Ok, there’s no surprise if I say Internet Explorer is ruling over the world (Microsoft already had a lot of problems regarding this); but what do you think about Internet Explorer 6 (developed in 2001) being the third most used browser? Or that Firefox 2.0 has more popularity than Opera 10?

Here are some other facts:

• Worldwide data says that Internet Explorer 8, 7 and 6 are the most used browsers.
• In the US, Firefox 3.5 is the third most used browser; behind IE 8 and 7.
• In Africa, IE 6 is the most used browser with 29% of the current share.
• In Antarctica the most used browser is Firefox 3.0. Yes, I said Antarctica.

These charts are using one year stats, from May 09 to May 10.

And you? Which is your favorite browser?

• Microsoft’s Web Browser Ballot Starting in March – February 28, 2010
• Google Releases Google Toolbar 7 for Internet Explorer 9 – April 20, 2011
• Internet Explorer 9 Launch February 10 – February 1, 2011
• New Opera 11.01 is Available to Download – January 27, 2011
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010

Top 12 Browser Versions originally appeared on: Crenk
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Web Browser Ballot will be available in Windows XP, Vista and 7 operating systems as a Windows update. Soon as you download the update, a window will appear where the browsers will be listed randomly from which you’ll select your default browser.

I found very interesting the feature available for randomly listing the browsers, which avoids any suggestion that could induce a user to make a pick according to the location in your screen of the browsers. Here’s evidence of the random is actually working:

Internet Explorer 8 showing third in browser’s list.

Internet Explorer 8 showing first in browser’s list.

From what we know, the ballot will only appear to users that have Internet Explorer as the default browser; if you have any other as default, the list won’t appear to you.

For more information, here’s the official document with Microsoft’s commitment.

• Top 12 Browser Versions – August 8, 2010
• Microsoft Launches Internet Explorer 10 Preview 2: Download Now – June 30, 2011
• Test Drive Internet Explorer 10 – April 22, 2011
• Internet Explorer 10 Rumoured to be Launching Same Time As Windows 8 – March 16, 2011
• Internet Explorer 9 to be Available to Download March 14 – March 11, 2011

Microsoft’s Web Browser Ballot Starting in March originally appeared on: Crenk
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A great ad-on for Chrome and Firefox called FlyMonkey pretty much fixes all of that. Below, you can see a screenshot of my Twitter with three columns, each serving it own purpose. This is done by adding features to your Twitter page (via a red ‘+’ sign above your screen). You can add extra columns for DMs, replies, mentions and an arsenal of different options.

They also integrated the Bit.ly URL shortener and Twitpic into Twitter. As you are typing a tweet, two options appear below called ‘Photo’ and ‘URL Shortener’. I found these very handy indeed.

So if you want to change your Twitter experience but don’t fancy moving to a third-party alternative, get FlyMonkey.

• Internet Explorer 9 Launch February 10 – February 1, 2011
• Flock Changing Out Firefox Framework for Chrome – June 16, 2010
• First 5-minute Impressions With Google Chrome – September 3, 2008
• Google Release Google Chrome 11 for Download – April 29, 2011
• Firefox 4 in Numbers: Infographic – March 24, 2011

MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free originally appeared on: Crenk
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This “test build”, that should contain several bugs, will be a small preview of the real 3.6 beta that will be available to the public on October 21^st (yes, one day before Windows 7 official release to the public). To take a nice preview of what’s coming in 3.6, you can access Mozilla FTP and download the build.

As we’ve said earlier, Firefox 3.6 (codename Namoroka) won’t bring us big changes, the features that you’ll find here:

• Lightweight themes with Vista-like interface.
• Improvements in TraceMonkey JavaScript engine
• Bookmark synchronization
• Optimized session restore feature.
• Enhanced page rendering.
• New additions for CSS.
• Previews of tabs

We’ll have to wait for 3.7 to expect major differences.

• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010
• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009
• Looking for more Firefox Add-Ons? – June 28, 2009
• Firefox 3.5 RC2 – June 24, 2009
• Zemanta Now Available on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and ScribeFire – February 16, 2009

Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Early Beta originally appeared on: Crenk
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We’ve been talking about the incoming versions of Firefox, especially Firefox 3.7. And using some official statements from Mozilla, the main idea of that version is to remove the menu bar and introduce a very similar look-n-feel of the Office 2007/2010 ribbon (but later, other statements tried to dismiss this article by saying that they are not considering a ribbon, just hiding the menu bar).

Glassy look for Mozilla Firefox 3.7 (no preview of that on 3.6, too bad)

On the other hand Firefox 3.6 seems that is only going to take minor tweaks, here are some of them:

• Lightweight themes
• Improvements in TraceMonkey JavaScript engine
• Optimized session restore feature.
• Enhanced page rendering.
• New additions for CSS.

• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009
• Top 12 Browser Versions – August 8, 2010
• Microsoft’s Web Browser Ballot Starting in March – February 28, 2010
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010
• Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Early Beta – October 16, 2009

Firefox 3.6 Beta 1 Expected for Next Week originally appeared on: Crenk
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They are using their Wiki to give us some of the advances made so far, the ideas floating in the air and of course receive feedback from most of the Mozilla lovers (and non-lovers as well, why not?). And here are the ideas that they have so far:

• Embracing Glass: Toolbar and Tabs using Glass. Raised translucent buttons that are slightly glossy to meld with the toolbar. Raised 3D look to achieve tactile “feel”.
• Neutral Tones: Overall neutral color scheme that can transition among platforms. Can remain attractive and slick without fighting for focus from web content.
• Hiding the Menu Bar: Hiding the menubar by default (on Vista/7) allows us to use Glass, free up vertical space and retain platform consistency.
• Page and Tools Buttons: Condense and trim existing menu structure into two buttons “Page” and “Tools”. Similar to Safari and Chrome.
• Combine Stop/Reload: Combine Stop and Reload into one button. Reduces visual “clutter” and combines two buttons that have mutually exclusive functionality.
• Home Button/Tab: Remove “Home” Button from default toolbar. Move functionality to a “Home Tab” containing your homepage.

More info: https://wiki.mozilla.org/Firefox/Sprints/Windows_Theme_Revamp/Direction_and_Feedback

Personally I think those are very nice and significant changes. Office, Vista and 7 seems that they are setting the standards of any UI (no surprise there, Windows will still be the world’s main OS for a few years more). But the good news is that Mozilla it is also trying to establish browsers standards, like the “Page and Tools Buttons” that is a common feature in Safari and Chrome.

And also the “Combine Stop/Reload” feature it is something that I’ve been waiting to see in Firefox for a long time. I know, it’s a very tiny thing, but don’t you love having the same functionality in different browsers?

And what are the other changes that you would include?

• Looking for more Firefox Add-Ons? – June 28, 2009
• Firefox 3.5 RC2 – June 24, 2009
• Firefox Roadmap: Firefox 5, 6 and 7 Features – February 9, 2011
• Top 12 Browser Versions – August 8, 2010
• Two Malicious Ad-Ons Made It Onto Firefox – February 8, 2010

Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? originally appeared on: Crenk
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Seems that development team is running against the clock, considering that on June 24 they’ve released the RC3 version for Firefox 3.5 and originally the announcement about the final version stated that “end of June” will be the date. Well they sure are keeping the promise, taking the last day of the month to release it.

Since RC1, the two other versions that were public basically focused in bug fixing, so if you installed were using any of these versions you shouldn’t expect greatest differences with the final one.

Download Firefox 3.5 RC3.

• Firefox 3.5 RC2 – June 24, 2009
• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009
• Internet Explorer Under Critisism…Again – July 18, 2009
• Windows 8 Beta Late February 2012: Official Public Release of Windows 8 in January 2013 – December 8, 2011
• Hong Kong Apple Store Tour – October 3, 2011

Firefox 3.5 Available June 30th originally appeared on: Crenk
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Within the site, you will find several very interesting add-ons and plug-ins to use with Mozilla Firefox. Including the Top-50 most viewed and downloaded projects.

On this list you’ll find very, very useful tools that you can install to improve your browsing experience: Integration with Thunderbird, FTP client, autocopy highlighted text, proxy configurations, RSS reader, etc etc.

Again, another open source project that shows a lot of maturity, adding value and constant improvement. Cheers to that

• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010
• Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Early Beta – October 16, 2009
• Firefox 3.5 RC2 – June 24, 2009
• Zemanta Now Available on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and ScribeFire – February 16, 2009

Looking for more Firefox Add-Ons? originally appeared on: Crenk
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Company’s strategy it is quite interesting actually, releasing two RC versions in one week. They sure are very confident about the beta and RC stability, I can’t imagine Microsoft releasing release candidates versions of the same product in such short period of time.

That definitive version for Mozilla Firefox 3.5 it is expected in a few days more, ending June. You can check the release notes and improvements about the RC2 version here.

And you can download it from here.

• Firefox 3.5 Available June 30th – June 28, 2009
• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009
• Firefox – the final security update? – July 22, 2009
• Two Malicious Ad-Ons Made It Onto Firefox – February 8, 2010
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010

Firefox 3.5 RC2 originally appeared on: Crenk
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With updates to Flock, Firefox, Opera, and even IE, browsers are becoming key factors in how we choose to integrate our online experiences with our daily lives. Each of the above mentioned browsers have key factors that stand out and make them useful to someone, all depending on our tastes. What if you could find a search engine that learned, adapted, and showed you extra content that you would not have found otherwise?

Worio is the social search that has somehow found a way to intelligently learn from your search habits and adapt itself to your likes and dislikes. Worio creator Ali Davar focuses on the search as a form of discovery. He comments that Worio will show you things that you perhaps never even thought of, but are related to your initial search.

The idea of discovery is key to Worio, and information is collected and saved on your habits. The mechanism can be turned off and it will simply function like any other search engine, but the uniqueness also comes in being able to share your favorite links and sites right from the search, without having to rely on social bookmarketing efforts or emailing people. Anyone within your network can see your habits and you can see theirs. Taking this concept a step further, Worio now supports Facebook connect. Now you can directly share your passion, your searches with friends in Facebook and open people up to a whole new world of discovery.

The search looks very promising and has a bright future, we’d love to hear what you think.

• Top 12 Browser Versions – August 8, 2010
• Microsoft’s Web Browser Ballot Starting in March – February 28, 2010
• Internet Search Expanded, Online Information Drilldown – November 15, 2009
• PDF to Microsoft Word Converter Facebook Edition – December 4, 2011
• Washington Post Facebook Social Reader News Application – November 26, 2011

Worio: Social Search with A Hint of Intelligence originally appeared on: Crenk
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In less than a year, Zemanta has made a name for itself in the blogosphere. By becoming the premier add-on to the FireFox browser, bloggers now had access to an amazing set of tools to provide further depth to their posts. With hundreds of thousands of downloads, it seemed like a surefire winner, and there was little doubt that Zemanta has room to expand, but where and when?

Zemanta late last year supported another FireFox add-on called ScribeFire, a simple blogging tool that opened up in your browser without having to log into any other site or leave the page you are on. This allowed for amazingly quick posting to the blog of your choice, but also provided the same depth that you had available to you from within most popular blogging platforms like WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad.

Recently it was announced that Zemanta has made another move towards mass market exposure, it has integrated with Gmail and Yahoo Mail, offering users of those mail clients the ability to attached related articles, pictures, and keywords to their emails that the recipients might need to fully understand the topic. I personally can’t imagine a better mass exposure opportunity than attaching yourself to two of the largest mail clients on the internet today.

Zemanta is a key tool that I recommend all bloggers install, but now with mail enhancements, I’m happy to see them growing. I’ve always been a big supporter of their efforts as it’s nice to see innovative ways to breathe life into a long standing medium like blogging.

It’s apparent that Zemanta will continue to offer what it always has; by offering photo suggestions, article suggestions, and keyword suggestions, as you type, updating every 300 words, there is bound to be another leap into further integration.

Perhaps a jump into an office platform for document and presentation creation, like Microsoft Office or OpenOffice. Only time will tell!

• 5 Firefox To-Do Plug-ins – July 25, 2008
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010
• New Thunderbird Appeals to Masses – December 8, 2009
• Mozilla Firefox 3.6 Early Beta – October 16, 2009
• Firefox 3.7 with Office-like Ribbon? – September 28, 2009

Zemanta Now Available on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and ScribeFire originally appeared on: Crenk
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It was reported over on Techcrunch and Crunchgear that there wa a virus that was running rampant across the YouTube network with the certain embedded videos. It was reported that Internet Explorer (IE) and Firefox were targeted, later reports said it was just IE.

The virus was reportedly named Actns/Swif.T and contains a phishing scam that directs uses to a website with an embedded .SWF and then installs a program called “Antivirus 2009.” Users were warned of this potentially damaging malware by avoiding weird pop-ups, requests for personal information, or re-direction to unknown sites.

The story was later recanted as it appeared to be a YouTube specific situation. On the back end the virus protection service being used was returning false positives identifying code within certain embedded videos as malware. The entire incident is harmless, and there is no security breach on the YouTube network. Spokesperons from YouTube are handling the situation and ensure us that YouTube is currently safe and free of any malware problems.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Actns/Swif.T virus affecting embedded YouTube vids?

• Two Malicious Ad-Ons Made It Onto Firefox – February 8, 2010
• Create Your Own Firefox and IE Toolbar – April 15, 2011
• Tweetdeck Now Available in Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera – April 7, 2011
• How to Easily Implement a Centralized Antivirus Solution Using GFI VIPRE Antivirus – February 9, 2011
• Internet Explorer 9 Launch February 10 – February 1, 2011

Is YouTube Infected? originally appeared on: Crenk
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ReminderFox

This neat little plug-in goes for simplicity. While not necessarily an official “to-do” application, I find it almost necessary for those that seem to forget the important dates. People that forget birthdays, anniversaries, parties, and other date based events, ReminderFox will send out an alarm or an alert to remind you of what’s coming up. This plug-in has no aspirations to be a full calendar application, but rather makes its home at the bottom right of your browser ready to announce the days you NEED to remember!

ToDo Cue (experimental)
ToDo Cue unfortunately was very buggy in my use of this plug-in. It relies on the user creating simple, let me stress that again…simple, to-do lists. Once installed a side bar will appear in both your Gmail and Gcal accounts with the lists of things to-do in priority order. I was only able to get sustainable functionality with the older version of Gmail, which did me little good as I have updated it. There are a lot of other tools that do the same with better results. This plug-in needs more work, but remember, it is still labeled experimental, just not sure if it will ever be ready.

Todo Reminder
I found this to be the plug-in with the most potential. Currently the plug-in is very effective with event reminders. Things like parties, birthdays, get togethers, anniversaries, etc. What I loved about it is that alerts not only come via email, but you can set yourself up with SMS alerts. If more than one person is involved, take it further by setting up group alerts. This will make sure everyone is on task and aware of what is coming up. I especially found the one mouse click addition through emails and pages very effective when needing to list something quickly. The site says further development is needed, but I think this little plug-in has a great future in the productivity field.

Delegate to Remember the Milk
A lot of you have heard of Remember the Milk. If you’ve not, no worries, Remember the Milk (RtM) is simply another way to create your to-do lists with functionality with both web apps and mobile apps. There are a great number of power users for RtM, and as such, this plug-in is very popular. For starters, if you follow the GTD (Getting Things Done) philosophy, then this plug-in will be very effective. A “remember” button is added to all of your emails for quick task managing directly from you email. No bothering with cut and paste, simply click and the message is tasked into your RtM account. Yes, it’s that simple!

GTD Inbox
GTD Inbox is a plug-in that tries to do a whole lot. Unfortunately in this endeavor it tends to fail on a lot of fronts. This plug-in completely changes the face of your Gmail inbox by adding the functionality of GTD (mentioned above). For hardcore GTD’ers, the layout will be very familiar with intuitive clicks to productively manage all of your information. Similar to the RtM plug-in, you have a button that will take your emails and place them into your task list. You have the ability to create labels, ticklers, and build the productivity method that best suits your needs. This productivity juggaurnaut is definitely not an entry level “to-do” plug-in and may confuse first time users of GTD. A little buggy with newer versions of Gmail, but useful if you can understand it.

There are more I am sure, and even more being created for Firefox 3, but share your favorite To-Do Plug-ins here and let’s all get more done.

• Zemanta Now Available on Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and ScribeFire – February 16, 2009
• 4 Firefox Plugins to Stop Time Wasting – July 29, 2008
• Mozilla Removes Dangerous Add-On – July 17, 2010
• MonkeyFly: Customise Your Twitter Easily and for Free – January 9, 2010
• New Thunderbird Appeals to Masses – December 8, 2009

5 Firefox To-Do Plug-ins originally appeared on: Crenk
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