Your choice in Web browser is about to get more interesting as all three of the top browsers on the market today - Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome - prepare and launch updated beta versions, each offering compelling, and in some cases unique, new features.
Although IE's beta launch is still weeks away, the company has detailed its plans for the improved browser, which include additions like hardware acceleration, HTML5 support and a faster JavaScript engine. Firefox, meanwhile, has added multi-touch support for Windows 7, among other things. And Chrome's latest has added form autofill, plus extension and autofill synchronization.
Microsoft Live Labs has released an early version of a free tool for easy sharing of high-resolution Web- images. Enter a URL at http://zoom.it and it will spit out a short link and embed code for a basic but sleek image viewer that lets you zoom around an image or image of a website.
The tool is usable and it looks great, reminding us of the fun and zoomy Street Slide feature Microsoft recently introduced in Bing Maps.
That little search bar at the top right of your Firefox browser (along with the Google search on the default Firefox start page, as a reader pointed out) is driving 9.18% of searches, according to research by advertising network Chitika, Inc.
That's a huge chunk in a market where Google handles more than 80% of searches and its competitors Bing and Yahoo! handle just 8.56% and 6.69%, respectively - suggesting a huge bidding war may be brewing for November 2011 when Google's contract with Mozilla is up.
The map created by Open Street Map, a project building a free, open-source, editable map of the world, is now available as a layer in Bing Maps.
Users who download the OpenStreetMap app (and Microsoft Silverlight) can switch between the traditional layers, which include bird's eye, aerial and standard street map views, and Mapnik, a colorful map that includes businesses and landmarks labeled by users and devices through Open Street Map.
Microsoft developers planned "industry-leading" privacy features in Internet Explorer 8 that would have automatically blocked third-party tracking tools like beacons, but one feature was scaled back and another was dropped because they went against the interests of advertisers, the Wall Street Journal reported in its seven-part feature on Internet privacy today.
The privacy features sparked an internal debate in 2008 between revenue-minded executives and developers who wanted to make Internet Explorer 8 better for consumers in order to gain back the market share lost to browsers like Mozilla Firefox, the WSJ reported.
Both Microsoft and Yahoo have announced that the two companies have begun testing the partnership originally inked a year ago, which will bring Bing search results to Yahoo.
The testing is currently affecting a quarter of Yahoo's search traffic and, while not site-wide, Microsoft is warning on its blog that webmasters should be diligent in making sure that their sites are showing up in search results correctly, lest they be left behind. To that end, Microsoft is releasing a completely redesigned version of its Bing Webmaster Tools.
As we announced a month ago, ReadWriteWeb is partnering with Microsoft this summer on a competition for developers to build the most compelling Visual Studio Extensions. We've already had one submission, and a number of other community members have let us know they are working on an extension they'll submit before the Aug. 31 deadline.
However, we wanted to call your attention to the competition, and also highlight a new video on the Extensions Contest Microsite (also embedded below) that gives a great less-than-three-minute overview by John Bristowe on Visual Studio Extensions and how to build them.
Last night, Microsoft's Bing got a major overhaul that added more entertainment features to the company's search engine. Bing now makes it easier to find song lyrics, TV shows with online video, as well as information about movies and movie times. Bing now also allows users to preview songs via Microsoft's Zune service. The implementation of this - with the songs and preview buttons at the top of the search results - looks almost exactly like Google's Music Search. In addition to these search-oriented features, Microsoft also partnered with a number of developers to offer about 100 popular casual games directly on Bing.
Not only did Bing arrive as a new search option in Apple's iOS4 update yesterday, but Microsoft also just launched a new version of its native Bing for iPhone app. The app now features a RedLaser-like barcode scanner and an enhanced social search mode that highlights results from your social network on Twitter and Facebook. In addition, the app now also features a basic Twitter and Facebook client.
Microsoft has introduced its Windows Live Messenger to Apple. The Messenger app is designed for iPhone and iPod Touch.
The app allows users to instant message their friends list, view and comment on friends' photos and status updates from Windows Live, Facebook, and MySpace,see what their Messenger friends are sharing via Flickr, YouTube, and other social sites.
