The next release of Internet Explorer may include a private browsing feature that automatically deletes all traces of a user's web browsing activity. Presently Safari is the only well known browser offering such an option, which is sometimes to referred to as "porn mode", for reasonably obvious reasons... One obvious use case for privacy browsing modes is surfing the Net for pornographic materials without leaving traces, but other, ... Read full entry

I'm starting to wonder if the new Facebook, which looks all very dandy by the way, has been especially optimised for use with Internet Explorer. "Optimisation" harks back to the days of Web 1.0, when websites used to bear, on their splashscreens (remember those?) notices announcing that the site was better suited, or optimised, to a certain browser, usually IE, or the old Netscape browser. Then there were the ... Read full entry

If SitePoint's web stats are anything to go by, web professionals will have completely ceased using Internet Explorer in about five years time. The emphasis is on web professionals though (who, in this instance, make up the majority of SitePoint's readers), or those aware of the browser alternatives to IE. Many other internet users will continue to use IE given it is still the pre-installed default browser on ... Read full entry

Aside from the minor matter that Internet Explorer is installed, by default, on 90 per cent (or some such figure) of PCs worldwide, much of the reporting I saw on Download Day, and the release of Firefox 3, saw IE relegated to the sidelines. It's faster than Microsoft Internet Explorer, but it’s not the fastest browser in the world - depending on who you ask, ... Read full entry

Though still in pre-release IETester sounds like a promising application that tests websites in a number of versions of Internet Explorer from IE 5.5 through to beta 1 of IE8. I've been playing around with it, and my god, disassociated looks terrible in IE 5.5 and 6, but I already knew that. While there's still work to do this is certainly looking promising. The "holy grail" of website testing per chance?

A study of the four best known current browsers finds Safari and Firefox (especially pending release version three) to be the best when tested against a variety of benchmarks. Web 2.0 applications and sites place the focus firmly on browser performance. Anyone who still believes that the speed of your DSL connection is the only potential bottleneck is gravely mistaken. Key parts of Ajax applications run locally, which ... Read full entry

Windows XP SP3 upgrade spells trouble for Internet Explorer The imminently due Service Pack 3 for Windows XP apparently doesn't permit rolling back to a prior version of the Microsoft web browser once a new version is installed. Writing on the MSDN website, Jane Maliouta said people who are trying out Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and want to roll back to IE6 would need to complete that downgrade before installing ... Read full entry

Microsoft's Interoperability Principles and IE8 Microsoft has decided to abandon the "controversial" version targeting feature in Internet Explorer 8. We've decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we've posted previously. Short and to the point. Needless to say standardistas are delighted, and not just because version targeting has been dropped . It seems like ... Read full entry

Standards mode is the new quirks mode. Apologies to those of disassociated's readers who are wondering what the hell "version targeting", "doctype switching", (and not to mention "browser sniffing") is all about, and why anyone cares in the first place. I'm still trying to get my head around the concept, and, needless to say, have been doing a little reading on the subject. I thought I'd conclude discussion on the topic ... Read full entry

In defense of version targeting. Jeffrey Zeldman's thoughts on the version targeting debate: Today too many sites aren't semantic, don't validate, and aren't designed to specs of the W3C. Idealists think we can change this by "forcing" ignorant developers to get wisdom about web standards. Idealists hope, if sites suddenly display poorly in IE, the developers will want to know why, and will ... Read full entry