ReadWriteEnterprise

Looking to have some fun this weekend and want to spend a few minutes taking a trip down memory lane? How about taking Network World's browsing test here. (link corrected) No, we aren't talking about verifying your HTML code, just your general knowledge of browser-based trivia. There are questions on the origins of Netscape (remember them?), what was the first Apple browser that pre-dated Safari, and questions about who really invented the browser. Some of the questions are very easy and some will take some study, or at least the ability to bring up Google and ask the right question. At least we don't write about the "browser wars" anymore.

And here is a short historical treatment in a great infographic by Jacob Gube .

Internet Explorer 8 and 9 both block more socially engineered malware than Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari. At least, that's what the Web Browser Group Test Socially-Engineered Malware Q3 2010 report from NSS Labs says. The results are similar to NSS Labs' previous reports on the subject. Past browser testing reports from NSS Labs were reported to have been commissioned by Microsoft. I'm no longer able to find any disclosure about this in these reports.

So, should you scrap those plans to deploy Chrome in the enterprise you made earlier this evening? Not necessarily. These results are focused on the browsers' native ability to block malware downloads - not the overall security of each browser.

The nearly decade old browser Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 is still the third most popular browser in the world, according to research firm Net Applications. Why does this ancient monstrosity persist? Esther Schindler, writing for IT Expert Voice, decided to find out. Some of the reasons are to be expected - the need to support legacy applications, ignorance, etc. But Schindler turned up one particularly surprising reason.