As part of its continued efforts to become a user organised news portal Netscape has rolled out a personalised start page at My.Netscape.
The new site hosts over 100 modules allowing users to easily add weather reports, news, horoscopes and more which users can use to create custom RSS feeds, as well as giving users the chance to customise the look and feel of their chosen modules.
At GoogleSystem they have noticed a Google homepage ad for the Firefox browser, and have a great screenshot of it. It seems that Google are maybe trying to resist the uptake of Internet Explorer when Microsoft’s Vista operating system has its public launch at the start of 2007.
Yahoo! heavily promotes Internet Explorer, so it’d good to see Firefox getting some backing, and always interesting to see Microsoft and Google go head to head.
It seems that the uptake of Firefox just keeps on growing, and Matt Cutts has reported on figures showing that use of the open source browser continues to grow in Europe, gaining an extra 4% of the market. The UK has one of the lowest levels of uptake at only 15.8% as opposed to the 40% usage in Finland and Slovenia of all places. Very odd.
Internetnews.com has highlighted concerns that using Firefox 2.0s Password Manager function may not be as safe as you would hope. According to the site the offending bug has been known for nearly a fortnight but remains unpatched, leading to fears that in allowing a malicious page to auto-fill a form, sensitive information could be extracted from the browser.
Security researcher Robert Chapin uncovered the bug on November 12th, so it looks like Firefox will have to get their skates on to fix this problem before any users are hit hard.
As Firefox 2.0 is launched, Mozilla has relaunched its add-ons page to help users make the most of the browser. With over one thousand add-ons available, there are plenty of useful tools which can help make your job a little bit easier, as well as some plain old fun stuff.
Add-ons include FireBug, which lets you explore the inner workings of web pages, Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer and FoxyTunes which places remote controls for your media player within Firefox so you can control your music without leaving the browser.
Following the launch of Firefox 2.0 yesterday Richard MacManus, an independent web analyst and consultant, and writer for ZDnet, published an interview with Chris Beard, Mozilla’s Vice President of Products.
Discussing the growing threat that Firefox poses to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, the importance of security, web feeds and why they haven’t included an integrated RSS Reader and much more, this is a great chance to hear about the future of Firefox from the horse’s mouth.
With the Firefox upgrade focused on tuning user experience, improving efficiency, customisation and security, the upgrade looks set to help gain the open source browser even greater market share. The 2005 release of Firefox 1.5 saw around 200,000 people per day downloading it, but today that number has grown to 350,000 and seems set to cause Microsoft a headache for some time to come.
The increasingly popular open source browser Firefox is set to launch version 2.0 today, featuring a range of updates including anti-phishing support and enhanced tab bed browsing.
The first version of the browser was released in 2004 and there have been few updates made to it since. Version 2.0 changes all that and according to Mike Schroepfer, vice president of engineering at Mozilla, there are twelve large scale changes as well as a host of minor fixes.
One of the biggest changes in this version and one which has developed as a counter to modern online fraud methods, is the anti-phishing support. This service alerts users when they hit a site known for tricking visitors into handing over valuable personal details.
Spell check is another useful addition to the browser, along with improved tab overflow and improved stability.
Fresh from his little catastrophe with Internet Explorer 7 Danny Sullivan has produced a great article on how the IE7 search box works, how you can change it and how both Google and Yahoo’s toolbars operate within it.
As you probably know IE7 has an integrated search box powered by MSN Search which Google obviously isn’t happy about, particularly given that Microsoft is attempting to sneak upgrades through to users who have automatic updates installed, as discussed in the Browser Wars: Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox Updates See The Light yesterday.
It is possible to choose an alternative search engine to MSN, and Danny takes this opportunity to talk through this process. While competitors are nervous, it is entirely possible that people will do what people often do, taking the easy and comfortable option, open the browser and go straight to their usual search provider. Time will tell.
Internet Explorer 7 is being rolled out in updates to from November 1st through the Windows update system, and worrying a securioty flaw has bene found already. Well that didnt take long did it? Security site Secunia has noted a issue with the redirection of URLs with the “mhtml:” handler and could be used to gain access to documents served from another site.
Just as Firefox is poised to launch the latest version of its open source browser, version 2.0, Microsoft has jumped in there and released IE 7, the first update to its browser in five years. strange to think that it has taken this long for a major update to take place given the pace that developments occur online these days, but the question is has it been worth the wait?
Well, not is Danny Sullivan’s recent experience is anything to go by; he spent hours trying to get his computer back to normal after either IE7 or its system updates killed his entire system. Not exactly a good first impression.
The new version of the Microsoft browser has seen the interface streamlined, anti-phising defences added, and a range of new tabs designed to compete with the growing popularity of the thorn in its side, the increasingly popular Firefox. Take a tour of the new system here.
One of the new features is an automatic RSS reader which sits on the toolbar. This could have important implications for clients still trailing their feet when it comes to pushing news out to customers, especially when you consider that Microsoft has taken the decision to push the update out to all users who have automatic updates enabled. Although they can reject the update and carry on using their current version, how many non-savvy users will?
In his blog Matt Cutts reviewed the new Firefox update, but was too scared to try out IE7 in light of Danny’s experience. By all accounts he was pretty pleased with the new version, and Robert Scoble has noticed that some sites seem to run a little slower on IE7, with Firefox being muchg faster than the Microosft browser. Only time and in house testing will tell.
We all know that Firefox is the in house browser of choice these days but Pandia has recently compiled a list of the top five extensions which will change the way you search the web.
11% of the UK now use Firefox as their main browser, with IE retaining 85.5% of users. UK usage is low compared to the rest of Europe where take up is higher, especially in Germany where 26.8% of web requests use the browser. The popularity of the open source browser varies worldwide, but increases in European usage have been steady in the past few years.
The extensions hailed by Pandia include HyperWords, a funky little tool that allows you to highlight text in your browser, click enter and see a list of web search location options for the highlighted text. Googlepedia offers the appropraiet Wikipedia article alongside your Google results every time you search, while Stumbleupon allows you to browse, review and share websites with friends.
Take a look at the Pandia article for more information and extensions.
