backtop

Print E-mail del.icio.us 29 comment(s) - last by Belard.. on Jun 18 at 8:33 AM

An artist builds a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge at a San Francisco event while the Microsoft IE 8 team watches. The event was designed to draw attention to Microsoft's browser which is at its lowest market share in years. Microsoft hopes a dual charity and advertising push will turn that around.  (Source: CNET)
Microsoft gives away some of its vast reserve of green

The good news for Microsoft when it comes to Internet Explorer 8 is that the new browser is fast and has been well received.  The bad news is that despite choosing not to bundle the browser with Windows 7 in Europe, the company faces antitrust charges from the EU which believes its efforts are not good enough.

Unable to spread IE 8 via Windows 7 in certain markets, Microsoft has turned to charity efforts to draw attention to IE 8 and increase the number of downloads.  Much like Microsoft's CashBack effort in the search sector, the company is looking to put its money where its mouth is.  This time though, it will donate money to charity for each download of the new browser.

Users looking to take part can travel to Microsoft's "Browser for the Better" site, and download IE 8.  For each download Microsoft will donate $1.15, up to a total of $1M USD.

Last week events were held in San Francisco and New York to publicize the new effort.  Tech news site CNET reported at the San Francisco event, which included an artist building a replica of the Golden Gate Bridge out of soup cans.

Microsoft has also been pushing Internet Explorer 8 via Windows Update, and will be shipping it with Windows 7 outside of Europe.  However, the company is concerned that not enough people are actively using the browser.  A recent study by Net Applications showed Internet Explorer near its lowest levels in years, only taking 65.5 percent of the market, with Firefox taking up 22.5 percent, Apple's Safari at 8.4 percent, and Google Chrome at 1.8 percent.  Internet Explorer once held over 90 percent of the market.

The company has also launched a series of online ads to promote the new browser.  The charity push is not Microsoft's first -- Microsoft has held a number of past efforts.  Charity is in the company's roots with billionaire-founder Bill Gates being perhaps the most renowned philanthropist of the late twentieth century.

Comments     Threshold


This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
misleading
By JoshuaBuss on 6/15/2009 8:59:57 AM , Rating: 3
Yes, IE 8 has been in windows update, but it hasn't been "pushed".. it's an optional download that you have to choose to select to get.




RE: misleading
By bhieb on 6/15/2009 12:15:21 PM , Rating: 2
I just rebooted 2 XP PC's at home that it was pushed to. Standard settings in Auto Update, but looks like it is being pushed out. It could be becuase I was on 6.0 and it just skipped 7.0, IDK but it is being pushed in some cases.


RE: misleading
By GodisanAtheist on 6/15/2009 1:06:21 PM , Rating: 2
That's only because IE 6.0 is to the internet what smallpox was to man. MS is only forcing its eradication and eventual extinction.

In 50 years we'll be seeing movies about Cyber Eco-terrorists releasing the plague of IE 6 onto the unsuspecting masses... or... something.


RE: misleading
By murphyslabrat on 6/15/2009 2:02:53 PM , Rating: 2
The deal is, that you have to select the "Custom" installation option for updates, despite the "express" option being "recommended". After selecting that, you have to deselect any packages you do not want installed. Meanwhile, you have Microsoft's "helpful" reminders waving their hands in front of your face.

Sounds like "pushing" to me.


RE: misleading
By MatthiasF on 6/16/2009 2:47:42 AM , Rating: 2
It's not being "pushed" to Vista yet, but Windows XP and 2003 will be getting it.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/04/10/prepar...

[quote]
Starting on or about the third week of April, users still running IE6 or IE7 on Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 will get will get a notification through Automatic Update about IE8. This rollout will start with a narrow audience and expand over time to the entire user base. On Windows XP and Server 2003, the update will be High-Priority. On Windows Vista and Server 2008 it will be Important.[/quote]

Based off the latest MSIR, I'd have to say Windows XP users need it BAD!

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2009/05/01/securi...

And on a personal note, I like IE8. It's a lot faster than before and now faster than Firefox.


RE: misleading
By JoshuaBuss on 6/16/2009 9:35:38 AM , Rating: 2
my bad, I haven't seen it even pop up for XP yet, and on my vista machines it's as you said.. only an optional component available if you want it.


Money From MS
By tdktank59 on 6/15/09, Rating: 0
RE: Money From MS
By TomZ on 6/15/2009 2:46:08 PM , Rating: 4
quote:
I hate IE and as a web developer coding for multiple browsers is a pain
Poor baby - get a clue - THAT IS PART OF THE JOB!

We do a bunch of application development work, and yes believe it or not, we test those apps on XP, Vista, and Windows 7, plus 64-bit variants of the same. You think testing with different browsers is a pain...?


RE: Money From MS
By 67STANG on 6/15/2009 4:01:46 PM , Rating: 2
No joke there... Besides that, as long as your code validates, your site should look the same in almost every 2 year old and newer browser. In the rare case it doesn't, the problems are generally very easy to fix.

Take it from someone who ACTUALLY had to do dual sites (back in the IE / Netscape days), todays web developers have a much easier time of things.

And like TomZ said, standard application work is much more difficult to ensure system compatiblity.


RE: Money From MS
By mindless1 on 6/15/2009 11:31:56 PM , Rating: 2
Actually no, coding for standards is part of the job, if some 3rd party refuses to follow standards, fvck 'em, that's the WHOLE point of standards.


1 buck per download?
By MrWho on 6/15/2009 4:05:41 PM , Rating: 2
I can do that! I can download it from all the internet connected PCs I have at my disposal - of course I don't intend to install it. But hey! Charity is charity!




Good to see MS sweat for once.
By Belard on 6/15/09, Rating: -1
RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By FaaR on 6/15/2009 9:58:41 AM , Rating: 2
Sure, one might well argue 65% is too high, but then again - MS still has like 90% or more of the desktop OS market, so yelling and screaming over their browser dominance is kind of like sifting gnats and swallowing camels, don't you think? :)

As for me I just can't be bothered with another browser. So IE8 doesn't follow standards completely, well boo on them. Still, it shows web pages, and that's that really matters at the end of the day, and updating and maintaining it is easy and painless via the normal windows update system.

My biggest gripe with IE8 is that it often doesn't properly save a browser session when shutting down, so that I can continue where I left off later. Often it forgets one or even all of the tabs I had open the last time, and instead opens an even older tab. It's crap they still can't get resuming work as painless as with FF after all these years!


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By linuxgtwindos3gtmucs on 6/15/09, Rating: -1
By GaryJohnson on 6/15/2009 11:10:44 AM , Rating: 2
Some of your figures may be inaccurate.

I think if 90% could talk a certain protcol they'd be able to connect to the other 90% that are also using that protocol.


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By shazbotron on 6/15/2009 11:11:40 AM , Rating: 2
"I'm glad that most of the world has a thinking brain and realizes that using firefox and pushing open standards is the right thing to do."

Because 22% = most, right?


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By 67STANG on 6/15/2009 4:06:49 PM , Rating: 2
Actually, the number is even less. Aren't the people that are using the latest Opera the only people that really care about getting a 100% on the Acid3 test?

IE8 = 21/100
FF 3 = 71/100
Opera 10b1 = 100/100


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By TomZ on 6/15/2009 5:57:49 PM , Rating: 2
Who cares about Acid3? That's a stupid benchmark because it represents massively convoluted combinations of styles that will never appear in real-world web sites. Compliance with Acid3 is academic, really.


By mindless1 on 6/15/2009 11:29:52 PM , Rating: 2
Actually no, it represents whether the browser you pick will render webpages correctly if they aren't basic HTML (which I happen to prefer, but nevertheless...), if a browser can't even do that then WTF is the point?


By JoshuaBuss on 6/16/2009 9:50:58 AM , Rating: 2
yeah, because the stuff in acid 1 and 2 never showed up on websites either ;)

way to think to the future, bud.


By Ratinator on 6/15/2009 11:28:00 AM , Rating: 4
Ummm....netbui isn't routable.


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By davemang on 6/15/2009 10:33:39 AM , Rating: 2
Yeah, without FF/Opera, Internet explorer and safari wouldn't have needed to improve nearly as much as they have. Imagine that, competition breeds better products (even if you hate microsoft, IE has improved significantly since 6)


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By MrWho on 6/15/2009 4:12:00 PM , Rating: 2
Only because it would be difficult to make it worse than IE6, even for Microsoft! ^_^


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By Belard on 6/15/2009 10:17:55 PM , Rating: 2
IE 4~6 didn't change much because there was no fear of market loss.

While IE7 has better security and tabs (Wow, Opera had it for about 10 years) - its interface is badly designed, it wastes a lot of space, stupid menu placement, etc.

People should give Opera a try. its about a 6mb download and very easy to use.


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By MrWho on 6/16/2009 2:43:52 PM , Rating: 2
Already did. Although I'm still using FireFox, I was impressed with Opera 10. If Mozilla doesn't improve FF's memory management (that's my only complaint), I might turn to Opera for good.


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By Belard on 6/18/2009 6:45:32 AM , Rating: 2
I gave Opera a good try when they made it (A) Free and (B) stop embedding AD-banners. That would be version 8x. During that time, I was getting sick of IE problems - it security issues were at a all-time high. I gave FireFox2 a try and I found myself going back to IE6.

I save certain WebPages, because they sometimes the articles retire, or I may need to take it with me and print out, etc. FF stil fails at this.

Here is an example. A Yahoo Newspage's article title is the same as the page name.
This is IE & Opera: Iran braces for another mass opposition protest - Yahoo! News.htm
This if FF1,2 and 3: ml_iran_election.htm

My only area of "complaint" with Opera is that I may want to drag a link to another browser window to open the page... except, it does it with Opera 10, as long as you don't select some of the "text". Otherwise it does nothing.

But some COOL things with OPERA 10:
You can drag a tab to your desktop - and it opens a new window with that tab... or you can drag the TAB into another Opera Window.

Right click on the tab and select restore, the TAB turns into a sizable self-contained window. In Opera 9.0~9.4, it was done easier. To restore it back to a tab, double click on the title bar.

Of course you can re-arrange your tabs.

Its extremely customizable. I put the "ADD TAB" button on the left side as well (so its not a moving target) - which was how Opera 9.0~9.4 was like. And of course, copy the FIND TEXT function from the View bar to the Status Bar, or replace the Status bar... but View bar is bigger.

I have the latest Chrome on my 2nd computer... its very slick, fast. And super minimalist. It moves tabs over in a very neat way. I see some aspects of Opera/FF and IE7 in it. IE7~8... is like its designed to LOOK different from IE 3~6. It wastes so much space and has controls all over the place. If MS has half a brain, IE8 would be a cleaner version of 7.

Do this... Use only Opera 10beta for 48hrs. Import your bookmarks. I did this with FF2.0 before I went to Opera. Haven't switched to anything since. Friends and many clients now use Opera.

Other cool things:
I like the zoom function right there, also + & - keys control it (best on numeric keypad).

Go to one of your typical Long pages and do a FIND text function. Again, you may want to swap out the View bar for the Status bar and place it at the bottom. Anyways, select a name or word you want to find and see what happens... as you start typing it in. An example would be this page. do a find on "opera" or "Fire". Don't use the standard CTRL-F method, but whats in the View bar.

Man, its saves so much time...

Opera 10 has two ways of showing thumbnail views of tabs. (Chrome & FF3 does nothing) (A) hold your mouse over the tab (from Opera 9x) (B) pull down the tab tool (3 dots in the center between the tabs & address bar)

Let us know what 48hrs is like :)


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By Belard on 6/18/2009 8:33:27 AM , Rating: 2
PS: Forgot to add.

When looking for something on the web, as noticed on FF and Opera, there is a "GOOGLE" search field on the top right.

The main address bar is also a search field with key-letters. G = Google, Y = Yahoo, W = wikipedia, etc.

While the dedicated search field has the pull down, I found it much easier to just do "g <keyword>" since you have to type anyways.

Also you can do F <word> to find all text words on the page you're on. ( I just noticed that) It works differently from the view-bar version a bit. But to a certain degree I see how it may be redundant to have the search box at the bottom.

I have Opera open with the last opened tabs... FF/IE/Chrome starts you with a clean page. Speed dial is used all the time. Click refresh and see 9~25 browser pages get updated.

PS: Sorry for going on.


By inighthawki on 6/15/2009 12:16:33 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah but i wouldnt doubt if 60/65% of that was from the group of people who dont care as long as it gets them to their email. Some people simply dont understand that some people dont CARE what firefox/opera/chrome is, as long as they can access a few websites they are 100% pleased.


RE: Good to see MS sweat for once.
By Belard on 6/15/2009 8:34:19 PM , Rating: 1
MS employees should not be allowed to vote


"Intel is investing heavily (think gazillions of dollars and bazillions of engineering man hours) in resources to create an Intel host controllers spec in order to speed time to market of the USB 3.0 technology." -- Intel blogger Nick Knupffer

DailyTech Poll
Do you use copy/paste on your smartphone? 




14 Comments









botimage
Copyright 2010 DailyTech LLC. - RSS Feed | Advertise | About Us | Ethics | FAQ | Terms, Conditions & Privacy Information | Kristopher Kubicki