Symantec Ghost distasteful in imaging Windows Vista, Brian of Reich Consulting finally tried the Windows Deployment Service and wrote about his first impressions on it.

Image Source: Internet Explorer Logo from the Microsoft Website.

Post from: EveryJoe

Internet Roundup About the Internet Explorer