Microsoft announces development of Internet Explorer 9

Developers have long complained about Internet Explorer's lack of adherence to Web standards as the below Google Sidewiki entry from the Microsoft home page details.

This lack of standardization has affected consumer experiences as sites are forced to either dumb down their web sites to work adequately on all browsers or develop a separately designed site to work just with Internet Explorer.

Today, Microsoft announced that they had begun development on IE9 and they promised that this version would take steps toward compatibility with standards that matter most to web developers.

The work we do here, both in the product and on test suites, is a means to an end: a rich interoperable platform that developers can rely on.

Microsoft is also promising to improve the speed of JavaScript execution in the browser as IE has lagged behind its competitors in this area. This JavaScript speed improvement has the potential to make for faster and smoother web experiences for IE users when IE9 is released.

No release date has been set for IE9, but Microsoft's dedication to improving IE ensures continued competition and innovation, as browser producers fight to be your first choice when you access the Internet.

An Early Look At IE9 for Developers [IEBLog]

Share your experiences with TV, Internet, and phone bundles

We’d like your help as we prepare our annual report, on bundled telecom services—those packages of television, Internet and telephone service sold by cable, phone, and satellite-TV companies.

Specifically, we’d like to know your experiences with, and some details about, your home telecom service. We’ve prepared a questionnaire that asks about how you get these services, whether they're bundled, and how easy or hard it was to sign up for them. The 20 questions—any or all of which you can answer—include queries about how you selected providers and whether you negotiated with them over prices.

Begin the quiz by clicking here. After you’re done, you’ll be taken to the results page, where you’ll get an early look at what other readers have reported.

Shopping online? Be wary of Web seals and user reviews

If you, like many Americans, plan to do a chunk of your Black Friday and holiday shopping online this year, here are two points to consider (and two new videos to illustrate them).

Don’t trust Web seals. You might think that the Web seal on a retail site is a sign of the merchant’s integrity. Not necessarily. The only “qualification” some seal issuers require—such as the “Online Business Bureau,” not to be confused with the Better Business Bureau—is that an online merchant pay a fee to display it. And more seals don’t equal better service. We found one seal-laden e-commerce site that received an F from the Better Business Bureau. (See our video, “Decoding Web Seals,” and our story, "Can you trust that Web seal?".)

Be skeptical of user reviews. Putting too much stock in user reviews can be dangerous. Some sites (like Yelp) will raise a positive review to the top of the stack if the manufacturer or company pays them a fee. Other companies have employees post paeans of their products in user-review sections, highlighting only the positive attributes. And you never know who’s trashing a product—could it be someone with a vested interest? (See our video, “Can You Trust User Reviews.”)

Phishing scams hit Xbox Live

Screen grab of the phony Xbox Live page. (Click to enlarge.)

If you’ve got an Xbox, or are planning to buy one this holiday season, you should know that Xbox is the latest platform to be victimized by phishers, according to security software maker F-Secure.

Victims are first conned by a YouTube video claiming to give away free Xbox Live memberships and Microsoft points (which are the equivalent of money in the Xbox world). You’re told to go to a Web site where you have to enter, of course, your Xbox Live gamer tag, password, and e-mail address. F-Secure’s blog points out that, while the Web site looks authentic, it’s got a country code from East Timor.

If you know anything about phishing, you know what happens next—your Xbox identity is up for sale. The more software you’ve got on your Live account, and the higher your gamerscore, the more valuable your Xbox identity. Don’t be taken in by phony deals, and never give away your password to an unknown Web site.

Think you can spot a cleverly disguised phishing scam? Take our quiz and find out. —Donna Tapellini

Get free Wi-Fi in airports, courtesy of Google and Bing

Google has announced its holiday "gift" to millions of travelers: free Wi-Fi now through January 15th.  The search giant is sponsoring the offer at 47 airports nationwide and on Virgin America flights. While you're waiting to board, Google hopes you'll make a donation to any of three participating nonprofits: Engineers Without Borders, One Economy Corporation, and Climate Savers Computing.

Not to be outdone (and looking to increase its visibility among Web searchers), Microsoft Bing is partnering with JiWire to offer free Wi-Fi at airports and hotels in exchange for one Bing search. —Nick K. Mandle

TwitterPeek: “Epic fail of the week"?

TwitterPeek

For Twitter addicts who relish the thought of having another expensive mobile device clunking around in their pocket or bag, TwitterPeek is for you. Released yesterday by Peek Inc., TwitterPeek looks like a smart phone with a full QWERTY keyboard but connects only to Twitter. No phone. No emails. Just Twitter. Price: $100 for the device including 6 months of wireless service. After that, service runs $8 a month. (For $200 you can get the TwitterPeek plus a lifetime service plan.)

Peek seems to be building a name for itself as a maker of single-function mobile gadgets. The company’s Peek Classic ($20 plus a $15/month service plan) just sends and receives email. The Peek Pronto ($60 plus service plan) emails and also allows unlimited texting.

You could make a case for the efficacy of the Peek Classic and Pronto, given the high cost of many data plans for smart phones. The idea behind TwitterPeek, on the other hand, is one even some of the Twitterati have trouble understanding. From the Wall Street Journal:

“On Twitter, it’s attracting its fair share of skeptics. “TwitterPeek is my vote for epic fail of the week,” Josho2001 tweeted. “I don’t see this having much demand. Two words: Smart. Phone,” wrote Marie Goltara. A third Twitter user, Nelanka, added, “TwitterPeek is the final sign that the end is near. I figured this would have come out around 2012.”

If you’re savvy enough to be a dedicated Twitterer, isn’t it also likely you’d be capable of tweeting (for free) from your cell or smart phone? —Nick K. Mandle

Sprint sells its first netbook, expands its 4G network

Sprint today began selling its first subsidized, network-connected netbook and announced the expansion of its fourth-generation wireless network to a further 10 cities

The netbook Sprint is selling, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10, does not rank among the best performers in our Ratings, available to subscribers. However, where the Mini 10 currently sells for $349 from Dell, Sprint will sell it for $199.99, after a $100 mail-in rebate. The catch, as with netbooks sold by other carriers such as AT&T and Verizon is the requirement to sign up for a two-year broadband plan for the device, which costs $59.99 a month.

The Sprint Mini 10 is currently available only at Sprint Stores in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sprint's news release does not detail further availability, but other such launches by competing carriers gradually rolled out to a number of cities across the country.

Sprint is the first carrier to roll out a fourth-generation, or 4G, wireless network. The 10 new cities added today, including Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth, expand Sprint's network beyond the 25 cities where they already have at least some 4G service, including Philadelphia and Las Vegas.

3 ways to follow the World Series—digitally

For $9.99, watch up to four different camera angles at MLB.com.

One great thing about baseball’s postseason is the almost daily gratification of watching a pivotal game. It can also be one of the most inconvenient aspects. It’s easy enough to reserve an evening to watch the Superbowl; a little less so to hunker down in front of a TV for up to seven World-Series-filled nights. Major League Baseball (or was it the TV networks?) didn’t make time management any easier this year by scheduling game three on a night otherwise occupied by Halloween parties and trick-or-treating.

If you’re looking for an alternative way to catch the game (in case you’ll be walking hand-in-hand tomorrow night with a pint-sized vampire), or maybe just a way to mix up your usual gamewatch experience, technology has provided some new ones:

Get an app. iPhone and iPod Touch users have a number of resources for staying updated while mobile. MLB.com offers At Bat ($9.99), a popular application that lets you watch each game streaming live over your phone. With “Quad Mode” you can watch from up to four camera angles at the same time. The app also integrates Twitter so you can stay connected to friends and followers.

What’s that? You don’t pay for apps? Two free options are At Bat Lite and ESPN ScoreCenter. Both provide scores and game updates. ScoreCenter covers a multitude of professional leagues, from baseball and football to soccer and cricket.

With new Social Search, Google aims to be busybody-in-chief

Google Social Search explained. (Click to watch video.)

To the delight of social media stalkers (and the dismay of digital hermits and job applicants), this week Google launched a new, experimental search option that can crawl through your vast online social network to help you find content from friends and contacts. Google Social Search is explained on the official Google blog (and in the video below):

A lot of people write about New York, so if I do a search for [new york] on Google, my best friend's New York blog probably isn't going to show up on the first page of my results. Probably what I'll find are some well-known and official sites…With Social Search, Google finds relevant public content from your friends and contacts and highlights it for you at the bottom of your search results.

To find personal content, Google looks first to your Google Profile, where you can add information about yourself and indicate to which networks you belong, from Twitter to Picasa. It also—at your discretion—will delve into your Gmail contacts and the blogs you follow on Google Reader.

Helpful, yes. But privacy issues have already been raised.  Google’s Matt Cutts, in an introductory video, stresses that it’s your choice as to whether or not your content is crawled and surfaced. He also attempts to cut the privacy argument off at the pass:

“Once you’ve created a Google Profile and added links to your various online social services, you’ve signaled a very clear choice that you’re comfortable with the world knowing that information, including that you’re part of the other social networks you listed.”

Thoughts? Is Google simply providing a useful extra search tool, or does the new feature skirt too close to home? (For safe surfing tips, be sure to check out our Guide to Online Security.)

I'm now participating in the experiment at Google Labs to check out the social search's functionality for myself. If you're interested (you'll need a Google/Gmail account), sign up here. —Nick K. Mandle

Google Voice now lets you use your existing phone number

Google Voice is an innovative phone service that provides a rich array of features including the ability to access your voicemail via your computer, sharing and transcription of your voicemail messages, custom greetings based on the caller, and low-cost international calling. Until this week, this free service from Google, required that you choose a new phone number to gain access to these great features.

Now Google has announced that users can get most Google Voice features while using an existing mobile number, saving users the hassle of giving out a new number to all their contacts. This video explains some of the benefits of Google Voice with your existing number:

The Official Google Blog explains how to get started: