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Windows enthusiast site Neowin.net on Thursday claimed that Microsoft's MSN group is working on a new toolbar that will add tabs to Internet Explorer, an idea one analyst thinks could boost the whole browser-as-money-maker idea. "MSN is currently developing a next-generation version of their popular MSN Toolbar Suite," said the Neowin site in a brief item. The updated version, Neowin claimed, would give current versions of Internet Explorer the ability to display multiple pages in one frame, organized by tabs, much as Mozilla's Firefox browser now offers. Although Microsoft has committed to adding tabs to IE, it's said that the...

After months of keeping its prized cow in the barn, Microsoft is beginning to let Longhorn out of the stall for public viewing. Beginning with brief demonstrations to reporters this week, the software maker is starting to shed light on just what the next version of Windows will offer when it hits the market next year. High on the list of features are security enhancements, improved desktop searching and organizing, and better methods for laptops to roam from one network to another. "This is going to be a big deal," Jim Allchin, Microsoft group vice president, told CNET News.com on...

Startup Round Two on Tuesday officially opened for business, announcing plans to build software and services that the company hopes will someday make the Firefox browser consumers' control panel for all Web activity. With no products of its own yet, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based, company introduced itself to the public by unveiling its corporate website and announcing that it would assist developers of several Firefox add-ons currently available, including FlastGot, Bandwidth Tester and SwitchProxy. All of the software can be downloaded from the Round Two site. Round Two, comprised of four fulltime employees and 10 contractors, hasn't landed any venture...

This superior browser was created by the Mozilla Foundation, a not-for-profit group set up by AOL/Netscape refugees whose software benefits from the collaborative efforts of open source development. One of the best features of Firefox is tabbed browsing. You can keep open any number of Web pages and toggle from one to another by simply clicking on its "tab." This keeps your screen from being overrun by browser windows. No doubt Microsoft's Internet Explorer will soon offer this handy feature. But there's more to like about Firefox, including faster loading Web pages and virtual immunity from dreaded spyware and adware....

NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - If your Mac is running OS X, you no doubt already know that Apple's operating system is immune to the Internet ailments that plague Windows, such as spyware, Web-page hijacking and, of course, Windows viruses. And you've probably had a chance to dump Microsoft's tired OS X browser, Internet Explorer, in favor of one the best Web browsers ever designed, Apple's superb Safari. But Safari has company. Firefox, the Web browser favored by millions of Windows users, is available in a version for OS X, as a free download from http://www.mozilla.org.I'm a big Safari fan, but...

Microsoft will build software for managing identities into Windows in order to beef up security by giving users more control over their personal information, the world's largest software maker said on Tuesday. The ID technology, called "info-cards," will give users more control over their own personal information in order to shop and access services online, said Michael Stephenson, a director in Microsoft's Windows Server division. Microsoft is currently working on a new Internet Explorer Web browser and version of Windows, code-named Longhorn, but Stephenson declined to say whether info-cards would be built into the current Windows XP version or into...

After several days of confusion about the future of its open-source browser suite, the Mozilla Foundation called it quits, and announced that it would stop development of its namesake. All development efforts will instead be focused on Firefox, the foundation's stand-alone browser, and Thunderbird, its e-mail client. Supporters of the Mozilla browser suite, however, aren't ready to throw in the towel, and it appears likely that it will live on under a new name and under the aegis of an independent developer community. The Mozilla suite, now five years old, is a collection of browser, e-mail client, and HTML editor,...

Some useful citizen has created an installer that will nail IE with spyware, even if a surfer is using Firefox (or another alternative browser) or has blocked access to the malicious site in IE beforehand. The technique allows a raft of spyware to be served up to Windows users in spite of any security measures that might be in place. Christopher Boyd, a security researchers at Vitalsecurity.org, said the malware installer was capable of working on a range of browsers with native Java support. "The spyware installer is a Java applet powered by the Sun Java Runtime Environment, which allows...

Microsoft Internet Explorer is reported prone to a remote buffer overflow vulnerability. This issue presents itself when the application handles a malformed CSS file. A typical attack would involve the attacker creating a Web site that includes the malicious CSS file. The attacker may then entice a vulnerable user to visit the site. If successful, this attack may result in granting the attacker unauthorized access to the affected computer in the context of the user running Internet Explorer.

Security experts issued a warning this morning after detecting infections caused by Searchmeup, the first adware to use the Exploit/LoadImage vulnerability which downloads itself onto computers without the user's permission. Panda Software's PandaLabs warned that the pages from which Searchmeup are downloaded also contain a series of exploits to download other malware onto the computer, such as the Tofger.AT Trojan, which steals banking passwords, Dialer.BB and Dialer.NO, and adware called Adware/TopConvert. Searchmeup is downloaded onto the computer when the user visits maliciously coded web pages. Once installed it changes the home page to that of a search engine that displays...

A top Windows architect has left his Redmond home to join the ranks at Google, although it's not clear what his new position will involve. Marc Lucovsky, a 16-year Microsoft veteran, joins a number of high profile developers hired by the search giant, including Mozilla programmers Ben Goodger and Darin Fisher. According to the Microsoft Watch newsletter, Lucovsky voluntarily left his Microsoft position last November. Coming from a post at Digital Equipment Corporation, he was involved in the creation of Windows NT and the Win32 kernel. Most recently, Lucovsky was named chief software architect for the now-defunct Microsoft's .NET My...

America Online's Netscape team has opened its doors to the public, releasing the first beta of the revived Netscape Web browser. Based upon Firefox, Netscape version 8 focuses on security and user privacy, and supports rendering with both Mozilla's Gecko and Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser engines. As reported by BetaNews, AOL originally planned for a February beta, but pushed back the release to March citing the need for more time. The company has been polishing the numerous changes and enhancements that were added since the prototype of Netscape 8 last November.

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday said a federal appeals court has overturned a lower-court verdict that found the software giant guilty of infringing on a browser-related technology patent and ordered the company to pay more than $520 million in damages. The appellate court also sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in Chicago, giving Microsoft "the opportunity to tell the jury the whole story of how this technology was developed and present evidence that shows that Eolas (Technologies Inc.) did not invent this technology," the Redmond, Wash., company said in a statement. Microsoft said the ruling was a "clear...

Just a day after one security firm warned of a vulnerability in Firefox and Mozilla, a rival disclosed that another eight threaten the open-source browsers. The Danish security firm Secunia on Tuesday laid out the flaws, most of which could be used by criminals to spoof, or fake, various aspects of a Web site, ranging from its SSL secure site icon to the contents of an inactive tab. Other bugs can be exploited remotely by hackers able to introduce code of their own choosing on the vulnerable machine, possibly taking control of it or giving them access to files. For...

If you happened upon nj.com in the last month, you might have noticed a clucking penguin waddling across the computer screen, stumbling over text as it promoted a local utility company. On a cricket league chat board in New Zealand, exasperated users have been deluged with floating squares that try to interest them in mattresses, dating services and officially licensed trinkets from the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy. On the Web, the floater's time has come. Not to be confused with pop-up ads, which open new windows and clutter virtual desktops, these floaters, or overlays, or popovers (no one...

"update SAN FRANCISCO--Reversing a longstanding Microsoft policy, Bill Gates said Tuesday that the company will ship an update to its browser separately from the next major version of Windows. A beta, or test, version of Internet Explorer 7 will debut this summer, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said in a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2005 here. The company had said that it would not ship a new IE version before the next major update to Windows, code-named Longhorn, arrives next year. In announcing the plan, Gates acknowledged something that many outside the company had been arguing for...

The party's over. In the past year, the little browser that could, Firefox, became the people's hero, an underdog warrior that took a huge swipe at its enemy, Internet Explorer. IE dipped below 90 percent market share for the first time in years, while Firefox lured users like the Pied Piper, blowing past its own fundraising goals and reigniting the browser wars. Meanwhile, the bad news continued to mount for Microsoft. An IE exploit put even Windows XP SP2 users at risk from phishing schemes, even as Microsoft touted SP2 as the most secure version of Windows yet. Worse, major...

Yahoo Inc. on Thursday launched a beta release of a toolbar for Mozilla Firefox, a sign of the increasing popularity of the open-source web browser. The Sunnyvale, Calif., portal giant is providing Firefox users with a version of the toolbar Yahoo currently provides for Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer. The purpose of the software, which is installed under the browser's address bar, is to give people one-click access to Yahoo services. Features in the toolbar beta include search that looks for information on the web, Yahoo or on a particular website. There's also a search history to check previous searches. Translation...

Security experts are advising that spyware that targets browsers from the Mozilla Foundation has been spotted--a threat that could worsen as its Firefox browser takes market share from Microsoft. Stu Sjouwerman, the founder of Sunbelt Software, said on Tuesday that the anti-spyware company has discovered what it believes is the first spyware to take aim at surfers using Mozilla browsers. Richard Stiennon, the vice president of threat research at Webroot Software, which also develops anti-spyware tools, said that the malicious software does not target Firefox specifically. "According to my research team, this site does not target Firefox, but it does...

Phishers are taking advantage of Microsoft’s new software anti-piracy initiative by launching a wave of phishing e-mails in an attempt to get credit card numbers from Microsoft customers. The rogue e-mails also allow phishers to install spyware and adware on users’ machines. Last month Microsoft said it would not allow users in some countries install software updates online unless they could prove that their Microsoft software was legitimate. Security company Websense said it has received several reports of two new versions of spoofed e-mails that are being used to install spyware/adware onto end-user's machines and steal credit card details. The...