Platinax Internet News

Internet and business news for the UK online

September 20, 2005

Opera Software has withdrawn advertising banners from the free version of its Opera browser software. The ad-free, full-featured version is available for download at www.opera.com

The free-browser was previously only available with an advertising banner. Users could have this removed for the payment of a licensing free, which also gave them premium support. Between one to three per cent of users purchased this licence, providing a revenue stream for Opera’s PC business. Other revenue streams, of approximately equal value were provided from search engines and the sale of ads. Opera will continue to sell premium support at the reduced rate of €24 per year.

Jon S. von Tetzchner, chief exec of Opera Software, said: "Removing the ad banner and licensing fee will encourage many new users to discover the speed, security and unmatched usability of the Opera browser".

Opera expects the move to significantly increase its market share, thereby pulling in more revenues from search engines. This is expected to more than offset loss of income from licensing over the long term. Opera's PC software business produces roughly half the income of its devices (set-top box and mobile) operation.

Opera's browser provides additional features to those available on IE or Firefox. It lets users start from where their last browsing session ended or to save their entire session. It also includes security features to protect against phishing attacks.

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August 26, 2005

The Department for Work & Pensions is planning to make its Web sites compatible with as many browsers as possible, including the open-source browser Firefox.

More companies, including software company Autodesk, are striving for Firefox compatibility, though significant gaps remain.

Carl Mawson, the head of e-communications at the Department for Work & Pensions, said: "We are very much aware of the widening range of browsers used by our customers, such as Firefox and Opera".

"We aim to address this, so that our Web sites work in as many browsers, and on as many platforms as possible."

While the Jobcentre Plus Web site itself works with non-IE browsers, the job search feature on the site does not work in the Firefox browser, because the lists of job groups, types and titles are not populated when the search page is opened. The organisation plans to fix this feature in the second half of this year.

Other companies are also planning to add Firefox support. Autodesk is working on Firefox support for MapGuide, a product that allows companies to distribute GIS (geographic information system) applications on the Web, although it is uncertain whether the company plans to add Firefox support to other products.

Organisations that have recently updated their Web sites to be compatible with Firefox include Powerhouse, an electrical retailer based in Oxfordshire, and English Heritage,

Firefox's market share has significantly increased over the last year. According to Web analytics company OneStat.com, the open-source browser has increased from 2.1 per cent in May 2004 to 8.7 per cent in April 2005.

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May 03, 2005

More than 2 million downloads of the new Opera 8.00 Browser have taken place in just two weeks.

This includes all language versions and platforms, with the English version accounting for 1.3 million of the total, and the German language edition 400,000.

It comes on the back of increasing competitiveness in the browser market, with Firefox reportedly reaching over 10% of the browser market last week.

Tim O'Reilly, the person behind the O'Reilly computing and publishing network, recently published statistics showing that Internet Explorer usage on his company sites were down by a third, with Firefox making strong progress.

However, despite the strong figures from Opera, it still has to battle with users preferring Firefox over Mozilla, not least due to simpler ease of use options, and that Firefox downloads have been causing supply problems that has required the assistance of Google to ensure continued download support.

According to Janco Associates, Opera still has some way to go, with less than a full percentile of market usage, according to their recent report on the browser market.

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March 16, 2005

Rincon, the Microsoft code-word for IE7, has had details of its development released.

According to the Microsoft-Watch article, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 Details Begin to Leak:

IE 7.0 will feature international domain name (IDN) support; transparent Portable Network Graphics (PNG) support, which will allow for the display of overlayed images in the browser; and new functionality that will simplify printing from inside IE 7.0, partner sources said. The new browser also will likely include a built-in news aggregator.

As well as offering tabbed browsing like Firefox, Rincon will also feature the following security improvements:

reduced privilege mode becomes the default;

no cross-domain scripting and/or scripting access;

improved Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) user interface;

possible integration between IE 7.0 and Microsoft's Windows anti-spyware service, which currently is in beta.

Additionally, according to the CNet report Microsoft yielding to IE standards pressure?, there is expectation that IE7 will provide closer implementation of W3C standards compliance, not least with regards to CSS 2:

While Microsoft declined to answer any questions about IE 7, the company has repeatedly brought up the issue of IE 7 standards support on its developer-oriented blogs to solicit suggestions on what changes developers would like to see in the upcoming release of the browser.

IE7 is expected to debut as a beta-release this summer.

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February 25, 2005

The Mozilla Foundation have released Firefox 1.0.1.

As reported by CNet in Mozilla releases Firefox security update, this is especially to fix:

a vulnerability in the Internationalized Domain Names (IDN), a standard for handling special character sets in domain names that could let an attacker spoof Web sites on non-Microsoft browsers. The standard allows companies to register domain names that appear to be the same in different languages.

However, as indicated in the Mozillazine commentary, Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 Released, users cannot simply upgrade to Firefox 1.0.1, but must uninstall any earlier versions of Firefox on their machine first before installing the new verion.

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February 12, 2005

While rumour and speculation concerning a Google browser remains rife, Ask Jeeves have unexpectedly announced that they, too, are looking to develop a Jeeves browser based on Mozilla foundations.

Posted in Mozilla's On Fire on the Ask blog, developer Tuoc Luong explains how he discussed three specific issues with the Mozilla foundation:

1) Open-source development of Ask desktop search
2) Development of Ask browser
3) Application of Ask's Octopus software in conjunction with Mozilla's use of the XUL platform.

This marks a continued period of aggression by Ask Jeeves in the search market, after also recently announcing the acquisition of bloglines, which is the world's most popular RSS feed aggregator.

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January 25, 2005

Firefox project development manager, Ben Goodger, announced in the simply titled Changes that he is now employed by Google - but that he will continue work on Firefox.

The move will inflame continued speculation that Google are planning to release their own browser based on Mozilla technology.

A Firefox 1.1 release is expected to be a general bug fix and security upgrade. However, Ben Goodger also refers to Firefox versions 1.5 and 2.0 that he is working on, which could very well be the formats that introduce specific Google features, not least Google search, and various features of Google's existing toolbar for Internet Explorer.

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January 12, 2005

Universities have been offered advertising-free versions of the Opera browser to use on their networks.

Opera, which is normally provides a subscription-based browser product, had attempted to increase its share in universities with a single $1 purchase fee to supply the browser with all advertising removed.

However, although establishments such as Oxford University, Harvard, and MIT, all offer Opera on their networks, Opera has now dropped even the $1 charge, in an attempt to increase distribution.

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January 08, 2005

Security company Secunia reported on serious flaws in both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox could leave users vulnerable to hacking attacks.

Secunia updated it advisory Microsoft Internet Explorer Multiple Vulnerabilities to "extremely critical" after exploit code for one of three reported vulnerabilities was posted on the internet.

According to the CNet report IE flaw threat hits the roof:

Exploit code for one of the vulnerabilities, a flaw in an HTML Help control, was published on the Internet on Dec. 21 in an advisory by GreyHats Security Group.

"In order for us to rate a vulnerability as extremely critical, there has to be a working exploit out there and one that doesn't require user interaction," Kristensen said. "This is our highest rating and is the last warning for users to fix their systems."

The exploit code can be used to attack computers running Windows XP even if Microsoft's Service Pack 2 patch has been installed, Secunia said. The company is advising people to disable IE's Active X support as a preventative measure, until Microsoft develops a patch for the problem.

However, new vulnerabilities have also been reported in the increasingly popular Mozilla Firefox browser, as in Firefox flaw raises phishing fears:

The flaw in Mozilla Firefox 1.0, details of which were published by security company Secunia on Tuesday, could allow hackers to spoof the URL in the download dialog box that pops up when a Firefox user tries to download an item from a Web site. This flaw is caused by the dialog box incorrectly displaying long sub-domains and paths, which can be exploited to conceal the actual source of the download.

Mikko Hypponen, director of antivirus research at software maker F-Secure, said this bug could make Firefox users vulnerable to cybercriminals. "The most likely way we could see this exploited would be in phishing scams," he said.

However, as pointed out, users would have to click a link in an e-mail to a phishing site, and then download the malicious code for the exploit to work - and while Internet Explorer remains the phishing favourite due to its market share in the browser market, the warning on the Firefox exploit is not rated so severe as the Internet Exploror 6 warning above.

Microsoft has already announced that 3 "critical" security patches will be released next week for Windows, but have yet to comment on whether these patches will address the vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer.

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December 24, 2004

Opera are determined not to be left behind in the battle for the browser market, as the open source Mozilla Firefox fights into Microsoft Internet Explorer's dominant market share.

Announcing teh release of a new test version, it comes not simply with additional support for formats such as RSS, but also offers surfing via voice activated commands and the ability to have web pages read to them.

According to the report in CNet: Opera releases new talking Web browser:

The company said it has made enough improvements to turn the final version of this beta download into a major new release, instead of an ordinary incremental upgrade.

The new Opera beta version also includes user interface improvements such as bigger browsing space, cleaner menus, and better printing support, the company says. The browser also now works with Google's Gmail, correcting a problem that had led some Opera users to switch to Firefox.

The voice support is powered by IBM's Embedded ViaVoice technology, which Opera licensed early in the year.

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December 23, 2004

Chris Jablonski at ZDnet makes a rather astonishing observation in his report, Enterprise IT to Firefox: "Your resume looks great, but sorry; we don t see a fit ".

Simply put, IT departments seem unwilling to work with Mozilla Firefox in a corporate enviornment.

Why? The answer is simply that they are unused to working with it, and because of close integration between Microsoft products, means that changing any aspect of that relationship needs to justify itself in terms of immediate costs.

As the MetaGroup explain in more detail in What Will Drive Firefox Adoption in the Enterprise?

Despite all the media noise around the Firefox browser, we do not believe the majority of IT organizations will decide to support it for a number of key reasons. These include the lack of subcomponent administration (for desktop lockdown), compatibility, and integration with other desktop applications. Compatibility is an interesting one. While IE has been criticized by purists for its poor adherence to standards, it is also the browser most sites have customized their development for. Many of the features talked about with Firefox are red herrings (e.g., tabbed browsing, ad blocking, extension architecture). However, some IT organizations have noticed stunning performance benefits in using Firefox with specific applications and will therefore likely support it in limited release - but only where performance is a more important consideration than the combination of all other factors. If consumer take-up of Firefox reaches the vast majority of users, then IE in the corporate environment will be reconsidered, but for now, the benefits of migration do not stack up.

Which is a situation I personally find pretty ridiculous. Internet Explorer is build upon inherent security vulnerabilities, and in a coporate environment where a large number of employees can be sharing this same flawed software, then you have a situation of mass liability.

Whilst this naturally should be factored into a corporate IT framework anyway - after all, you never known what any single employee may try to do willingly with any single software tool - resistance to offering a more secure browsing software tool is nothing more than resistance to necessary change.

The fact that Internet Explorer can much more easily coaxed into executing malicious code, surely means that encouraging its continuing use is effectively an invitation to suffer expensive damage at some later date.

After all, so many companies have suffered so badly at the hands of malicious scripts, especially in the form of mass mailing worms. And although it can certainly be appreciated that a complete change of Operating system is an extremely major undertaking in any develop IT infrastructure, the fact that where simpler software alternatives are offered that will work within existing operating enviroments - but are spurned - is simply an invitation to maintain an expensive status quo of repeated security attacks that cost UK companies millions in lost revenue every year.

If UK companies have no interest in tackling their larger security liabilities, then they invite such problems on themeselves. In which case, it becomes harder and harder to be sympathetic to their losses.

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December 09, 2004

Security firm Secunia warns that all known browsers suffer from a potentially devastating flaw - in which:

a website can inject content into another site's window if the target name of the window is known. This can e.g. be exploited by a malicious website to spoof the content of a pop-up window opened on a trusted website.

Surprising, although Internet Explorer is finger as vulnerable, so are all major browser platforms, such as Mozilla 1.7.3 and Mozilla Firefox 1.0, Opera, Konqueror, and Safari.

This Window Injection Vulnerability is further covered on the Secunia website:

Mozilla / Mozilla Firefox Window Injection Vulnerability

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November 30, 2004

AOL has released a prototype browser for users, which is based on a mixture of different browser technology. Employing both the Mozilla Gecko engine, as well as the Internet Explorer engine, the browser apparently allows surfers to switch as they like between both.

Check out a preview image from the Cnet coverage: New Netscape embraces Firefox, IE

and for a preview of the browser, check here: AOL browser preview

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November 25, 2004

Internet analysts OneStat report that Firefox 1.0 - released on November 9th this year - has eaten significantly into the browser market.

According to its own figures, Internet Explorer users now represent less than 90% of the browser market, with Firefox, Opera, and Safari chewing up the other 10+%, with Mozilla Firefox as the clear majority of the smaller browser users.

According to the OneStat figures, this is the current make-up of the browser market:

1 - Microsoft IE 6.0: 80.95%
2 - Microsoft IE 5.0: 4.18%
3 - Microsoft IE 5.5: 3.66%
4 - Mozilla Firefox 0.1: 2.79%
5 - Mozilla 1.x: 2.77%
6 - Mozilla Firefox 1.0: 1.79%
7 - Opera 7.x: 1.29%

The figures were compiled from 2 million unique users across 100 countries.

Net analyst WebSideStory had already reported a loss in market share of IE to just over 92% in October, and the Opera browser is about to see release of its new 7.6 version.

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November 24, 2004

Industry giant CNet turns its attention to browser toolbars, and evalautes them, with Search and enjoy: 7 search toolbars reviewed.

It's not a particularly text-heavy study - rather than examine general effectiveness, usefulness, and reason for being, it looks squarely at the search function - how fast, how relevant.

Try not to mistake the boxes on the right as ads - that's where the basic toolbar overview and assessment is.

Not surprisingly, the Google Toolbar seems to be come up tops - though the article certainly makes a point of illustrating that marketing and variability in the browser market.

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November 18, 2004

It seems that Internet Browser software has continued to be a major battlefield between the big corporations, and today is no exception.

For a start, Netscape yesterday confirmed reports that it's producing an updated browser for AOL based on firefox technology. AOL is hinting that the version it releases will have a number of additional features installed by default.

Meanwhile, the Mozilla Firefox homepage now focuses very prominently the Google search bar, effectively setting up a war standard that Google will patronise the open source movement in browser software.

Today Microsoft reacted by suggesting that they will seriously consider releasing updates for Internet Explorer - a move Microsoft have been trying to avoid because it promises to adversely affect Microsoft's already long-delayed Longhorn software development, where a new updated Internet Explorer were planned for release.

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October 22, 2004

In a remarkably aggressive move involving open source software, Spread Firefox is looking for donations to put a full-page ad in the New York times.

Firefox 1.0 is coming soon, let's keep building momentum and fill the ad -- the first-ever, full-page advertisement in a major daily newspaper created and paid for by the open source community.

The sign-up includes:

• The full-page ad will include the names of everyone who supports the campaign along with a message about the benefits/features of Firefox.


• The ad will only include verifiable, personal names: no URLs, emails, etc.


• An individual contribution of $30 will get your name included in the ad ($10 student rate).


• The campaign will act as a fundraiser to support all Firefox 1.0 launch activities,

As if Internet Explorer wasn't a big enough advertisement for using Mozilla Firefox. :)

In related news, Silicon.com relates that Mozilla's Firefox release has now surpassed the 5 million donwload mark:

Five million Firefoxes released into the wild

James Governor, an analyst at Red Monk, said that it is not just Web users that are interested in Firefox. software vendors are also showing an interest. "For the last seven years ISVs generally supported IE only, now that�fs changing," said Governor. "We are starting to see ISVs developing Web applications which support both IE and Firefox."

Hardly surprising considering the long-suffering security problems that Internet Explorer doggedly suffers from.

Kudos to whoever is paying the bandwidth fees for Mozilla, though. :)

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October 12, 2004

AOL have been quietly developing their own standalone browser, while the internet is otherwise distracted by speculation on a Google Browser, Internet Explorer security problems, and various front-of-shop revamps to AOL and Yahoo.

So what does the AOL browser do and offer?

Well, according to Eweek's article AOL Readies Standalone Browser, he software will be completely standalone from the usual AOL software package that subscribers of their ISP service must install - which means that most PC users should be able to use the new AOL browser without needing prior software installations.

AOL browser features

Apparently, the new browser won't use the tabbing feature that many Firefox users love (but I never use - open me a window anytime). However, an interesting new feature is the ability to generate page thumbnails while the mouse arrow hovers over either the "forward" and "back" buttons.

Also list:

The AOL Browser will also provide several tools dubbed "Power Browsing." These new features let viewers zoom in and out on a page, force a Web page to display in high-contrast for the vision-impaired, and highlight or list links on a page.

Apparently, because of the recent win over Microsoft over Netscape competition issues (AOL bought out Netscape and effectively reaped the case benefits), AOL has the royalty-free rights to use Internet Explorer technology for 6 years.

However, the question that begs is how mindful will AOL be of security? Internet Explorer has become an effective laughing stock for it's security failures, and as reported earlier today, details on new critical security flaws in IE and other Microsoft products were released today.

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