Microsoft: Customers should upgrade from IE6 & IE7

Microsoft has urged its customers to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, with the software giant’s engineers not finding a solution to the now infamous exploit that was publicised by Google.

Part of Google’s crisis of conscience on China arrived because of a sophisticated attack on some Chinese citizens using an exploit in IE.

Microsoft insisted at the time that the attacks were made on people using the execrable IE6 browser, and, as of Sunday, Microsoft was issuing urgent releases to its customers urging them to upgrade to IE8.

IE8 untouched

“Customers using Internet Explorer 8 are not affected by currently known attacks and exploits due to the improved security protections in IE8,” said Microsoft.

“To help protect our customers, we recommend that all customers immediately upgrade to Internet Explorer 8.

“Customers should also consider applying the workarounds and mitigations provided in our Security Advisory such as putting Internet zone security settings to High.”

IE6 dead

Microsoft has always insisted that it will support those still on IE6, including businesses that it suggests have tools that rely on using the ageing and much criticised browser.

However, it is clear that IE6 is not coping with the modern internet, and, once again, a major scare has prompted the need for a call to update.

“Microsoft teams are continuing to work around the clock on an update and we will take appropriate action to protect customers when the update has met the quality bar for broad distribution,” concludes Microsoft’s release.

“Obviously, it is unfortunate that our product is being used in the pursuit of criminal activity.

“We will continue to work with Google, industry leaders and the appropriate authorities to investigate this situation.”

So, if you have IE6 or IE7 then look for a modern browser – which include ones not made by Microsoft of course.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Google invites feedback on super-secret search upgrades

Google is upgrading its search infrastructure and it’s being really shady about it.

In a post on its Webmaster Central blog, however, Google engineers Sitaram Iyer and Matt Cutts insist that ordinary users won’t even see the difference.

“For the last several months, a large team of Googlers has been working on a secret project: a next-generation architecture for Google’s web search,” the post reads, making it all sound vaguely like some kind of elf workshop. “It’s the first step in a process that will let us push the envelope on size, indexing speed, accuracy, comprehensiveness and other dimensions.” The user interface is unchanged.

Developers are encouraged to try out the new technology on a “sandbox” page and then offer feedback by including the word “caffeine” in Google’s feedback text field, secret-password-style.

The company acknowledged that “some parts of this system aren’t completely finished yet.” But the industry buzz is obviously a huge part of it: There’s a legitimate new contender in the search engine market, Microsoft’s Bing, which is fueled by heavy marketing dollars and has begun to inch its way up in market share since its debut earlier this summer.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt gives the impression that he isn’t particularly worried about Bing. But it’s hard to not look at a shadowy blog post about under-the-radar upgrades to Google’s search index and not take it as a Googly way of saying, “game on.”

Popularity: 5% [?]