WHITE PAPERS SPONSORED PROFILES JOB BOARD WEBINAR CENTER FREE SOFTWARE BZ RESEARCH ALMSHAREPOINT EVENTS CALENDAR PRINT/PDF EDITION PRINT/PDF BACK ISSUES

SUBSCRIBE TODAY CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL CALENDAR EDITORIAL BEATS GUEST VIEW GUIDE SD TIMES 100 GUIDE EVENTS CALENDAR ADVERTISING ARTICLE REPRINTS REPORT A BUG SITE MAP

ABOUT US BZ MEDIA NEWS BZ RESEARCH NEWS ON MONDAY SPTECHREPORT SPTECHWEB SPTECHCON IPHONE/IPAD DEVCON ANDROID DEVCON PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US

HOME >> LATEST NEWS

IE8 beta lets users cover their tracks

By David Worthington

August 29, 2008 — On Wednesday, a beta refresh of Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 that includes new privacy and search features became available for download.

End users are the target audience for beta 2. It introduces granular privacy settings that Microsoft has dubbed InPrivate browsing and InPrivate blocking. InPrivate helps users cover their tracks as they browse by informing them about cookies that may observe their browsing history and permitting them to selectively remove those cookies.

Likewise, it eliminates all traces of a browsing session, leaving no user names, passwords or search queries behind.

“[InPrivate browsing] is a double-edged sword,” said Laura DiDio, a principal analyst with Information Technology Intelligence Corp. “It is good for home users, but at work, presumably it will have the same features for corporate users, which might not be something that is welcomed by supervisors.”

With InPrivate blocking, users may subscribe to lists of Web sites to block or allow. Other changes that target the user experience are crash recovery, a “diagnose connection problem” button, the ability to reopen closed tabs, and Compatibility View, which permits users to view Web sites that are "broken" by IE8’s standards compliance.

IE8 has three rendering modes: the default “full standards” mode that has already passed the Web Standards Project’s Acid2 test and supports CSS 2.1; a mode that supports W3C standards in the same way as IE7; and a “quirks mode” that maintains compatibility with earlier editions of the browser.

It also selectively implements parts of the HTML 5 draft specification, including cross-document messaging, a client-side storage API, network connection awareness and a window location hash meant to place Web applications into the browser's back/forward stack.

Microsoft has added new search features to help users find what they are looking for on the Web. One of those is the Instant Search box, a feature that pulls up search results from the user’s chosen search provider and the user's browser history within the box.

The other is a little less conventional: suggested sites. IE8 makes recommendations about other, related sites that might be of interest to the user. It is not enabled by default.

The new search features fit within a concept that Microsoft is calling “Reach Beyond the Page.” As previously reported, other features in that concept are “Activities,” which is essentially a dialog box that lists available Web services when a user selects text, and “WebSlices,” which gives end users the ability to subscribe to portion of a Web page, including Silverlight controls.

Related Search Term(s): browsers, security, Microsoft

Share this link: http://sdt.bz/32796

Most Read Latest News Blog Resources

Zeichick’s Take: Radio moves from analog waveforms to digital packets
Streaming radio highlights the need for streaming applications to be designed to take up as little bandwidth as possible

Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans

Appcelerator Acquires Cocoafish to Add Instant Mobile Cloud Capabilities to its Industry Leading Titanium Platform
Appcelerator Offers Messaging, Social, Location and Storage Mobile Cloud Services to All Mobile App Publishers

ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development

Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans

Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists

Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles

Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.

The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...

Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...

Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...

Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...

Technorati

Digg

Slashdot

Facebook

Friendfeed

Twitter

del.icio.us

Cigital Develops Ready-to-Use Tools for Securing the Smart Grid Cigital Inc. announced the release of the Guide to Developing a Cyber Security and Risk Mitigation Plan.

Microsoft focuses on security development life cycle A change from the previous ways of handling application security, Microsoft is embracing the security development life cycle in its products and launching a series of programs to let customers take part in this new security method.

Microsoft's Midori to sandbox apps for increased security The Midori project, Microsoft's effort to design a post-Windows, next-generation operating system, is projected to offer memory access control, to protect against privilege elevation attacks and to enforce least-privilege computing.

Add comment

Name*
Email*
Country

Comment

Cigital Develops Ready-to-Use Tools for Securing the Smart Grid
Cigital Inc. announced the release of the Guide to Developing a Cyber Security and Risk Mitigation Plan Read More...

News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST

Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
02/07/2012 11:57 AM EST

RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
02/04/2012 01:57 PM EST

GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
02/03/2012 12:17 PM EST

Facebook claims hacker cred
Facebook's SEC S-1 filing form includes a short essay on the Hacker Way by Mark Zuckerberg himself.
02/02/2012 08:26 AM EST

Ryan Dahl steps down
Ryan Dahl, creator of Node.js, steps back from his position as gatekeeper for the project.
02/01/2012 04:58 PM EST