IE 8, Firefox 3 to tackle malware

Web browser updates in development from Microsoft and Mozilla will include better built-in protection against phishing, viruses, and other maladies.

At its Mix conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Microsoft demonstrated IE 8 for the first time publicly.

Larry Dignan at ZDNet points out that IE 8 will include better malware protection through a new feature called the Safety Filter, which improves on IE 7's phishing filter.

IE 8's Safety Filter

(Credit: Microsoft)

A beta test version of IE 8 is available for download now. Microsoft executives told News.com's Ina Fried that a broader test release of IE 8 will come this summer.

Likewise, Mozilla plans improved malware protection in Firefox 3, currently in beta testing. Mozilla says the new release warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware.

Stop back later on Thursday to read a more detailed first look at IE 8 by Robert Vamosi from CNET Reviews.

[Maclover1]

There is no war

Honestly you have people that dont know or care, joe user that
just uses IE blindly.

Then you have people that know about IE, its history of security
problems and the lack of standards and they dont use IE unless
they have to.

I think MS is going to shoot its self in the foot by using a
standards mode by default. You have lots of websites that have
problems on FF/Safari/non-IE, because they were coded to
support IE6. Like Hotmail for instance. Anyhow these sites will
have to be fixed to support IE8, which will only help FF and
others. This will give people even more reason not to use IE.

I know I only use IE if I have to. FF3 beta 3 blows away IE8.

[Penguinisto]

Agreed - heavily.

I think that this is going to be ...interesting.

After years of coding to IE's screwball non-compliance, IE8 will hose-up a lot of the look+feel that web developers have toiled away on all this time, just to make it all look right in IE.

And again, I agree on the fact that standards-compliant websites will only hurt IE, not help it. Any browser that ties in so deeply to the OS is something not to be trusted for any kind of security.

Anyrate, it'll be fun to watch. :)

/P

[pctec100]

That may be an incorrect assumption

Additional standards support does not necessarily mean they will not also support they way they have been doing things also.

IE8 is adding additional support but that doesn't mean they are stripping out the ability to render pages coded for IE6/7 correctly.

[krosavcheg]

Correct

The browser "war" was caused by Netscape who deliberately refused to work with MS and also thought they would build their browser into a platform which would replace Windows. Also their comments about the quality of MS's code made them a lot of enemies at MS, ironic considering what a defective pile of bugs their own browser was built on.

As nasty as IE 4.0 was it was still a lot cleaner than Netscape 4.0

[othman112]

IE8

I have installed both, Firefox 3 at least works, IE8, won't stay open for more than two minutes. It won't let you install any of the add-ons that are needed. IE8, is a poor Beta1 release, it should still be in the Alpha stages.
And I installed the XP x64 version of IE8, wich also installs the x86 (32bit)version.

[Super2online]

Working fine for me!

I have been using IE8 all morning and have had no problems with IE not working. I did encounter some sites that were coded to the older IE versions that displayed the page wrong. Clicking the Emaulate IE7 button instantly fixed the problem- Nice job Microsoft!