Daily Digest 27 August

27-08-2008

by Deirdre McArdle

Microsoft unveils privacy tools for IE8 | Google to Suggest search terms

Microsoft has detailed new privacy tools for the upcoming Internet Explorer 8 (IE8). In all, there are four tools: InPrivate Browsing, InPrivate Blocking, InPrivate Subscription and Delete Browser History. When InPrivate Browsing (dubbed 'porn mode' by some commentators) has been enabled IE8 will not save browsing and searching history, cookies, form data and passwords; it also will automatically clear the browser cache at the end of the session. Meanwhile, InPrivate Blocking notifies users of third-party content that can track browsing history, and InPrivate Subscription allows users to choose which sites they subscribe to or block. Delete Browser History is fairly self explanatory in that it allows users to delete their browsing history when they've finished surfing. IE8 is currently in beta testing and is expected to be available later this year.

Google has launched Google Suggest, an auto-suggest feature that it says could improve the accuracy and efficiency of searches. The feature, which was developed in Google Labs, is designed to help users formulate queries by recommending the most popular options depending on what has already been typed. It could also help users minimise spelling errors when typing in queries, according to a blog posting by Google Suggest product manager Jennifer Liu. The Google Suggest feature originally started as "a 20 percent project in 2004, and has since expanded to Google Labs, Toolbar, Firefox search box, Maps and Web Search for select countries, the iPhone and BlackBerry, YouTube, and now Google.com," said Liu. The function will be rolled out on the Google.com homepage during the week.

An advertisement for Apple's iPhone has been banned in the UK for misleadingly claiming that customers could access all parts of the internet on the device. The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that the ad, which said that "all parts of the internet are on the iPhone" had breached regulations and was misleading because the iPhone does not support Flash or Java -- two programs that form part of many web pages. It has ruled that the ad is not to appear again in its current form.

Mobile phone sales worldwide hit 305 million for the second quarter of the year, an 11.8 percent increase on the year-ago quarter, according to the latest figures from research firm Gartner. Though replacement sales are weak, thanks primarily to the global credit crunch, Gartner said it's confident that mobile phone sales will reach 1.28 billion units for the year. Nokia had a comfortable quarter, shipping 120.4 million units, up from the 100 million it shipped in 2007. The Finnish mobile giant widened its market share during the quarter and now controls 39.5 percent of the market. Samsung also had a good quarter, with sales of 46.4 million units enabling it to achieve 15.2 percent share of the market. Motorola struggled during the three-month period and saw its share drop from 14.5 percent in the second quarter of 2007 to just 10 percent.

Bookmaker Paddy Power has reported pre-tax profits for the first half of the year of EUR47.1 million, a 10 percent rise on the year-ago figure. The bookmaker's online arm showed impressive growth in the first six months of the year with profits surging by 43 percent to EUR21 million, representing almost half Paddy Power's total profits.

Content management firm TerminalFour has completed the Heritage Ireland website. The site is based on TerminalFour's website content management software, Site Manager, and provides information on over 100 historical sites in Ireland. It also features a mapping facility, which allows users to find sites by geographic region; a photo gallery of all the listed sites; and a calendar, which details when and where special events will be taking place. The website has proven popular particularly with overseas visitors; over the past six months it has attracted 350,000 visitors, 66 percent of whom were from overseas.