Web Browser News and Reviews » Internet Explorer 8

Webware 100 (Browsing) – The Finalists

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:22:03 +0000

If you would like to support your favorite web browser by voting at cNET Webware 100, feel free to do that now.

Poll includes the following browsers: Camino, Firefox, Flock, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8, Lunascape, Maxthon, Opera, Safari, Skyfire and WebKit.

Back to Basics: IE8 Users Downgrade to IE7

Vygantas Lipskas — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 11:32:38 +0000

While Internet Explorer 8 mostly receives mixed reviews due to sites compatibility issues, InformationWeek reports that IE8 market share already slipped to 1.86% (Monday data) from 2.59% which was reported on Sunday.

Although this might sound like a bad news, there is also an upside. Because Internet Explorer 8 is not very popular yet, web developers will be able to polish and prepare their websites for IE8 without a big rush, which usually leads to various issues.

As for Internet Explorer 8 market share gain, my best guess is that it will start significantly increase only after Windows 7 release, IE8 is a default browser there.

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Internet Explorer 8 Advertisement

Vygantas Lipskas — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:04:10 +0000

“Microsoft revisits the best and worst of the web – from bleeding GIFS to pointless status updates.”

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Internet Explorer 8 Release

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:58:00 +0000

Microsoft today announced the availability of Internet Explorer 8. The following release can be downloaded in 25 languages from IE8 home page at noon today (EDT).

Latest Microsoft web browser introduces features like web slices, instant search, inprivate browsing, automatic crash recovery and more as well as improved security and performance.

Pwn2Own: Hacker Exploits IE8, Firefox, Safari

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 10:25:29 +0000

From ZDNet

“He won a cash prize and got to keep the hardware. Details of the vulnerability, which was described by contest sponsor TippingPoint ZDI as a “brilliant IE8 bug!” are being kept under wraps.

“Nils” also scored a clean hit against Apple’s Safari (he was the second hacker to exploit Safari) and, later in the afternoon, he exploited a Firefox zero-day flaw to claim the trifecta.”

In case you are interested, Mac was hacked in 10 seconds.

Nothing about Opera or Chrome yet.

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Safari 4 vs. Google Chrome vs. Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 vs. Firefox 3 vs. Opera 10 Alpha vs. Opera 9.6 vs. Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 vs. Internet Explorer 7

Vygantas Lipskas — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 12:22:08 +0000

If you are getting annoyed by old and popular SunSpider benchmark results, here is a new gem for you: PeaceKeeper – The Browser Benchmark.

The following browsers were tested:

Apple Safari 4.0 beta
Firefox 3.0.7
Firefox 3.1 beta 2
Firefox 3.1 beta 3
Google Chrome 1.0.154.48
Internet Explorer 7.0 (IE7)
Internet Explorer 8.0 beta 2 (IE8)
Opera 9.64
Opera 10.00 alpha
SeaMonkey 1.1.14
SeaMonkey 2.0 alpha 3

To create the tests Futuremark used a profiler to analyze JavaScript usage while browsing popular websites such as YouTube, Facebook, GMail and Meebo. The profiler collected data on the frequency in which different JavaScript functions were called on these sites and Futuremark used this data to create specific weighted tests for each function. The end result is a benchmark and shows ‘true’ JavaScript performance on browsers that can be run on any operating system and platform as long as it can run JavaScript.

More is better

Noticed anything new? I bet you did.

Source: LegitReviews

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Internet Explorer 8 Beats Chrome and Firefox, Claims Microsoft

Vygantas Lipskas — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 19:01:16 +0000

No, it’s not a SunSpider benchmark this time. Actually, this one is more “real word” one, which is based on top 25 internet sites load time.

Microsoft Corp. has also published a document called “Measuring Browser Performance: Understanding issues in benchmarking and performance analysis” which you can download here.

Now, let’s see results:

Picture Source: ZDNet

As you can see, Internet Explorer 8 is faster than Firefox or Chrome on 12 of them. This is actually a great example on how you can still be #1. Just find another benchmark.

IE8 isn’t so slow after all.

Internet Explorer 8 Hits RTM

Vygantas Lipskas — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:28:26 +0000

On February 21st, Microsoft has finished and compiled the RTM version of Internet Explorer 8, Build: 8.0.6001.18691

At this moment, they is preparing to distribute it via TechNet/MSDN and Connect before releasing to public.

As always, Microsoft is not releasing any Internet Explorer 8 Final schedule to public yet.

Stay tuned for more news.

Hack Web Browser, 2009

Vygantas Lipskas — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 18:53:28 +0000

A new Pwn2Own hack contest which should begin in the middle of the March 2009 is set to test Internet Explorer 8, Firefox, Safari and Opera web browsers running on Windows 7 Beta or RC.

Unlike previous year competition, where “white hackers” tried to hack computer operating systems (Mac OS was hacked first), this year it will focus on web browsers and mobile operating systems (Android, iPhone, Symbian, Windows Mobile, RIM).

More details should be announced within the upcoming weeks.

Event home page

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IE 8 Incompatibility List: 2 400 Major Sites (and Counting)

Vygantas Lipskas — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:24:54 +0000

In an effort to improve Web users’ compatibility experience, Microsoft added a new, user-selectable Compatibility List to the Release Candidate test version of IE 8 that the company released in January.

Continue reading at ZDnet