Passing up Safari, Google’s Chrome internet browser has been named third most popular internet browser with a 4.63% share compared to Safari’s 4.46% according to California-based measurement firm Net Applications. This is the first time that Safari has been in fourth place but I doubt it will be there for long. Only 16 months into more »

It’s that time again. Welcome to the weird wired world of technology. Can’t find a plug for that laptop or television or one of the other million chargers you have sitting around? There’s a wall for that. While you’ve got your computer plugged in, fire up Microsoft’s latest Internet Explorer. It’s the greatest browser ever. Ask Microsoft, they’ll tell you the same thing. If you’re sick of hearing things and want to veg out, you may want to see a lightshow. All of this in this week’s Oddball Tech.

Wednesday was day one of the CanSecWest Pwn2Own hacking contest, and the results are in. Using fully patched copies of Safari, IE8, and Firefox, hackers broke them all. They each failed to what is called hacker “Nils.”

The Pwn2Own contest challenges experts in security to find and exploit vulnerabilities in browsers. And it apparently didn’t take them very long. They broke Safari in just seconds, and both IE8 and Firefox in a few hours. Chrome, however, remained intact.

That is one descriptive title. It totally explains the content of this post. Microsoft has recently come out with its IE8 and I’m sure Firefox is shaking in its boots (if Firefox had boots and actually was afraid of Redmond). Either way, it means that IE6 is even more outdated. At Hugs for Monsters, they have a line of “overly judgmental IE6 splash pages” that could greet users of IE6. The site officially does not care what browser you use, but they mocked up a whole bunch of these pages.

So, we’ve all been seeing the hoopla the past few days surrounding Google’s Chrome browser. First it was how exciting! Google has a new browser! Then that excitement lessened somewhat as time went on. It went from performance benchmarks being less than stellar to the fact that it was discovered that their snazzy new browser was susceptible to a carpet-bombing vulnerability that could expose Windows to malicious hacker attacks. And now, we’re taking note of Google’s fine print in their end-user license agreement. To put it lightly, it does not look friendly in the least to the user.

Taken from their agreement terms:

“By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.”

Bill Gates promised frequent updates way back when they were doing the final testing of IE7. Yet somehow, it’s been almost two years before they finally released the beta mode of Internet Explorer 8 just today. Some will hurrah, some will cringe, some won’t care one way or the other. But…it’s out…and along with actually seeming to be an improvement over the previous version…it’s pretty clear that the folks at Microsoft are also using their latest browser as a clever little way to try to take over some Google ground.

I admit, I’m a diehard Firefox user. And when I checked out IE8 beta, I immediately recognized the same thing others seem to be seeing. The Smart Address Bar is very similar to the Awesome Bar in Firefox 3. When you start to type in the address bar, it tries to guess where you want to go, based on where you’ve been before. Although I have to give it to Microsoft, their Smart Bar seems to do the job even a little better. It shows history items, autocomplete suggestions, and your saved Favorites all in lists that you can collapse or expand with just a click. Also, you can delete an address from the Smart Bar with just a click as well, which is really handy for any addresses you may have in there that were typed incorrectly or if you have bookmarks you just don’t use anymore.

Only ten days left of August. Microsoft claimed Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 would be out some time this month. Well, the countdown is on. And hmmmm…there are rumors flying around that it is going to be a special version. Private. Yeah, code name for “porn mode”.

Private browsing lets a user go anywhere they want without leaving any tracks. It’s like they were just magically never there. Firefox decided not to go with it, and currently Safari is the only browser sporting this feature. The Mozilla Foundation, however does argue that “although while viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one.”

If trademark filings are any indications…the rumors of IE taking on private browsing may indeed be based on fact. July 30th filings by Microsoft:

Perhaps in a catch-up game with the recent launch of the ultra popular Mozilla Firefox 3 and upcoming Opera 9.5, Microsoft has been beefing up its own Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) with plethora of new security features Currently in public beta phase, this once dominant Web browser hopes to win back the hearts of its more »

Bill Gates was on hand for TechEd down in Orlando where he let loose some interesting surprises. Announcing beta releases of IE8 and Silverlight 2, Gates says IE8 will come in August (meeting their forecast) and Silverlight 2 beta will show up at weeks end (early!). As Gates is somewhat prone to do as of more »

Microsoft has just released Internet Explorer 8 in beta mode and ready for download.Although the IE8 beta was geared for web developers, Microsoft does not restrict its download status. In fact, it is even encouraging everyone to try it out and see for themselves how useful IE8 is. But like all other software that comes out in beta stage, users are still advised to exercise caution when downloading IE8 and installing it on their machines.

So what can loyal users of IE expect from the latest version of Microsoft’s browser? IE8′s new features can actually be categorized into three: interoperability and compatibility; built-in tools that help both first time and experienced developers and designers get pages built right;browser capabilities that enable innovative experiences.