Internet Explorer 9 – The best IE ever?

Internet Explorer 9 – The best IE ever?

The popular dictum that necessity is the mother of invention is very much in evidence when you view the current browser marketplace with that dictum in mind. Microsoft recently gave a preview of the latest version of their browser Internet Explorer and one of the most vocal critics of Internet Explorer Google is now praising the innovation and technical excellence Microsoft Internet Explorer team put into Internet Explorer 9 to make it a fantastic browser.

The fast that Microsoft has been losing market share in the browser war may not be unconnected with the new technically superior IE9, at the moment, market share of various browser vendor world wide look like this:

Microsoft Internet Explorer 60.4 %
Mozilla Firefox 22.93 %
Google Crome 7.52 %
Apple Safari 5.15%
Opera 2.37 %
Others 1.62%

Microsoft won the browser wars against Netscape about a decade ago, Netscape basically disappeared leaving Microsoft Internet Explorer with over 90% of the market share but as the tale above indicated, the browser wars is back with Microsoft losing grounds steadily to competition, with Google crome the fastest rising of the competitions.

One of the most significant technology in IE9 is the way web pages are rendered, it is treated more like and application which Microsoft ways enable web pages to be displayed better and faster. Another new technology which is said to make IE9 a better performing browser is the fact that it blurred the distinction between a web pages and apps. IE9 renders graphics much better because it uses the graphic of the device using it to render graphics.

Microsoft Internet Explorer will be release for download from today Wednesday 15th of September. It is expected to be rolled out as upgrades in some Microsoft platforms, you can also download and install it as a stand alone application on your PC.

You can discuss IE9 and other internet related issues at UK webmaster forum.

Microsoft to offer its millions of users a 12 browsers alternative

Due to a deal with the European Commission, Microsoft is in position to ask its users if they wish to use a different browser, other than Internet Explorer.

Following a trial in which Microsoft was blamed for taking advantage of its market position not giving Windows’ users the option to choose a browser on their will, this agreement is set to solve those issues once and forever.

People using Internet Explorer must expect a pop-un window that prompts them whether they will choose from a 12 browsers’ list or they will stick with using Microsoft’s browser. This browser choice will be delivered as a component of the Windows Update system only to IE users, while people using Firefox, Chrome or Safari will not be asked to make this choice. However, if Automatic Updates are turned off this service will be available only if requested by users through Windows Update website’s “Check For Updates” service.

Once downloaded, this software announces users to ensure they are connected to the Internet and they will have to take a decision – “An important choice to make: your browser”. A 12 browsers list will be available for download: Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer and other seven less known in browsers’ market: Sleipnir, Green Browser, Maxthon, Avant, Flock, K-meleon and Slim. Each browser will be accompanied with an information button and an install one. On the other hand, a user may ignore the prompted window and decide on for choosing another browser later, but the screen for selecting their future browser will keep pop-up until the user makes a choice.

Approximate figures say that Internet Explorer is used by half of the Internet users, more exactly IE holds a 62% market share, followed by its rival Firefox with 24%.(source: Net Applications ), therefore some effects are to be expected in the next weeks, whether people will switch in massive numbers to other browsers or they will stick to using Internet Explorer as they used to.

Bing.com went offline for 30 minutes

Microsoft’s Bing search engine went offline due to update error

Things are getting very exciting at Bing, the Microsoft search site which aims to be number 2 in the search engine market within the next few years has been experiencing many new tweaks and updates recently, one such update went wrong on December the 3rd when when Bing disappeared from the web completely, visitors to Bing.com got an error message or are not able to find Bing.com at all.

Microsoft apologised to Bing users through a statement that blames the outage was caused by configuration changes made to Bing during testing. The outage and measures taking to address it was clarified better on Bing blog where Microsoft spokes person said “as soon as the issue was detected, changes that led to it was rolled back, which caused Bing to work normally again. This took about 30 minutes to fix from when the error was detected. Bing are looking into how the outage happened and what to do to prevent it happening again.

While Bing was offline, the engineers working on it used Twitter to update users following Bing on twitter. Though the search function of Bing was completely unavailable, the map section of the soon to be number 2 search engine was working fine.

Bing Sitelinks – edging closer to Google in more ways than one

When setting out plans to become the second search engine on the net within a few year in 2008, Steve Balmer Microsoft chief executive said Microsoft has been know for entering a market late and becoming a marketing leader in that field within a short time. This is true of when Microsoft entered the networking Server market which was then dominated Novell, within a few short year, Microsoft over take Novell server. In the console market, XBox is a relatively new entrant to the market when compared with Sony Playstation, it is now a very well established console.

Bing, Microsoft new search engine is slowly but steadily making progress. Most observers argued that the initial blip Bing made on the share of the search engine market was because of the huge publicity that surrounded its launch, that was true, it is also true that Bing is a much better search engine than all the previous search engines Microsoft created and the fact is that people are actually beginning to like Bing and using it instead of Google.

Some of the things that is contributing to the popularity of Bing includes the fact that its SERP is almost identical to Google’s SERPS for some searches, this blurred the lines between Bing and Google. Bing is also introducing new technology like the visual search recently announced and Bing is adopting features associated with Google such as Sitelinks. A quick search for adult dating site Very Naughty show a comprehensive sitelink listing sub pages of the site.

If Bing continues to innovate at the current rate, in no time it will make significant inroad into Googles huge lead in the search engine market.

Microsoft closing in on Yahoo search business

Microsoft is said to be close to completing the purchase the search engine section of its rival in online search Yahoo. Just over a year ago, Microsoft launched a $45 billion bid for Yahoo in its entirety, the then CEO, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang rejected the bid saying it undervalues Yahoo.
Yahoo later invited Microsoft to make and improved bid which Microsoft refused to do saying its not interested any more however it is still interested in acquiring Yahoo’s search business. Rejection of Microsoft original offer contributed to the replacement of Jerry Yang with Carol Bartz as Yahoo CEO.

The new offer Microsoft and Yahoo are close to completing is said to be about $3 billion, but in addition to the cash Microsoft will be paying for Yahoo search business, it will also share revenues from the company for many years to come. If the deal is complete as expected, this will take Microsoft’s share of online advertising in US close to 30% which is the combination of Microsoft’s current 8% and Yahoo’s 20%, this still put Microsoft share of the online marketing at less than twice the market share of Google who controls 65% of the market share in US.

You can discuss issues to do with Microsoft and Yahoo at UK Webmaster Forum, registration is free.

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