Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer was found to have a flaw that allows hackers to steal cookies to access their accounts on some websites. The bug was found by a security researcher Rosario Valotta who said it could let hackers steal credentials to access FaceBook, Twitter and other websites.

"Any website. Any cookie. Limit is just your imagination," said Valotta, an independent Internet security researcher based in Italy.

Features of new Windows App Store leaked with screenshots posted by a Chinese website CNBeta.com. The Redmond’s version of an application store will be integrated into the upcoming operating system Windows 8.

The screenshots look much like an Internet Explorer window, with a Top Seller list that includes IE, Office, Freecell and Angry Birds.

According to the stats by a Mozilla site that tracks Firefox 4 downloads, in 24 hours after the new browser official launch Firefox 4 was downloaded for about 6 million times.

In comparison, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 2.35 million downloads within its first day of availability.

According to the data from the Net Applications regarding to browser market share in August, Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 holds its leadership, advancing all its rivals in growth. 

However, elder Internet Explorer 6, an outdated and insecure browser, refuses to die down, though it’s losing ground violently.

As Microsoft released its new Hotmail service last week a great number of complaints have been posted on the forums since then. Users express their utmost dissatisfaction with the new interface. In light of these events the Redmond company advised its consumers to access email accounts via Google Chrome browser in order to successfully connect to the upgraded service.

According to a new research four major browsers fail to remove users’ personal information even when they browse in a private mode. While privacy settings provided by the browsers should supposedly allow users to visit a website without leaving any trace on their computers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari frequently leave tracks, according to the research, which is scheduled to be presented at next week's Usenix Security Symposium in Washington DC.

According to the latest data from NetMarketShare, one of the most popular browsers, Internet Explorer, extended its usage share gains by another .42% in July, gaining about 1% global share since May. 

Recent study by Net Applications that covered the Web browser market share shows that Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is increasingly gaining market share at the expense of Google’s Chrome and Mozilla Firefox.

While the figures say that Chrome gained recently a 0.32% share thus totaling its market to 7.05% Internet Explorer 8 and its upcoming successor IE9 are gaining the momentum.

Mozilla has announced the introduction of a web service that allows users of different browsers including Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, and Safari to check whether plugins for their web surfing applications are up-to-date and don’t contain bugs or vulnerabilities.

By coming to the page http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/ a user can see the report that shows the analysis of all the installed plugins. As it appears some of the plugins are still in research stage by Mozilla and there is no firm conclusion of whether they are safe or not.

Microsoft has updated its Internet Explorer 9 preview in line with its promise to introduce updates to the app every eight weeks until releases the official public beta version of the platform. But the timetable for the release has not been specified again.

"The Platform Preview continues to be the thinnest possible wrapper around the Web platform, and as such is not intended for general purpose browsing," cautioned Dean Hachamovich, the browser team's general manager, in an entry on the IE blog today.

According to the reports by Net Applications the number of users of Microsoft Internet Explorer has decreased to 59.95% in April, which is down from 60.65 per cent in March and 67.77 per cent in April 2009. It should be noted that in January 2009 Internet Explorer had a 70% market share which means over 15 months it has climbed down 10%.

On the other hand, Google Chrome continued its upward pace with a 6.73% mark recorded in April, up from 6.13% for March and 1.79% in April 2009.

Microsoft said this week that more than 2,000 popular websites still remain incompatible with its latest web browser Internet Explorer 8. Last year in January the company promised to introduce its play-nice-with-IE-8 tool to surfers, which provided a list of sites that were not compatible with the browser but that would render automatically without the need for users to manually switch between the standard-based default mode and the tongue-twisting non-standard compatible option. Still are too many problems with websites loading.

A security vulnerability in older versions of Windows operating system is being investigated by the Microsoft team according to the company’s Jerry Bryant. The flaw allows attackers to execute malicious code on end user machines.

The vulnerability under probe combines scripts based on Microsoft's Visual Basic language with Windows help files for Internet Explorer. Attacker hosting a malicious website can remotely run arbitrary code by convincing the user to press the computer's F1 key in response to a popup window.

According to the statistics provided in the research of Quantcast, which measures and profiles audiences all over the world for advertisers, Google Chrome web browser enjoys too poor popularity in North America.

The research shows that individuals who live in Mexico, the U.S., and Canada are unusually big fans of Internet Explorer.

The stats addressed usage in seven different geographic regions: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America.

Last week the searching giant Google made a strict statement announcing that the company ceases supporting Internet Explorer 6 starting March 1. According to the statement the users of IE will have to upgrade to at least version 7 if they want to use Google Docs and Google Sites services.

In its company blog Google said that as "many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers.”