Internet, Internet Explorer | featured news

Microsoft has rushed to issue a patch for a previously unseen bug affecting IE 9 and previous versions of its browser. The problem, which affects hundreds of millions of IE browser users, is being used by attackers to install the Poison Ivy trojan. This piece of malware is used to steal data or take remote control of PCs.

Last Thursday, Microsoft announced several new features to the upcoming IE10, which will launch as part of Windows 8. One of these features, which turns on “Do Not Track” by default, has caused quite a stir over the weekend as new outlets and bloggers have discussed the potential benefits and ramifications of this feature.

Discovery comes just days after Web giant was found to be sidestepping the user privacy preferences in Apple's Safari. Read this blog post by Steven Musil on Security.

A month ago, Google's three-year effort to push its Web browser, Chrome, took a major step when analysts said it had passed Mozilla's Firefox to become the second-most popular tool of its kind on the Internet. Today, that climb continues and has some tech observers wondering whether Chrome could do the unthinkable and topple perennial leader Internet Explorer from atop the browser rankings.

In our Top Consumer Products of 2011 list, we selected the Chrome web browser as our number 1 pick. Its market share has grown over 2011 and it's on track to surpass Firefox as the 2nd most popular browser on the desktop (exactly when it passes Firefox depends on whose statistics you read). Over 2011 Google has demonstrated, in both user numbers and technical innovation, that Chrome is the most significant challenge to Microsoft's dominance of the browser market since the days of Netscape Navigator in the late 90s.

Internet Explorer takes the crown when it comes to protection from socially engineering malware.

A report claiming Internet Explorer users scored lower on IQ tests than users of other Web browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax.

Are users of other Web browsers smarter than the people who use Microsoft's Internet Explorer? A new survey doesn't quite say so. But it sure as heck suggests it. The survey by AptiQuant, a Vancouver-based Web consulting company, gave more than 100,000 participants an IQ test, while monitoring which browser they used to take the test.

The March launches of Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) and Firefox 4 failed to stop Microsoft's and Mozilla's decline in browser share, new Web usage data shows.

Neither Mozilla's Firefox 4 nor Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 have been available for download very long, but the two browsers are already battling for dominance. Currently in the lead? Firefox, who snagged "twice as much usage in half the time."