In his most recent column from PC Magazine, John Dvorak suggests that the Great Microsoft Blunder is Internet Explorer. In the column he states that:

So what can Microsoft do about its dilemma? First, it needs to face the fact that this entire preoccupation with the browser business is bad for the company and bad for the user. Microsoft should pull the browser out of the OS and discontinue all IE development immediately. It should then bless the Mozilla.org folks with a cash endowment and take an investment stake in Opera, to influence the future direction of browser technology from the outside in. Then, Microsoft can worry about security issues that are OS-only in nature, rather than problems compounded by Internet Explorer.

Those are great suggestions - only if MS were listening…

Strider URL Tracer with Typo-Patrol is a new product from Microsoft Research that helps protect web surfers from accidentally visiting sites that capitalize on misspelled domains.

When a user visits a Web site, her browser may be instructed to visit other third-party domains without her knowledge. Some of these third-party domains raise security, privacy, and safety concerns. The Strider URL Tracer, available for download, is a tool that reveals these third-party domains, and it includes a Typo-Patrol feature that generates and scans sites that capitalize on inadvertent URL misspellings, a process known as typo-squatting. The tool also enables parents to block typo-squatting domains that serve adult ads on typos of children’s Web sites

This tool is an addon for IE and it should also be noted that this product appears to be a beta version.

Anyone aware of a similar extension for Firefox?

Well now that Mozilla has officially released the Firefox 2.0 (bon echo) Alpha, you can now also get the Portable Firefox 2 Alpha 1.  All you have to do is download the Portable Firefox 2.0 Alpha 1 then run the file PortableFirefox.exe.  The profile is kept with the PortableFirefox folder so you don’t have to worry about messing up your other profile and the uninstallation process is simple…just delete the folder!  A nice way to test the latest and greatest Firefox!

In light of my premature linking to Firefox 2.0 Alpha (sorry ’bout that) here is a link to the Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 Community Refresh (note link goes directly to Microsoft site).  This community refresh version was released on March 20th at the MIX 06 Conference.

The IEBlog has a three part series on how to use IE7 Beta 2 as your feed reader.

• Part 1: Hello feeds
• Part 2: Discovery and Subscribe
• Part 3: Read and Manage

If you’re a seasoned veteran of consuming RSS feeds, IE7 probably won’t offer you any compelling reasons to switch from you current reader.  However, if you’re a newbie to the world of RSS IE7 might be good place to start.

It’s also important to mention that RSS feed reading could change by the time the final IE7 product is released, so hopefully there will be some changes.

Scott Karp has suggested that IE7’s RSS Is a Glorified “Favorites” Feature and I couldn’t agree more.  After an initial evaluation of the IE7 beta, my overal impression is that the RSS support is no better than that of Safari, Opera or Firefox.  This type of support is probably fine for those who subscribe to a very limited number of feeds.  If you subscribe to more than 10 feeds you’re still better off using a true RSS aggregator like NewsGator, RSSOwl, Google Reader, NetNewsWire, etc.

The place Microsoft has truely improved the RSS experience is in the way they have styled RSS feeds.  When you click on an RSS link, you are presented with a nicely styled page that discusses the benefits of subscribing to RSS.  This will go a long way to helping the average Internet user embrace the RSS technology, and maybe lead to a greater use.

A new feature has been added to the latest nightly builds of Safari/WebKit. The Web Inspector is a tool that lets you browse the live DOM hierarchy in a compact HUD style window. You can find out more about this tool for web developers by reading Surfin’ Safari’s article titled - Introducing the Web Inspector.

Firefox! That’s right, the Microsoft team has decided to use Firefox’s RSS Icon in Internet Explorer 7! I think this is good for RSS in general, and congratulations to Microsoft for doing the “good” thing. A unified icon will go far for furthering the adoption and use of RSS.

As if animated GIF’s weren’t bad enough, it appears as though Firefox 1.5 now supports animated favicons! Check out the Web Design Company London (UK) Site for an example. Arggggh!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you probably know that the Opera web browser is now completely and totally free. How was Opera able to move from a product whose development was supported by registration fees and ads to a product that is completely freeware? Om Malik suggests that Google Made Opera Browser Free by entering into a lucrative search placement deal with the search giant!