A Microsoft Internet Explorer security flaw allows web sites to track mouse movements. The tracking of mouse cursor movement is a privacy flaw in Microsoft’s implementation of JavaScript. This security problem affects the computer even when the Internet Explorer window is inactive or minimized.

According to ExtremeTech, Spider.io, a UK-based advertising analytics company, alleged that two unnamed companies are improperly using the Internet Explorer security flaw to track whether display advertisements, sometimes buried far down in web pages, are actually viewed by users.  Supposedly other ad analytics companies are aware of the flaw but have deliberately decided to not take advantage of Microsoft’s error.

Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft corporate vice president for its Internet Explorer division, disagrees with Spider.io’s assessment:

“The underlying issue has more to do with competition between analytics companies than consumer safety or privacy. … We are actively working to adjust this behavior in IE and will provide more information when it is available.”

Spider.io alleges that clicks on a virtual keyboard could be tracked and thus viruses or malware could take advantage of the Internet Explorer flaw to monitor this minority of users. Microsoft rejects this allegation, claiming that this exploit still does not give an attacker any information about the type of content the mouse cursor is hovering over.

Hachamovitch did not seem too worried about possible exploits according to TechRadar:

“The theoretical use of this behavior to compromise the safety or privacy of consumers is something Microsoft’s security team has discussed with researchers across the industry. Getting all the pieces to line up in order to take advantage of this behavior… is hard to imagine.”

Microsoft plans on contacting companies that are using the Internet Explorer flaw as part of their ad-tracking metrics. Hopefully they will release a patch soon. The worst part about this news is that this flaw affects pretty much all currently used versions of Internet Explorer, all the way from version 6 to the recently released version 10 featured in Windows 8.

Now that you know that Internet Explorer has this mouse tracking security flaw will you still stick with Microsoft’s web browser or switch to an alternative like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox?

Internet Explorer Security Flaw: Hackers Can Track Mouse Movements is a post from: The Inquisitr

“Internet Explorer sucks” has been a battle cry of the internet basically since Firefox became available, and the notoriously slow to catch-up standard browser has been the bane of web users, employees of not-tech-savvy customers, and people who have had to use the computer at their parents’ house for a few years — or in web time, eons.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has borne the brunt of a lot of web elitism and for good reason. IE was sloooooow to implement tabbed browsing, remained annoyingly to be the default of some major corporate websites forcing you to open it, lacked handy functions and extensions like Ad Block for a dog’s age, and generally made you have to retreat several years in your browsing functions whenever you were confronted with mandatory IE use.

But a new IE ad campaign promises that IE sucks less, in those words, all the while sending up the culture that mocks it as basement dwelling, aging karaoke champs that are chubby and pale and like to while away the late night hours complaining about Internet Explorer.

The new ad is a video in which a typical internet comments complainer stalks the brand around the web, insulting IE on Twitter and other services. In it, the karaoke queen of Coco’s Bar and Grill in 2008 relentlessly rags on Microsoft’s browser, expounding upon its suckage and finding the reply:

“IE adopts an island of kittens and donates them all to children everywhere!!! #Kids+KittiesRULE.”

You can watch the new IE sucks less spot promoted by Microsoft below, but, as you may also notice, while the company is happy to lampshade Internet Explorer’s poor web rep in the clip, it has also disabled comments for the video.

Internet Explorer ‘Sucks Less,’ Microsoft Damns Own Product With Faint Praise is a post from: The Inquisitr

This handy comparison sheet is actually incredibly accurate.

Your Web Browser Is Like is a post from: The Inquisitr

These three browsers walk into a bar and… I forget the punchline but Internet Explorer sucks.

Chrome and Firefox vs. IE is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wikipedia: sometimes, it is accurate.

[reddit]

The internet’s opinion of IE is a post from: The Inquisitr

Google’s Chrome browser has passed Apple’s Safari out into third place for US browsers, a milestone the newer browser option achieved in the UK last October.

Chrome, which debuted in October 2008, has been steadily gaining on Mozilla’s Firefox as an Internet Explorer alternative. IE now has a 52% market share, with Firefox following at an impressive 28.5% of users. Chrome edged in ahead of Safari in recent StatCounter data, with 8.97% to Safari’s 8.88%. StatCounter pulled the data from 847 million page views in the US.

The breakdown is a bit different among UK users, with about 55% still using IE. Firefox grabs a much larger share of the (steak and kidney?) pie across the pond, with just over 38% of users favoring it. Even the admittedly underrated Opera is trouncing Safari over there, with 4.4% to Safari’s 3.9% share.

Chrome’s rapid rise is impressive in the browser arena- while Firefox has burrowed deep into the market as a place users go when they graduate from IE, it’s had over seven years to get there. Chrome hasn’t even been available for two, and some of that time is beta only, and without options for Mac or Linux.

Have you ditched Firefox to come over the the Google side? What’s your go-to browser? Is anyone still using Flock?

Chrome surpasses Safari in US popularity, now ranked third is a post from: The Inquisitr

Regardless of the fact that there are some people out there recommending that companies use Internet Explorer 6 as a way to keep their employees from wasting work time on things like Facebook (and Google) the real world is catching on – Death to Internet Explorer 6.

StatsCounter just released a new statement that says that Internet Explorer 6 is finally dropping down below the 5% mark in U.S. usage.

Boston, US and Dublin, Ireland, Tuesday, 1st June, 2010: Usage of web browser Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) in the US and Europe fell below the 5% mark for the first time in May, according to web analytics company, StatCounter. The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that IE6 US usage has fallen to 4.7% from 11.5% 12 months ago.

“At these levels web developers now have valid justification not to support IE6 in the future,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. A number of sites including YouTube are already understood to have withdrawn support for IE6.

StatCounter Global Stats reports that IE8 US usage increased to 30.5% in May from 8.5% in the same month last year. IE7 is currently at 16.6% in the US.

“IE6 has been a bit of a pain for many web developers and designers who have often had to recode their site to get it to work. There are also security implications in its continued usage,” added Aodhan Cullen of StatCounter.

It’s none too soon either. Here’s hoping the numbers keep dropping – and fast.

Driving a stake through the heart of Internet Explorer 6 is a post from: The Inquisitr

hat tip to Smashing Magazine

The life and death (Please) of Internet Explorer 6 is a post from: The Inquisitr

I’m surprised accidental clicking didn’t get a mention.

[GraphJam]

Graph: Why people use IE is a post from: The Inquisitr

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer sucks monkey balls.

I don’t care which version you are using but when a site displays properly in every other browser than in any version of Internet Explorer – including IE8 – then I’m sorry but Redmond we have a problem.This was re-enforced for me the other day when I posted on one of my other blogs, WinExtra, about a new developer tool called IETester. With the program you can view any site in all versions of IE – 5.5 right through to 7 – which I did with WinExtra for the post and this is the result

Now this is the same site that display nicely in Safari, Google Chrome, and Firefox. Yet when it comes to Internet Explorer it is a mess. It is no wonder that web developers pull out their rapidly graying hair when it comes to designing sites.

It’s an acknowledge fact that Microsoft is facing some serious competition in the web browser space and while IE8 is an improvement – more so for the casual surfer – it still doesn’t come close to Google Chrome or Firefox or even Safari. The only reason that it is still maintaining any kind of lead is because of its broad adoption in the corporate world. In the majority of cases I would think it is because of legacy web apps used in-hose by companies on their Intranets.

As the browser becomes more of a vehicle for the increasing use of cloud based application IE is being out shadowed by its rivals. With the introduction of Google’s Chrome Frame plugin for IE Microsoft is being placed on notice that the web will continue to move forward with or without them. Granted for Chrome Frame to work it requires both the developers to include a single line of code in their web pages and for users to download and install the plugin but that is something we could see a rapid adoption of by both sides of the coin.

I have said many times at different places that Microsoft needs to seriously rethink its whole browser strategy because they are in real danger of becoming a bit player in that space if they keep on going the way that they are. It’s not like Microsoft doesn’t have the talent to create a killer browser but between being hampered by the legacy monster they created for themselves with businesses and seeming reluctance to truly innovate in the space they are fighting with both hands behind their back.

Louis Gray asked the other day if Microsoft should fight back against the Chrome Frame plugin and other than a bunch of FUD about security as the guys over at Ars Technica reported Microsoft hasn’t said much on the matter. I don’t think they should either because this is actually a good thing to happen for the company.

Look at it this way – they could quietly accept the presence of the plugin and it’s ability to bring one of the worst browsers in the history of the web (IE6) into the modern world while at the same time start working on a new browser from the ground up. Any legacy problems due to IE not being updated to current versions could be pretty well be handled by Chrome Frame. This would open up Microsoft to seriously thinking of going the same route as both Apple and Google by building a new browser around the much better WebKit engine.

This would serve Microsoft well on two fronts. One, it would give them the potential to get back in the browser game especially if they let their incredibly talented developer loose to truly innovate in the space. Two, it would increase their open source creds that is already getting stronger given some of their more recent moves with their code and software. In addition because the WebKit is an open source project it would benefit incredibly by have three of the major software / web companies involved.

Microsoft may not like the idea of Google making Chrome Frame available but it could be a blessing in disguise if they decided to take advantage of it.

Microsoft’s IE needs the slap Google’s Chrome Frame supplies. is a post from: The Inquisitr

A blogger reading about Chrome noticed a bit of AdSense fail, for Google’s own product.

[Source: Intershame]

Adsense context advertising fail is a post from: The Inquisitr

I have to give big props to the guys over at TheNextWeb.com for finding this gem of a video – oh and the headline it’s actually from the video and their answer wasn’t Google Chrome. It was just – Google.

While the Zee might have been surprised by some of the answers from the people on the street I’m not. the fact that the majority of people thought Google, Yahoo were browsers doesn’t surprise me one bit. Heck there was even one diehard “AOL is the web” guy. Rather than spoil it any further take the 2 – 3 minutes it takes and watch the video. It’s a great way to end a Friday.

Q: What browser do you use? – A: Google [VIDEO] is a post from: The Inquisitr

New numbers released by Net Applications show IE dropping to 67.55 percent of the worldwide browser market. That’s 0.6 percent less than it had one month ago, and a full 7 percent less than it had in March of 2008.

Firefox, in the meantime, has steadily grown in the same time period. Mozilla’s browser now commands 21.53 percent of the market, up from 17.83 percent last March. And it’s not the only alternative product growing, either:

• Safari is now up to 8.29 percent, from 5.82 percent last March.

• Chrome is sitting at a modest 1.12 percent but showing monthly growth. (It didn’t have any users last March, as it hadn’t yet been released.)

• Opera has fluctuated around the 0.70 percent mark.

Microsoft, of course, is hoping IE 8 — which saw its first release candidate hit the Net last week — will help it regain some of its lost ground. While the browser is undoubtedly an improvement over its predecessor, I don’t see it offering anything that’ll convince other browser users to switch back.

Internet Explorer Loses More Ground While Other Browsers Grow is a post from: The Inquisitr

Silverlight 2 beta 2, seen as Microsoft’s answer to Adobe’s long-standing Flash platform, builds upon the .Net framework introduced in the first beta release. The new version adds extra controls, improved networking and data handling capabilities, and enhanced error handling. It also features enhanced templates and integration with Expression Blend and Visual Studio as well as added cross-domain support and several other modifications. The beta is expected to be made available for download by the end of the week with a full version slated to be completed by the year’s end.

IE 8 beta 2, on the other hand, may be the company’s attempt at competing with the upcoming Firefox 3. The new beta will be targeted more at average end-users as opposed to the developer-heavy focus of the first beta release earlier this year. Microsoft says beta 2 will come out this August. A final product release date has not yet been set.

Microsoft Reveals Beta Release Plans is a post from: The Inquisitr