For a long time it did not look like there would be a new version of Internet Explorer until the next version of Windows - codename Longhorn - would be released. Until today that is. Today Bill Gates announced there will be a new version of the browser, and the release date is planned somewhere this summer.

Internet Explorer has been losing a lot of ground in the browser war lately, with Firefox gaining more and more users. The change in strategy is probably related to this.

The bad news is that it will most likely become available only for Windows XP with service pack 2 or higher installed, which will mean we'll still have to deal with the 6th generation of the browser for some time.

Details on support of standards has not been released, though Microsoft has initiated various discussions about what the browser should look like in the future.

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Netcraft has released a tool to counter the increased threat of phishing. Phishing sites are basically copies of official sites, such as PayPal, E-Bay, banks and others. The addresses to these fake sites are usually spread by e-mail, in which the user is invited to update their personal data. This data is then captured by a third party, and used for whatever purpose they had in mind, credit card fraud, identity theft and whatever else they can come up with.

The browser toolbar provides various information about the domains visited by the user, and it blocks already known phishing sites.

The concept of the tool is very interesting, it's a first user friendly effort to do something against the growing phishing threat. The “bad guys” are getting more and more organized, taking a close to professional approach to extract information from unknowing users.

The toolbar is currently only available for Internet Explorer, but versions for other browsers are planned to be released soon.

For more information you can download the toolbar, or check out the tutorials provided by Netcraft.

The Inquirer recently published a small article on speeding up Firefox.

I've made the changes myself, and have noticed an increase in speed, especially when viewing sites that use a lot of images in the layout. I've tested this on Windows XP myself, but it also has effect on other platforms such as Linux.