Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla and Opera all were busy in 2010 with browser development as HTML 5 took center stage.

By Sean Michael Kerner

I am a Huge Microsoft Fan.  One of the biggest I know in fact. I have used, benefited from, and evangelized Microsoft products for 20 years starting with the first release of Windows & Word which I pushed to my DOS/WordPerfect clients who had Never seen a mouse before.

But with that said, I have always been less than impressed with their ability to make a product easy to use, and this opinion has become strengthened with the recent introduction of the Mac Book Pro into my life last year.  I still believe that Microsoft solutions represent the best choice for many buyers when all things are considered, but man to I wish they were easier to use.  My experience this morning getting the IE9 Beta is a great example.

Keep in mind that although not too technical, I am much more technical and current with my Operating Systems and Apps than the average consumer.  So I have to think that if an upgrade is hard for me, it is virtually impossible for most.  I also understand that my many hundreds of Microsoft friends out there are going to blast me with comments to this post telling me things I should have done to prevent the following issues, but again my point is that if I didn't do those things, most people would not have, so maybe they shouldn't be required??

So, I am eager to try IE9 Beta.  Primarily because my current version of IE8 is just too slow for my psychotic work style.  I require such real time response when I work that to keep me from getting frustrated, I have to have two computers going at a time, both with multiple browsers and Tabs open so that I can keep active and not have to wait while things process.  If I get delayed, even by seconds, I go crazy.  I use Chrome, Flock, and IE8 now.  Chrome is my primary since it is the fastest, but many of the sites I use require IE.

So, I go to www.microsoft.com and download IE9 Beta.  It tells me that my system isn't current, and cant install, but it didn't tell me what was out of date.  So I check my System Update checker thingy and see that I have some Windows updates that need to be run.  Not sure why since I always do these when prompted, and in fact thought I had it turned on to run automatically, but none the less, I run them.  One of them is a major patch that will take an hour or more it says, so I run it.

Microsoft is warning of a new type of scareware, dubbed Rogue:MSIL/Zeven, which identifies a user's browser--whether it's Google Chrome, Internet Explorer or Firefox--and serves up a nearly perfect-looking version of the browser's malware warning page.

Microsoft has delivered four developer previews of Internet Explorer (IE) 9 so far, but has yet to show off the new interface for its next-generation browser. That is expected to happen on September 15, during Microsoft’s beta launch event in San Francisco.

IE9 started from the premise that the modern web will deliver HTML5 experiences that feel more like native applications than sites. Building on hardware-accelerated SVG, canvas, video, audio, and text, developers will use the power of the whole PC to achieve great performance. On the modern web, developers will use the same markup across different HTML5 browsers.

With IE9, we have worked much more closely with the developer community. Developers have had an earlier (and more frequently updated) look at the platform. With that early engagement, developer feedback has had a bigger impact than before. People have downloaded IE9 Platform Previews over 2.5 million times. The samples on the IE Test Drive site have had over 20 million visitors. We appreciate the positive feedback and all the specific issues logged in Connect. They’ve helped us make demonstrable improvements that the community has noticed.

The Wall Street Journal has interesting article about Microsoft's internal dilemma about privacy settings in Internet Explorer. It's basically a matter of privacy vs. advertising, both of which Microsoft has an interest in.

July 1, 2010 2:37 AM PDT - by Stephen Shankland

This chart shows the changing usage of the five top browsers; the darker colors are from earlier and the lightest color shows percentages for June 2010.

(Credit: data from Net Applications, chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox.

IE increased usage from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network Web sites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7--and by what Web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6.