HitChrome

You’d think with the outbreak of the latest Internet browser war, companies like Microsoft and Mozilla would be doing everything possible to make their products competitive.

Microsoft announced that a flaw in Internet Explorer (IE) allowed hackers to redirected users to websites that would download malicious software designed to steal personal information such as user names and passwords onto users’ home computers.

Not surprisingly, the error was listed as critical, which resulted in some security companies calling for a boycott of IE until Microsoft released a patch to fix the flaw. I’ve never been a big fan of IE. In fact, I’ll only use it when I’m forced to, so I smugly sat there and gloated, confident that as a Firefox user I didn’t have to put up with the spreading panic.

Then karma turned around and bit me in the rear. Turns out earlier in the week Mozilla, the company that makes Firefox, issued a patch that fixed six critical flaws. Then Bit9, a US-based company that monitors security flaws, released a report of what it considers the top ten most vulnerable programmes.

Sitting at the top of the list was Firefox. IE didn’t even appear on the list. I was initially sceptical about Bit9’s results, but they make a good point. They based their report on a number of factors, including the number of critical bugs in the software, its overall popularity, and - here are the kickers - how easily updatable and supported the software was. Bottom line, IE is supported and patched by Micro-soft. Read the rest of this entry »

A representative from Sohu.com (SOHU) has confirmed that the Chinese Internet company plans to launch its own Internet browser product, but the detailed schedule for making it available to users has not been released.

According to news posted on Sina.com that quoted the unnamed representative from Sohu.com, Wang Xiaochuan, senior vice president of Sohu.com, revealed during his recent lecture in Tsinghua University that Sohu.com plans to launch a browser software to compete with Opera, Google’s Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Maxthon. The most distinctive feature of this browser is that users on education networks will be able to visit international networks directly via this browser, which means the browser will have an embedded proxy function.

At present, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer dominates the browser market with other browser products, including Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome, dividing the minor part of the market. Having launched many software products like Sogou’s Pinyin input method, Web applications and desktop applications, Sohu.com’s browser product is expected to further integrate its product line.

Earlier in 2008, Mozilla announced plans to cooperate with Sohu.com to launch a new Olympics-related special version of the Firefox browser. This was the second time for Firefox to launch a customized product in China. Its first special version was NKU Firefox 1.0, which was developed by the Firefox user group at Nankai University.

Battling hard for market share with Google’s Chrome, Opera Software is promising users a faster surfing experience, an improved email client, and better browser-synchronisation capabilities, with the latest version of its browser which they launched.

The Opera developer says that Opera 9.6 contains an expanded Link. This means that users can more easily use their personal browsing identities on any computer. Essentially, it synchronizes a user’s browser history, bookmarks and personal bar.

In addition Opera has also tweaked its built-in email client, Opera Mail, with a feature designed for users stuck with a slow broadband connection. The email client’s “low-bandwidth mode” allows users to retrieve mails faster when bandwidth is limited. Another feature is that Opera mail that will help users swamped with email overload, as the email client now has two new ways to prioritize emails, so that users can easily (with a single click apparently), track important threads, and ignore less important ones.

Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, said in a statement “Our improved email client is now the ideal communication tool, Opera Link gives you more flexibility to take your personal browsing identity with you to any computer.”

Opera is also claiming increased speed for the new browser, with “improved responsiveness and page loading” compared to Opera 9.5. Read the rest of this entry »