Microsoft's newest browser may block ads

August 27, 2008 By JESSICA MINTZ , AP Technology Writer

Internet Explorer 8

(AP) -- The next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Web browser makes it easier for people to surf the Internet without leaving a trace. Companies that sell advertisements online - including Microsoft - can electronically gather tidbits about Web surfers' habits, and then use that information to help decide what kinds of ads to show. However, in the newest "beta" test version of Microsoft's forthcoming Internet Explorer 8, which was made available Wednesday, a mode called InPrivateBrowsing lets users surf without having a list of sites they visit get stored on their computers.

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• makotech222 - Aug 27, 2008
  • Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
  wow. turn cookies off and delete internet history.
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• gopher65 - Aug 27, 2008
  • Rank: 3 / 5 (1)
  Yeah, but most people are pretty un-tech savvy and don't know to do that. IE is made for people that don't know any better, and this *will* help such people, so I don't see it as a bad thing. It isn't exactly revolutionary though, true enough.
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• WolfAtTheDoor - Aug 27, 2008
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  Browser makers don't get it. Firefox took off because it's fast and lightweight. Bells and whistles are ok as long as it doesn't make software sluggish. Take Vista, for example...
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• Arikin - Aug 27, 2008
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  Sites can track if an advert is sent to your browser or clicked on. This is server side counting and nothing to do with the browser. This counting will continue.
  
  The thing to worry about is when your browsing habits are tracked via an ID (cookie) by an advertising firm over multiple sites.
  
  So this sounds like cookie and add blocking which is very old technology in IT terms.
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• humanist - Aug 28, 2008
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  Here's another little ditty no one's mentioned yet:
  From Microsoft on Wednesday 27Aug08..
  "Immediate Website Updates Required for Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 Compatibility ...Upon initial release, browsing in default Internet Explorer 8 Standards mode may cause content written for previous versions of Internet Explorer to display differently than intended. To enable existing content to display as expected, Microsoft is providing a compatibility tag that you can add to sites that might be affected. This tag instructs Internet Explorer 8 to display site content as if it were in Internet Explorer 7."
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