Internet Explorer 8. Google & Yahoo killer?

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  1. #1

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    Internet Explorer 8. Google & Yahoo killer?

    It seems that the upcoming IE8 is going to have a privacy tool which will allow people to block companies that track them around the internet.

    Accidental Ad Blocker - Post I.T. - A Technology Blog From The Washington Post - (washingtonpost.com)

    To me this is a very sneaky way of hurting companies that make their revenues from advertising and is going to trash the industry. If I was at Microsoft, I would do just exactly this.

    My guess is that it will allow users to decide in masses whether they want to be tracked and monitored by Google by questioning their preferences.

    Microsoft could even update your browser and block Google's ads, analytics and other tracking. That would cut the revenues and air supply to both of these companies.

    With this in mind I think IE8 is going to be impressive and is going to give Firefox a run for its money.

    The question is whether MS will have to guts to block them an make a huge hole in their balance sheets and send their stocks plummeting.


  2. #2

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    <cough>Anti-competitive behaviour</cough> from an already convicted monopolist...


  3. #3

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    It is still in beta but when the full version is out maybe it won't be Microsoft doing it, they will just give you the Option to block them. What do you think people will do?

    "Hello this is IE8 Security warning. gooogle-analytics.com has been present on 8 of the websites you have visited today, would you like to protect your privacy and make sure they do not track you any further?"

    For those that want to try IE8 Beta Internet Explorer 8 Beta: Home Page


  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by jonnye:
    <cough>Anti-competitive behaviour</cough> from an already convicted monopolist...
    anti-competetive in what sense? the user will have the option to block should they choose, so (in my limited understanding of the technical issues) would not suffer as a result, and by potentionally causing damage to their rivals, surely this is the epitome of competetive behaviour?!

  5. #5

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    People still use IE?


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    I do I am still on vers

    KERNEL32.DLL: Interrupt Error on


  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by vmlinuz:
    People still use IE?
    I even thought IE was already burried... lol :P

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by vmlinuz:
    People still use IE?
    Well, if you look at the numbers 30% of users are not even aware that other web browsers exist.

    Due to wonderful developers ActiveX is a huge dead weight around some industries. The real estate in the US is pretty much 100% IE due to various online databases that will never work in Firefox, Opera, or Safari.

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    Uh, it's called PeerGuardian, and it's been around for years. IE8 is nothing new. Also many other programs out there that let you block whomever you want.

    Oh wait, you'd need to know how to use a computer for those.

    Their slogan should be "IE8 - internet for dummies!"


  10. #10

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    Quote Originally Posted by DanielandHayley:
    anti-competetive in what sense? the user will have the option to block should they choose, so (in my limited understanding of the technical issues) would not suffer as a result, and by potentionally causing damage to their rivals, surely this is the epitome of competetive behaviour?!
    IANAL It could be argued that Microsoft are leveraging/abusing a monopoly position on the desktop browser market to cause disruption in another market in which they compete with (amongst others) Google.[1]

    There could be parallels drawn between suddenly 'integrating' your browser with the desktop to wipe out a dominant (cross-platform too) competitor.[2] A lot would probably come down to whose lawyer can argue the best, and whose lobbyists lobby the best. Ain't capitalism fantastic?

    [1] Yes, harsh on Microsoft, but this is part of the problem of being a convicted monopolist, you end up having to play by tighter rules. You're also subject to more stringent regulations to ensure you don't abuse your position in one market to impact another. I personally feel the US authorities are pretty limp wristed here - the Microsoft behemoth is basically dependent upon two groups (Windows OS and Office). I know the others are slowly contributing more, but really it's a drop in the ocean compared to those two.

    [2] Aided and abetted by Netscape at the time who made their product free too late, and turned a simple, nice browser that everyone wanted to use into an overblown piece of bloat called Communicator,,,

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