Browser War :: IE8 (beta-II) on the way to Wipe out Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Watch Out!

Technology Dump Blog ^ | Friday, December 26, 2008 | Vishnu Ghimire

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Overview
The first beta release of IE8, which was demonstrated at the MIX08 conference, contained many new features, including WebSlices and Activities. In the second beta release, Activities were renamed to Accelerators.

• Added features
  Some of the features and changes for the Beta 2 compared to Beta 1
  InPrivate
  Delete Browsing History
  Search Suggestions
  User Preference Protection
  Caret Browsing
  Accelerators (previously known as Activities)
  Web Slices (previously known as WebSlices)
  Suggested Sites
  Tab Color Grouping
  Automatic Crash Recovery
  SmartScreen Filter (Known as Safety Filter in Beta 1)
  Tab isolation (tabs spread over separate operating system processes)
  
• Removed features
  Inline AutoComplete
  The option to delete files and settings stored by addons or ActiveX controls.
  CSS Expressions are no longer supported in Internet Explorer 8 Standards mode. Accelerators
  ·Accelerators are a contextual feature used to quickly access a service from any webpage. It is common for users to copy and paste content from one webpage to another, and accelerators simplify this process.Accelerators allow users to find information without leaving the current webpage. For example, to determine the location of a specific restaurant, a user will select the restaurant's address, generating an in-place view of the map. Clicking the view will open a full webpage that includes additional information from the mapping service.Browser War
  Mozilla's second alpha of Firefox 3.1 is upping the ante in the next-generation browser battle. So how do the main contenders stack up so far now? One thing's for sure, the Firefox team has taken note of Google's recent Chrome release and worked hard to make sure its offering can hold its own. Mozilla had already claimed its 3.1 version could outperform Chrome when it comes to speed (and most independent tests show it at least tying). Now, the engineers have incorporated Chrome-initiated options such as the ability to drag and drop tabs in and out of browser windows.
  The second alpha release also adds support for the HTML 5 video tag, which gives Web developers expanded options for embedding video within a page. Don't forget, too, that Microsoft's new Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 -- released at the end of August and quickly eclipsed by Chrome's introduction -- is also vying for a piece of the pie.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[dfwgator]

Removed features Inline AutoComplete

Thank you!

[freedumb2003]

Sounds like more bloatware.

If you were to count the lost productivity in trying to get Office 2007 to do even the simplest things and Vista to do anything at all, it is probably in the millions of man hours — not counting the time waiting for that crap to load, much less do something.

[Rebelbase]

Isn’t Chrome a data mining tool for Google?

[Red in Blue PA]

Chrome is by far the worst browser I ever used.

[Red in Blue PA]

I have Vista on my laptop, and I have not had even one problem.

There were problems in the beginning, but now? I think not.

[wendy1946]

You couldn’t pay me to use an msoft browser.

[BurbankKarl]

haha...Chrome.

[library user]

I totally uninstalled Firefox an hour ago and reinstalled it. It had been crashing 4-5 times a day for the past few months. Not sure why.

[ETL]

Removed features Inline AutoComplete

You could turn off that feature at any time.

Click Tools->Internet Options->Advanced

Then remove the check mark by inline autocomplete

[freedumb2003]

Vista has a lot of bugs still — I have it on one of our laptops and our desktop.

Bloatware.

[freedumb2003]

I totally uninstalled Firefox an hour ago and reinstalled it. It had been crashing 4-5 times a day for the past few months. Not sure why.

Strange -- it has been solid as a rock for me for years.

[zerosix]

What are the thoughts on Mozilla in FR land?

[Red in Blue PA]

No argument that it is bloated. That is what MS specializes in. However, the notion that it is a feeble OS is simply a myth which was started (rightfully so) when it came out, but has not abated even though Vista now runs near flawlessly.

[Red in Blue PA]

I like Mozilla, but I still use IE 99% of the time. When MS finally gets something right, it is hard to beat em, as has been the case with IE.

[pepsi_junkie]

If you were to count the lost productivity in trying to get Office 2007 to do even the simplest things...

MS had the best thing in the world on its side: 10 years of users being trained in their product and nobody else's. So what do they do? Change it completely! Brilliant! I can't count the times I've been in a meeting going over a document with someone using Office 2007 and them saying "Umm, I can't find the Bold button anymore" and sitting there while we go through multiple menus to figure out that what used to be a single click is now three or four (after you figure out how to do it). A room full of people .... looking for a button ... that used to be on the main tool bar. How much did that cost?

[LiberConservative]

Yes. Chrome is Google spyware.

[Red in Blue PA]

Re: You couldn’t pay me to use an msoft browser.

Try Chrome if you want endless crashes.

IE is very stable, even compared to Firefox.

[carjic]

I gave up on IE a year ago and went to Firefox. However i agree with the post above that mine has been crashing a lot lately. I am not ready to abandon it yet.

[raybbr]

Can’t see any reason to use IE. Firefox does it all. Except that when I went from 3.0.3 to 3.0.4 NONE of my streaming radio links will work. Been on the forums and still can’t get anyone to explain why. I wonder if 3.0.5 fixes that.

[OL Hickory]

I use firefox 3.0.5

SOLID as a rock when used in conjunction with AVG virus protection.....

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Replacement coming...I just posted this:

First look at Windows 7 beta 1

But I am only using Vista on a new laptop I just bought....wanted to browse while outside of my computer den.

[bcsco]

Not sure I understand. You state you couldn’t be paid to use a Microsoft browser yet you say IE is stable compared to Firefox. Huh?

[library user]

Yup, solid as a rock for me since 2004, too. I think going from 3.0.1 to 3.0.2 started the problem. I sent all the crash reports to the Mozilla Team, so hopefully they can make some sense/use out of them.

[library user]

Except that when I went from 3.0.3 to 3.0.4 NONE of my streaming radio links will work. Been on the forums and still can’t get anyone to explain why. I wonder if 3.0.5 fixes that.

Yup, my listen live links wouldn't work in the earlier 3 revisions. You should update to .5 and hopefully you'll be as lucky as me.

[zerosix]

That’s what I’m using currently.

[devere]

“I totally uninstalled Firefox an hour ago and reinstalled it. It had been crashing 4-5 times a day for the past few months. Not sure why.” “Strange — it has been solid as a rock for me for years.”

Firefox has been crashing lately for me too after years of stability, but I still use it for most things. Since I went to 3.05 it’s been crashing less.

[Red in Blue PA]

Re: You state you couldn’t be paid to use a Microsoft browser

I never said that.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I’m still running 3.0....but am getting ready to put up Sabayon 4.0 which has a later version of Firefox....not sure which one though.

[AFreeBird]

What are the thoughts on Mozilla in FR land?

Love it! Won't leave home without it. If I run across a machine that doesn't have it, I install it (if I can). The only add-on I use is "NoScript".

Of course I couldn't run Internet Exploder even if I wanted to. It doesn't do Linux, and I don't do Windows.

[DYngbld]

I have Vista on my laptop, and I have not had even one problem. There were problems in the beginning, but now? I think not.

I switched to Windows Mojave and love it. :)

[wastedyears]

Something Microsoft releasing to make Firefox obsolete? Won’t happen

[bcsco]

Sorry, I missed the “Re:”.

[LadyPilgrim]

I have VISTA Home Premium and run Mozilla and have had nary a problem.

But that’s also because I unloaded Norton Symantec and use Avast.
Now, my puter isn’t crashing every other month!

Besides, AVAST is free and doesn’t eat up the memory on this laptop.

http://www.avast.com/eng/download-avast-home.html

[Red in Blue PA]

That is one of the oddest ad campaigns I have ever seen.

As if your average computer user wasn’t confused enough.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

I haven’t even looked at Chrome,...did look at an interesting little Distro called gOS (Linux kernel) that had a lot of special interfaces to Google....but didn’t do anything for me.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Thanks, have to check that out!!

[LadyPilgrim]

You’re welcome sir! ;-)

[library user]

Does aVAST! still have that retro 80s ghetto-a$$ looking interface? I guess if it does its job it's good enough. I use Avira, personally.

[PreciousLiberty]

I went to download the beta, but didn’t see a version for my Mac.

Without that, Microsoft and Aieeee8 are losing the fastest growing personal computer segment. ;-)

Besides - Firefox, Safari, Chrome and OmniWeb are all better browsers. lol!

[reg45]

I have four browsers on my machine:

In my order of frequency of use:
1. Mozilla Firefox 3.0.5 (most used)
2. Opera
3. Google Chrome
4. Internet Explorer

Opera and Chrome are significantly faster than Firefox or Internet Explorer.

[reg45]

My radio links work with Firefox 3.0.5 - I have one open now.

I did seem to have a problem with Firefox 3.0.4 and radio links, but as soon as I upgraded, the problem went away.

[jagusafr]

I love it - had to install the DoD Applications add-on to be able to access military webmail and websites, but since then, it’s worked like a charm. Unfortunately, I can’t convince the computer folks at my organization of attachment to install it.

Colonel, USAFR

[dodger]

I also have problems since a recent update of Firefox.

I get an error message every time I open it and bookmarks will work properly (they did not self-import and now I cannot organize or edit them).

I agree, there is little help on the forums, too.

[pallis]

I went through about a month of Firefox and Sea Monkey crashes before I discovered it was a RAM problem. As soon as I replaced the RAM, the problem was over. That was a couple of years back, so I don’t know if the problem is still relevant to today’s browsers. You might want to look into it.

[library user]

Thanks for the tips. It seemed to crash most often whenever I tried to download something. Whether it was .exe, .doc, .whatever - didn’t matter. Triggered a crash.

[library user]

I only have 512MB of RAM. Firefox wants about a fifth of it.

[zerosix]

Completely understandable - your “organization” not willing to use something that works well, too well.

[LadyPilgrim]

I have NO idea what you’re talking about. 80’s retro? ;-)

I just know my computer hasn’t crashed in over a year with constant use.
But with Norton, I was in a tizzy every other couple of months.
I have had to uninstall and reinstall WINDOWS many times....
soooooo, to me it’s a pleasure to use this Vista laptop protected by AVAST now.

But, I have the idea my problem was Norton, not Windows.

Reason being, I use Windows on this laptop and have had no problem.
Now to me, it was either the anti virus program or Windows giving me aggravation. ;-)

I personally think it was the Norton program. So, I’m happy with the program, AVAST.

I have seen Avira, but know nothing about it. And you’re the first person that’s mentioned it to me. ;-)