5 Things That Should Excite You About Internet Explorer 10

March 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer has been playing catch-up with the more popular — and dare we say “modern” — web browsers out there like Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome for the last few years. It has been a laughing stock before the last couple of versions because of its knack for being an enemy to web designers everywhere, mostly because it basically has its own set of standards. Yes, the last couple of versions have improved a lot and it remains to be one of the top three web browsers in terms of usage worldwide, falling behind Firefox and Chrome, but it seems like Internet Explorer is finally doing its own thing and not just trying to catch up with the Chrome and Firefox’s features. Here are five (5) things about Internet Explorer 10 that should tickle our fancy:

1. Total Immersion with Metro

The Metro style experience in the forthcoming Windows 8 promises an immersive navigation experience. This smooth and almost effortless way of navigating through your system can also be found in IE10. It is designed to let users focus on what content they browse and not how they browse, which means that there’s a possibility that users may actually forget that they’re using a web browser, or at least a type of web browser as they know it right now.

2. Super Sensitive

IE10 and Windows 8 have been designed to be experienced on mobile devices that support touch technology, but this doesn’t mean that Microsoft has forgotten about you keyboard-typin’ and mouse-wieldin’ people out there. The Metro style has been optimized to offer the smoothest touch browsing experience possible and the most responsive keyboard and mouse navigation so far in the history of Internet Explorer.

3. Navigate When You Need It

To bring the focus more on the actual websites you are browsing. Internet Explorer 10 gives you all the space you need to view the website by having the navigation bar disappear when you don’t need it. It slides back out when you need any of the controls on the bar such as buttons for Back, Forward, Stop and Refresh, pinning sites to the Start screen, and the address bar.

4. Charms

Windows 8 introduces Charms, which are basically common actions that you will most likely continue doing even in this radically new computing experience. Some of these Charms, four to be exact, are supported within IE10 itself. Aside from the highly intuitive navigation bar, the Charms bar also only appears if you need to use the Share, Search, Devices, and Settings Charms.

5. Site Tiles

The Windows 8 Start Screen is not just a prettier version of the usual Windows desktop. It is literally where you can start working or browsing. It’s just like those home page services that give you an easy to access home page on your browser where you can access all kinds of services without opening multiple tabs first. Instead of just having handing links to applications, you can also have links to websites you have pinned via IE10.

The Bottom Line

For people who have been frustrated with earlier versions of Internet Explorer and have found solace in the arms of another web browser, it’s going to be hard to trust IE again. However, Windows 8 and all the cool new developments are compelling enough to make people try IE10 at least. Probably.

Filed Under: web browsers Tagged With: ,

Discover Who’s Tracking You With Mozilla Collusion

March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

No matter how careful we are and how savvy we are with our web browser’s privacy settings, it is inevitable that we will come across a website that will track your web browsing activities. Even the most trustworthy sites do this. It’s all about marketing research and there is no escaping it. It’s not all bad, though. Online data tracking does have its benefits but it doesn’t mean we can’t eliminate the disadvantages without getting rid of the benefits. If you’re using Mozilla Firefox, you can do exactly that with Collusion.

What is Collusion?

Collusion is a Firefox add-on that lets you see all the websites tracking your activities on the World Wide Web. It creates a spider-web-like graphic representation of third parties tracking your movements across the web in real time, giving you an idea of how you are being tracked by simply clicking links and checking out content without you even realizing it.

How do I install Collusion?

Like any other Firefox add-on, you can download and install Collusion by going to its add-on page and clicking the Install button. You will be guided every step of the way and you can take comfort in the fact that there are only a few steps in installing a Firefox add-on. Unlike most Firefox add-ons, though, Collusion does not require you to restart Firefox once it is installed. You can proceed to monitoring who’s tracking you immediately after installing this add-on.

How can this help me exactly?

With Collusion still being in its early stage of operation, there’s not a lot you can do with it except see who’s tracking you. That doesn’t mean that this benefit is not important. Once you know who is tracking you, you can now determine whether you want these entities tracking your every move or not. There are other tools out there that you can use in tandem with Collusion to deal with entities that you do not want tracking you. One good example of these tools is TrackerBlock.

TrackerBlock gives you total control over online tracking. You can set cookie blocking, persistent opt-out cookies, Do Not Track signals, and complete control over HTML5 and Flash. Collusion is there to tell you that someone’s tracking you, TrackerBlock is there to tell you what you can do about it as well as actually let you do it.

It’s Just the Beginning

Collusion is still not in its full version yet but when it reaches that stage, users will be able to contribute to a larger cause by opting in to a global database of online tracking data. This global database will be used by researchers, journalists, developers and other people to get a clearer view of how data is being tracked and used on the World Wide Web.

The Bottom Line

Most of the websites we use on a daily basis can’t be considered harmful even if they are tracking our activities. It’s all part of their legitimate and lawful businesses and as consumers, we should expect to get involved in some kind of marketing research in one way or another. However, it would be best if we are aware that we are participating in this type of marketing research. Collusion gives you that choice and it is recommended that you take it.

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