Tag: Internet Explorer

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Reviews

Check if you can trust a website before you click on its link with WOT

As a blogger who writes about Tech, I end up visiting a lot of websites which might or might not be safe. How do I come across these website? Usually I come across them by doing some research, thanks to Google our friendly search engine.

To make sure I do not click on a link to a site which is not trustworthy I use Web Of Trusts (WOT) addon or extensions depending on the browser you use.

About Web of Trust

  • Web of Trust actually has scanned millions of websites and allows us simple warning about the sites trustworthiness thanks to an add-on of extension.
  • It shows the green Web of Trust symbol as show in the above image whenever Google lists out search results.
  • Individual sites also can be scanned as and when you visit them. The best way to really check out how WOT rates them before visiting the website is to search for that URL through Google. 😉
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Web of Trust is supported across Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome and works on Mac, Windows and Linux. For someone like me who is online and browsing literally many hours everyday Web of Trust along with Privacy Choice which is an Firefox Add-on to keep a tab on which websites track my usage statistics is a big boon.

Do look it up and let me know if you find it useful.

Install Web of Trust: Internet Explorer | Firefox | Chrome Browser

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Reviews

Free PDF Converter: Convert your Word and Excel files to PDF

Working with files is always tedious and it is a little disconcerting to not be able to convert your Word Documents or Excel sheets into PDF format. Obviously most people love PDF documents when it comes to reading data rather than handling it.

Free PDF convert is one such service which allows your to convert different types of files into PDF format.

About Free PDF Converter

  • This website is quite handy as it support many file types. I can convert PPT, JPEG, Excel sheets, Lotus Sheets and Word Documents into PDF files. It supports 68 files formats to date.
  • It also has a reverse file converter where you can convert PDF file into an Excel file. 🙂
  • While looking up services online I always feel happy about websites where I do not have to register or sign-up and this web service needs no sign-up either.
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I like this site for its versatility regarding the types of File Formats it can handle. If you liked this serivice you might like to read up on how to convert PDF files to Word Doc, HTML and Txt format. Also there is a similar service from Comet Docs for converting Excel and Word files to PDF.

Do let me know your view by dropping in your comments. 🙂

Note: Thanks to John71 for the tip.

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Analysis

Microsoft finally takes browsers seriously with Internet Explorer 9

Last year Microsoft launched its browser Internet Explorer 8; it received more brickbats than flowers. Let us face it, it did not consolidate Internet Explorer’s browser market share and not did perform better than the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome.

Now Internet Explorer 9 is out and will have some interesting innovations and I thought I should try it out and see how good it really is.

About Internet Explorer 9

  • There are many changes expected with IE 9, and one of them is to make it safer and more compliant to the dominating web technologies in present day. For this reason IE 9 will not work on Windows XP. This will have a double fall out as many customers with XP will one more reason to upgrade to Windows 7.
  • I took a peek at it’s testing environment for IE 9 and found it much faster than IE8. Internet Explorer seemed to be no where in the league as far as speed was concerned but with IE9 they seem to want to deliver that.
  • IE 9 will be highly compliant to HTML 5 technology and that is apparent considering it is aimed at scoring high on tests carried on browser with respect to HTML 5 technology. One of the main criteria it will face will be the Acid3 test which Chrome. It did not do as well as Chrome is doing now but remember IE9 is still in early development mode.
  • In doing a bit of exploring it seems to have some novel graphics features which will allow easy text zooming and image exploring. On early usage of Image exploring it looked like a similar version of CoolIris add-on with Chrome.

I will be writing a detailed post on Internet Explorer 9 version’s platform preview soon which allows you a peek at IE9 and some of it’s feature.

In the mean time you can visit their test drive page for IE9 and drop in your comments here with what you think IE 9 needs to address if it has to compete against browsers like Firefox and Chorme when it comes to performance.

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News

Microsoft goes anti trust friendly

Microsoft has had to pay heavy fines for anti trust practices in Europe. This was mainly not against its operating system Windows by for having Internet Explorer as the default browser and hence ending up killing other browsers. The main complaint was a browser was very different from a OS and the two shouldn’t be bundled into each other. This did hurt Netscape quite a bit and made Internet Explorer the dominant browser the world over.

Mircrosoft has lost a anti-trust case in Europe and has paid a fine along with informing customers of other products. Here is a screenshot of what XP, Vista and Windows7 users will see if their OS has been purchased in Europe.

About Microsoft’s anti-trust issues

  • I touched on Microsoft’s anti-trust issues briefly in my post about if Google is turning evil. But the main issue here is that Microsoft used its dominance of Operating system markets to indirectly force people to use Internet Explorer.
  • This is true but does it not open a can of worms. I mean can Twitter and Facebook claim anti-trust movement against Google for introducing Buzz through Gmail in which they are dominant. That will not happen probably as supposedly Gmail has to own about 80 percent of the market which it does not.
  • So now Microsoft has to come up with this option for it’s windows users and inform them of other browsers. I personally feel that is wrong. Rules should be equal to all. No one requires Apple to put up such a message on its Mac OS. In the case of Google Chromium they claim their browser is the OS or rather the other way around.
  • These anti-trust motions do have uses but still feel intent of dominating a market should not be illegal rather practices should be. Google has not been unscathed from the anti-trust motion as when it tried to buy Yahoo Search, it was not allowed by US courts claiming they already are dominating the search domain and cannot buy out competitors.

What do you think about anti-trust? It might have breathed a new life into open-source technologies being more available and that is a good fallout but does it actually go against the notion of doing business in a organized way. Should actions be made illegal or intent be made illegal. Do let me know your thoughts on this through your comments.

Link: Gizmodo

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News

Google Dropping Support for Internet Explorer 6.0

Before going into some of the pros and cons of if Internet Explorer 6 is a defunct browser here are some statistics regarding its market share. 20.99% of internet users use IE6 while IE8 the latest version is used by 20.86% of internet users. This basically means out of every 5 internet users 1 of them is on Internet Explorer 6. I took these statistics from Marketshare.histlink website.

This reveal that when it comes to Internet Explorer people prefer using an older version than the newer one. What has compounded the problem is that Microsoft as yet has not forced its users to upgrade.

google_dumps_IE

Google has recently announced that it will not support Internet Explorer 6 as a browser version if you are using Google Docs or Sites. I think considering certain reports that the latest Chinese hacking into Google incident took place by taking advantage of a security flaw within Internet Explorer 6; Google might even stop supporting Gmail for IE 6.0 very soon.

So if you are using Google Docs and using Internet Eplorer 6 you will get a message to upgrade as certain new features will not be abvailable with IE6 at all.

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This is a bold move by Google considering they are now essentially telling 1/5th of the internet users to either upgrade their browser or not be able to use their services fully. I think Google probably has with this statement passed a silent message that people should now start using Chrome. 😉

Problems for Internet Explorer 6

  • Windows XP was well received and subsequently it’s default browser IE6 was also well received.
  • Windows Vista was not as well received and that led it’s default browser IE7 being not so well received. What probably should concern Internet Explorer developers is that many who did not opt for Vista also did not opt for IE7.
  • Now that Windows 7 has been well received you can expect the numbers for Internet Explorer 8 to pick up.
  • In the mean time more and more people are prefering to use Firefox and Chrome. Chrome is still an infant but it’s growth is quite phenomenal.
  • IE6 will see a rapid downward spiral considering many companies and security experts lampooning it for security flaws. Recently German government recommended people not to use it at all.

What do you think? Is it about time Internet Explorer 6 is given a retirement? Let me know your opinions through your comments.

Image Source: Spigot Design

Link: Google Docs

Categories
Tips

Bring IE into your Chrome browser

A couple of months ago you might have read about how Google decided to make Internet Explorer better by injecting Chrome into it.  All you had to do was install Chrome frame and Internet Explorer would be faster especially while viewing HTML5.

Now here is a new twist to it.Google through an extension allows us to inject a little bit of Internet Explorer into Chrome. 😉

chrome_IEtab_extension

IE Tab

  • Add the IE Tab extension on your Chrome browser and start using Internet Explorer within Chrome.
  • Once installed you can click on the small IE symbol next to end of the address bar. (see image)
  • I liked using IE Tab within Chrome as I could bookmark my favorite sites in Chrome but they were added to Internet Explorer’s favorite list.
  • Also the right click menu within Chrome changes to IE’s menu withing the tab.
  • I could also access Internet Options from the tab which can be accessed usually only through the IE browser or the Control Panel.

I do not think that this one will be as controversial as Chrome Frame. But for people using Chrome and Internet Explorer this one should be quite handy. What do you think?

Download: IE Tab Extension

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Reviews

Repair Internet Explorer with IE Utility

A couple of days ago I came across a great software to fix the Internet Explorer browser. I did not have the opportunity to test it until yesterday when a friend had his IE browser crashing. It is called IE Utility which fixes the Internet Explorer browser by re-registering 89 .dll and .ocx files.

IE_utility01

IE Utility

  • All I needed to do was download the .zip file. Extract its contents and run IE Utility.
  • It registered the .dll and .ocx files and fixed the IE browser which was crashing.
  • This is a great utility for systems which have suffered malware attacks and have their IE browser acting up.
  • Usual method of restoring the browser is to re-install it. This is not easy especially with Vista. Also re-registering .dll files by using .bat files can be quite tedious and confusing.
  • IE Utility does this all by itself after you run the software. It works with IE7 and IE8 on Vista and Windows7.

IE Utility can be download from The Windows Club a website owned by Anand Khanse and IE Utility is developed by Raghu Boddu.

Links: The Windows Club

Categories
Analysis

Is Internet Explorer’s fate tied to Windows7?

Over the past few months if you are following news about how Internet Explorer’s market share has been falling consistently to such an extent that some experts believe that the market share which is almost two-thirds will fall below half in the next 2 years. I want to share some trends and why I think Internet Explorer’s fate seems to be tied to Windows 7.

Image and stats taken from marketshare.hitslink.com

Browser_mktshare_oct

Market Share in October 2009

  • Internet Explorer has a market share of 64.64% which is still massive, but it has been falling over a percent every month for almost two years.
  • The market share loss is massive considering the the fact that almost two years ago IE had a market share over 78%.
  • This loss of market share is almost exclusively picked up by Firefox and more recently even Chrome has picked up the numbers.
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Why Internet Explorer is losing the plot?

  • Looking at browser version’s market share, IE 6 is 23.30 % which is now smaller than Firefox’s 24.07%.
  • This is a ominous sign and shows how popularity of Internet Explorer is tied up with the Windows OS. IE 6 was a default browser with Windows XP. Windows Vista which did not go down well with consumers saw its pre-installed IE 7 version still having a share much less than IE 6.
  • If IE6 is more popular than the IE7 and IE8 at the moment, it looks like that people after using IE6 end up migrating to Firefox or Chrome. Obviously if a older version is more popular than the new one, we can safely say that Internet Explorer has got its newer versions completely wrong.

Why is Windows 7 sole hope for Internet Explorer?

  • One thing that holds out hope for Internet Explorer browser is how well received IE8 has been. Internet Explorer 8 when released back in April 09, has managed to catch up and consolidate. It seems to have done so at the expense of of IE7 but that still means people like using IE8.
  • Microsoft’s Windows 7 comes pre-installed with IE8 as its browser. If you notice the lackluster performance of Vista has hurt IE7, that means IE8’s numbers will be hugely reliant on how well received Windows 7 will be.
  • Windows 7 has had pretty good reviews and it might save Internet Explorer for the moment. But the heady days of having 80% of the market share with their browsers are probably a thing of the past for Internet Explorer.
  • When Google releases it thread-bare Chrome OS, it might push up the numbers for Chrome Browser. Because of the reliance of IE on Windows, Chrome OS will probably hurt Internet Explorer much more than Firefox.

Links: Browser Market Share | Browser Version Market Share

Categories
News

Browser Wars: Internet Explorer’s pie shrinks.

With the release of Chrome 3.0 and the  Chrome Frame controversy I was waiting quite eagerly to see its impact on the browser market share of Chrome and Internet Explorer in September.

  • Internet Explorer has a market share of 65.71% but it had 66.97% share when the month began. That means Internet Explorer has lost 1.26% in just one month.
  • For the August survey what Internet Explorer lost was almost entirely gained by Firefox and Chrome. This month is not different. Firefox  has gained 0.77% and Chrome has gained 0.33%.
  • Chrome has now broken the 3% barrier by cornering 3.17% of the pie.
  • One worrying factor for Internet Explorer is that over the last 3 months they have lost 3% of its share which means that it if continues its downward slide it will end up being below 50.0% in the next 15 months.

browser_wars

Credits: Marketshare Hitslink

  • Safari has stayed on at 4.24% for over 2 months and Opera has shown marginal growth with 2.19% by probably taking away numbers from Internet Explorer.

One major factor that has gone against Internet Explorer is that IE8 has not really gone down as well as expected. I find IE 8 a much better browser than IE7 but it does seem to be have problems crashing on older machines running Windows XP.

Categories
Tips

How To Set Yahoo Mail/Gmail As Default Email Client In Internet Explorer

In my last post I told you about how to set default email client in Firefox. But if you are using Internet Explorer here is a step by step tutorial to change the default email client.

  1. First open Internet Explorer

  2. At the top, click on Tools >> Internet Options.

  3. Select the Programs tab.

  4. Under E-mail box and Newsgroups drop down box, select your desired program.
    ie

  5. Click OK