While Google’s Chrome web browser has seen substantial gains in worldwide market share in the past few years, Internet Explorer still holds a steady lead in workplace usage, according to a new Forrester report.

Internet Explorer is often the default option on workplace PCs, but due to different device types infiltrating the enterprise, its influence has shrunk. Smartphones, tablets, and Mac computers are now common among enterprise employees and some employees simply ignore the default and install other browsers if they can.

Forrester research indicates Microsoft Internet Explorer holds 40.2 percent of market share, Google Chrome has 27.8 percent, and Mozilla Firefox has 25.4 percent. Apple’s Safari browser came in a distant fourth with 1.8 percent. Take a look at the breakdown below.

Forrester admits that there are many data sources to pull browser share from, including StatCounter and NetMarketShare. Still, no matter which source you use, browser diversity still stands.

“Whichever data source we use, the overall picture painted for I&O professionals comes out the same: Today, even when IT departments standardize around a particular browser brand and version, browser diversity is quite common in the enterprise,” Forrester VP and Infrastructure & Operations analyst J.P. Gownder writes in the report. “For I&O professionals, the bottom line is that standardizing around one browser version doesn’t mean that your company won’t see a variety of browser types and versions. With BYO and information workers’ use of tablets and smartphones on the rise, this era of diversity only stands to grow richer in the near future.”

Operating system share: Windows 7 takes heavy lead in the enterprise

Forrester’s report also shows that Windows 7 has taken a strong lead in the enterprise in terms of operating system market share. Windows 7 now has a 47.5 percent penetration rate, while XP holds on to 38.2 percent. But XP’s numbers will likely drop quickly in 2014 when Microsoft stops issuing security updates for it. The Windows Vista penetration has dropped to just 3.5 percent.

“We can safely call Windows 7 the new enterprise standard, particularly since Microsoft will end support for Windows XP in 2014,” Gownder writes. “But Windows 7 hasn’t reached the ubiquity of XP, which once was installed on over 80% of enterprise desktop devices. However, it bears noting that Windows XP took five years to reach its peak, while Windows 7 has only been present in the market for three and a half years.”

Mac usage has grown as more companies support BYOD. Today, 7.2 percent of IT decision makers in North America and Europe say they support Macs.

Take a look at the full breakdown below.

Illustration by Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Microsoft has launched a new ad campaign for Internet Explorer that emphasizes IE’s inclusion of the “Do Not Track” setting that helps protect users’ privacy.

Ad Age reports that this campaign will consist of TV, print, billboard, and online ads all dedicated to showing that Internet Explorer includes “Do Not Track” function, which explicitly asks advertisers to not track your personal information. The campaign will run online and have a prominent presence in two cities — Washington, DC, where federal policy makers live, and Kansas City, Mo. where Google Fiber is rolling out.

These ads quietly go after Google and its closeness to an advertising industry that relies on tracking data to better serve users ads. Microsoft previously targeted Google with its loud “Scroogled” ads that criticized Gmail and Google search, but these new ads don’t mention Google by name.

Microsoft has also launched a new website dedicated to explaining some facets of online privacy. It even includes a quiz to “find Your Privacy Type.”

The first video of the campaign can be seen below. It’s called “Your Privacy is Our Priority” and shows a series of things people might share online along with things they may not want to share.

“Some personal information you’re happy to share online; some not so much,” the video’s narrator states. “So Microsoft is trying to help by adding tracking protetion in Internet Explorer and including Do Not Track with the belief that one day it too will give you more control.”

Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox all fell to the mercy of the hackers today. That is, in a controlled environment.

Security firms Vupen and MWR Labs were able to crack the browsers during a condoned bug-hunt today, with one company winning $100,000 for finding a huge hole.

The Pwn2Own competition is an event at the CanSecWest conference in Vancouver. HP’s DVLabs created the competition as part of its Zero Day Initiative: an attempt to get more people to find and report bugs as opposed to exploiting them for personal gains. This year’s Pwn2Own competition turned up a number of interesting hacks, with three major browsers all falling: Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Chrome.

Vupen, a security research firm based in France, cracked both Firefox and Internet Explorer. It roughly explained the attack in a tweet (warning: A lot of security vocabulary is incoming), “We’ve pwned Firefox using a use-after-free and a brand new technique to bypass ASLR/DEP on Win7 without the need of any ROP.”

The technique involves recalling memory that the browser had previously “freed,” (user-after-free), after which they were able to mess with the technology that protects a computer system from letting bad code execute.

In Internet Explorer’s case, Vupen says it found two separate “zero-days,” or previously unknown holes in a system, and used them to get inside a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet. From there, the company was able grab hold of Windows 8.

The company explained, again, in a tweet, “We’ve pwned MS Surface Pro with two IE10 zero-days to achieve a full Windows 8 compromise with sandbox bypass.”

Lastly, U.K.-based security firm MWR Labs cracked Chrome and also gained full control of the operating system, this time Windows 7. It also “demonstrated a full sandbox bypass exploit.” The company explained in a blog post that it found a zero-day in Chrome “running on a modern Windows-based laptop.” It was able to exploit the vulnerability by performing a very similar attack to what took down Facebook, Microsoft, and a number of other well-known companies: It had the laptop visit a malicious website. From there the website probed Chrome and was able to get control of the area of the browser that executes code “in the context of the sandboxed renderer process,” or the protective area that allows code to run, but restrict it from using any other part of the system but the CPU and memory.

The sandbox cannot, however, protect against any attacks against the kernel, or the root of the operating system, it exists in and that’s exactly what MWR took advantage of. It found a vulnerability in the kernel, exploited it, and gained full access to the Windows 7 system.

Shabam.

All of these browsers had been previously patched in preparation for the competition, showing just how much can be missed and how valuable these types of bug-finding events are. MWR won $100,000 as a result. Of course, both MWR and Vupen properly disclosed all the documentation of its findings to the appropriate browser security teams.

hat tip ZDNet; Chrome coffee image via yukop/Flickr

If Microsoft is looking for someone to blame for its $732 million fine from the European Union, it could start by blaming Google.

According to sources quoted by the Financial Times, it was Google (along with Opera) that tipped off the EU about the lack of browser choice in Windows, putting the whole investigation in motion.

Google’s stake in the whole thing should be pretty clear: As the creator of the Chrome browser, the search giant has a major interest in whittling away at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer empire — hence why it makes so much sense that Google would want to help kickstart a look into Microsoft’s Windows browser defaults.

Google’s move also makes sense given the increasingly bitter relationship between it and Microsoft. Between Microsoft’s bitter anti-Google attack campaign and Google’s move to nix Exchange ActiveSync support for Windows Phone owners who use Gmail, the animosity between the two companies has never been more pronounced. And it’s certain to get worse over time.

Photo: Shutterstock

Microsoft has been fined $731 million (561 million euros) by the European Union for failing to offer consumers a choice of which browser to use and making Internet Explorer the default, the EU announced today.

The EU said Microsoft failed to live up to a commitment it made in 2009 to give European consumers a choice in what browser they wanted to use. Microsoft eventually developed a “browser choice screen” so people could choose between using Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, or Opera. But a “technical error” on Microsoft’s part prevented that screen from being part of Windows 7′s Service Pack 1 and therefore users were still defaulted to Internet Explorer.

There were early reports that Microsoft could be fined up to $7.9 billion by the EU for the “technical error,” but the total ended up being much less. Still, $731 million isn’t just pocket change, so this could act as a warning for other tech companies that might try to skirt EU orders.

“Legally binding commitments reached in antitrust decisions play a very important role in our enforcement policy,” Joaquin Almunia, the EU’s competition commissioner, said in a statement. “Of course, such decisions require strict compliance. A failure to comply is a very serious infringement that must be sanctioned accordingly.”

Google has also attracted scrutiny from the EU over antitrust concerns related to search. In 2010, the EU began investigating Google for its control of 90 percent of the search market in the U.K.

Euro banknotes via vinz89/Shutterstock

Windows 7 users, Internet Explorer 10 is now your very own shiny, new toy.

Microsoft’s latest release brings IE10, its most impressive browser to date, to the desktops of all the PC fans who haven’t made the switch to Windows 8 — in other words, pretty much every cubicle hero and normal consumer outside the sphere of nerdy early adopters.

The new version brings performance upgrades, faster browsing, and enhanced security and privacy features. IE10 is available immediately for download in 95 languages.

Here are the requirements for running IE10:

• A Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows RT PC.
• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with support for PAE, NX, and SSE2
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
• Internet access (ISP fees might apply)

To show off some of the browser’s fancier features, Microsoft has also launched ExploreTouch.ie, an HTML5-based site where anyone can interact with and manipulate individual instrument tracks for an ad/song by Seattle musician Blake Lewis.

“We came together to work with Blake and director Keith Rivers, who directed last year’s A More Beautiful Web commercial, to showcase what is possible with a Windows 8 touch device and Internet Explorer 10,” Microsoft reps wrote in a statement on the spot.

Here are a few stills from the experience:

Currently, Microsoft says, around 700 million consumers are using either Windows 7 or Windows 8. Switching to IE10 will reportedly bring a 20 percent performance boost for web browsing and a 60 percent increase in the browser’s support of modern web standards.

Advances like that have helped Internet Explorer gain a bit of ground in the ongoing browser wars. Currently, IE claims 55.14 percent of the global browser market, its highest share in more than a year.

As our reviewer wrote of an earlier preview of the browser, “Arguably the biggest enhancement is support for the Web Worker API, which lets developers take advantage of things like multi-core processors when they work with JavaScript. Basically, when a website is rendering images or something complex, IE10 will take advantage of hardware to make the site load more smoothly or even run scripts that are more complicated than ever before. … IE10 is a step in the right direction.

Image crefit: Flickr

Microsoft has just unveiled modern.IE, a new resource for devs to test their apps in the newer versions of Internet Explorer.

Sure, IE is the browser we all love to hate, but Microsoft has really stepped up its game in the browser department. IE9 is — dare we say it? — daggone pretty. And IE10 is waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, Microsoft has taken IE6 out behind the shed where it belongs.

All this adds up to several steps in the right direction, helping IE to gain back a little lost ground in the ongoing browser wars. Which in turn means that developers of web applications and sites need to keep building and testing for IE.

So, back to the topic at hand: web-app testing.

Modern.IE features a code evaluation “wizard,” a set of cross-browser testing tools from BrowserStack, and some handy best practices for web development in these modern times.

As a Microsoft rep wrote to VentureBeat via email:

We’ve talked in the past about some of the experiences we’ve created for the web, with the goal of inspiring innovation on the web. The reality is, though, that there is a delta between where the web is currently, and the potential of where it can go with a modern browser, and a big part of this is time spent making sites work for old browsers.

For developers, testing can take up to 30 to 40 precent of their time — imagine if that time was spent creating new experiences leveraging the tools we’ve provided and not on addressing the past. We’re excited about what’s possible on the web and what developers will be able to create once they have more time to innovate.

Here’s a quick promo clip the modern.IE folks created to tout the service’s benefits:

Top image from the 1971 film adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof, a delightful music about life in a shtetl in Tsarist Russia. The screengrab above is from the number “Miracle of Miracles.” Neither the song nor the musical has anything whatsoever to do with Internet Explorer.

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With Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox as the browser of choice for many around the world, Microsoft will have to get creative to bring back people who left Internet Explorer out of frustration.

The company is doing just that with a new ad that tries to attract people who grew up in the 1990s. The clever video, which you can view above, features lots of nostalgic items from that time period, including Hungry Hungry Hippos, The Oregon Trail, Super Soakers, Pogs, yo-yos, fanny packs, trolls, and more.

Microsoft writes a blog post announcing the ad:

Last year was a pretty great one for Internet Explorer. From hitting a year high on worldwide share to making some new friends like Officer Cupcake and Eugene Filon, we poked some fun at our past while helping the skeptics learn about the latest version of IE. Performance tests continued to show Internet Explorer 10 as the fastest browser on Windows 8 and security reports showed it was also the best browser to protect users from malware.

Which is why we thought it was time to invite those of you who haven’t thought about Internet Explorer in a while to take a trip down memory lane. Internet Explorer is a child of the ’90s, but we have done some serious growing up. Maybe IE was your first browser, but you haven’t used it in a while. We aren’t sure if Pogs or trolls will make a comeback as well, but we do know a lot has changed with Internet Explorer.

The ad says, “You grew up. So did we.” Will you ever go back to Internet Explorer?

Update 12:07pm PT: Microsoft says it has fully patched the hole and issued the fix.

Microsoft announced over the weekend that it is fixing a vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser that could allow hackers to take over your PC.

“An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the current user,” the company explained in its security advisory. “Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights.”

On Monday, December 31, Microsoft said that it has completely closed the vulnerability and users can now administer the fix to their own browsers. It will not require people to reboot their browsers.

The exploit only affects those Windows PC owners who are running IE 6, 7, or 8 and takes advantage of Adobe Flash “to generate a heap spray attack against Internet Explorer version 8.0,” according to security researchers at FireEye. A heap spray attack helps hackers insert their malicious code on a system, but it must be paired with an existing security hole, such as the one in Internet Explorer, that gives them their point of entry into the targeted system.

Furthermore, victims are hit with the attack when they visit a website that is (sometimes unknowingly) hosting malicious code. In this case, a number of security firms, including FireEye and AlienVault, note that the Council on Foreign Relations website was being used to infect anyone who visited it. FireEye says it first heard the CFR website was compromised on Dec. 27, but according to its researchers, the site could have been infected as early as Dec. 21.

Computerworld explains that the hackers are able to look at a specific group of people, or individuals, and target the attack to them by watching what websites they frequent. Whether the criminals wanted to attack specifically people who are interested in the CFR is unknown.

Microsoft says it is currently working on a fix and urges people to update their browsers to the most recent version of Internet Explorer. Keeping your systems up to date is one of our security resolutions for 2013. You can also use Qualys’ browser checker to make sure any plug-ins and your browser are up to date.

Depending on “customer needs” the fix may come in its regular batch of updates to IE, or in a separate, emergency patch.

Internet Explorer image via evil nickname/Flickr

Yesterday, ad analytics company Spider.io said that Internet Explorer is vulnerable to a simple hack that enables attackers to see what your mouse is doing onscreen – even when IE is minimized. Users don’t have to download, install, or even agree to any onscreen prompt — the attack vector is a simple banner ad on virtually any site on the web.

Today a Microsoft representative told VentureBeat that it’s investigating the issue:

We are currently investigating this issue, but to date there are no reports of active exploits or customers that have been adversely affected. We will provide additional information as it becomes available and will take the appropriate action to protect our customers.

The vulnerability affects new and old versions of Internet Explorer, from version 6 to the current 10, and Spider.io said that at least two display ad analytics companies were already using it across billions of webpage impressions each month.

Spider.io also said that it informed Microsoft of the vulnerability almost two months ago.

If you’re using Internet Explorer, a simple way to protect yourself online is to simply enter nothing at all in a virtual, onscreen keyboard. At least until Microsoft issues a fix or determines that this is not actually a security problem.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer can track your mouse movements anywhere on the screen, even when minimized. And Microsoft, which was informed of the massive potential security hole over two months ago, has no plans to fix it. Which means that as you explore the web, the web can explore you right back.

And this vulnerability is already being exploited by two advertising companies.

Spider.io, the ad analytics company that can tell if your site visitors are real or dream of electric sheep, found the vulnerability months ago — and notified Microsoft on October 1. The security vulnerability allows any display ad on any site to access your mouse movements — you do not have to install anything, agree to anything, or even be visiting some of the seedier alleyways of the web:

“An attacker can get access to your mouse movements simply by buying a display ad slot on any webpage you visit,” Spider.io’s Nick Johnson posted on Seclists.org, a security-related bug-tracking site. “This is not restricted to lowbrow porn and file-sharing sites. Through today’s ad exchanges, any site from YouTube to the New York Times is a possible attack vector.”

Source: Spider.io

IE security vulnerability demonstration

The vulnerability in IE versions 6-10 allows hackers to see what your mouse is doing on-screen … which could include typing personal information such as credit card numbers and passwords into virtual on-screen keyboards, a particularly timely security hole in the era of Windows 8 and its emphasis on touch and on-screen interactions.

“Indeed, the vulnerability is already being exploited by at least two display ad analytics companies across billions of webpage impressions each month,” Johnson added to the bug report. “As long as the page with the exploitative advertiser’s ad stays open—even if you push the page to a background tab or, indeed, even if you minimize Internet Explorer—your mouse cursor can be tracked across your entire display.”

If you’re using IE on a PC and want to test this, Spider.io created a live demonstration which you can use to observer the vulnerability in action. The company also created a game, “Steal from IE Users,” in which Spider.io is challenging more technically-oriented users to decipher mouse tracks to uncover 12 credit card numbers, telephone numbers, passwords, and email addresses.

One thing that is not yet clear is whether the vulnerability affects just the PC version of Internet Explorer or tablet versions — as in Surface — which would be even more likely to use virtual keyboards. I have talked to Spider.io, and will update this post as the company releases any more information.

VentureBeat has contacted Microsoft for a statement or comment and will update this story as the companyresponds.

photo credit: moiles via photopin cc

During the latter half of 2012, Firefox has once again overtaken Chrome as the number-two browser for desktop computers, and Internet Explorer has not only stayed on top but has actually seen some small gains.

Chrome had eclipsed Firefox briefly during 2012, but Google’s desktop browser lost its position during the second half of the year.

Check out these charts, compiled with data from Netmarketshare:

For Internet Explorer, IE 9 has made all the difference. While IE 8 still accounts for more installs overall, IE 9 has been steadily picking up steam since its launch in March 2011, thanks to better features and a faster overall experience.

Just as important for IE’s legacy has been the process of killing off older versions.

“IE 6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away,” wrote Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, at the beginning of the year. “Less than a year later, I’m thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE 6.”

On the mobile side, Apple’s mobile version of Safari still accounts for the vast majority of usage, around 60 percent of mobile browser share. But the mobile version of Android has seen some spikes late in 2012, as well. In fact, between September 2012 and October 2012, mobile Safari lost around four percentage points, while the Android browser gained five percent.

As for BlackBerry, that OS browser’s share has dipped from three percent to 1.3 percent over the past year.

Top image courtesy of Art Prestige Studio, Shutterstock

Windows 8 upgraders may find that Microsoft has gone to some lengths to make Bing and Internet Explorer the default, obvious, and standard web search and browsing apps. (Shocking, I know.) Now, to the tune of “Oh, baby, give me one more chance,” Google is helping you make it “a little more familiar.”

In other words, a little more Google.

In two minutes, Google guides you through downloading and installing its new Google search app for Windows 8 — which includes voice search — and its Chrome browser. Then, the video says, “Your Google is back.”

The version of Chrome has been tweaked for Windows 8, Google says, with “some customizations to optimize for touchscreens, including larger buttons and the cpability to keep Chrome open next to your other favorite apps.”

Cheekily, Google suggests that the search app go right under the Start menu, where it is most visible and obvious.

The Bing search app has been criticized for being attractive but annoying. Specifically, it opens search results in a new Internet Explorer window, which then renders the browser’s back button useless, as the search results are back in the Bing app.

Image credit: Google

Those are just a few of the conclusions of e-commerce optimization giant Monetate’s state-of-the-online-sales-union report for the second quarter of 2012.

Browser wars: not what you’d think

“The most interesting part for me is the browser war,” says Monetate’s chief marketing officer, Kurt Heinemann. “What we’re seeing on the e-commerce side of the fence is that mobile and desktop Safari are actually equal to Explorer.”

In fact, from 8PM to 11PM EST, when all portions of the country are out of the office, Safari accounts for 30 percent of traffic. That’s the desktop and mobile versions combined together, Heinemann adds. And it’s the browser traffic at e-commerce sites of Monetate customers such as Best Buy, QVC, Comcast, National Geographic, and many more.

Over the course of an entire day Monetate’s customers, which include 20 percent of the top 500 internet retailers in the U.S., get 3.3 percent of their visits from Android phones, up 85 percent year-over-year, and 5.4 percent of their visits from iPhones, up 117%.

Interestingly, Android users convert almost 30 percent better than iPhone users.

Yes, Mac users do actually buy more

In the wake of the Great Orbitz Pricing Non-scandal of 2012, in which Orbitz was found to be recommending higher-priced hotels to Mac users than to PC users, the hot question has been: do Mac users actually spend more?

Well, yes, says Heinemann.

“Apple users do have a higher order value. I think that’s a demographic thing — Macs tend to be a little higher priced than PCs.”

In fact, Mac users spend an average of $102.83 versus $88.75 for PC users, and just $84.91 for the cheapskate Linux faithful. On the other hand, the difference basically disappears in the smartphone world: iPhone and Android are almost neck-and-neck at $97 and change, with Windows Phone a little lower at $92.45.

It’s in the tablet world that the order value differences reappear, but in this case it’s the Kindle Fire that loses out. Average orders on the Kindle Fire lag behind those on iPad or other Android tablets by about $10.

“Again, I think that’s a demographic thing,” Heineman says. “Kindle is $200, and iPad is $500 … that’s the primary difference.”

Social vs. search: social still sucks (but so does search)

It’s fairly well known that social traffic to e-commerce sites converts at a lower rate than search traffic. Monetate confirms that: social converts at a measly .59 percent rate, while search is about four times better at 2.59 percent.

The real story which is sometimes somewhat obscured in the debate?

Email kills them both, converting at 4.25 percent … almost double search, and eight times better than social.

“That’s the great nugget there,” according to Heinemann. “In the whole social hype cycle people can easily take their eyes off the numbers, the conversion rates and average order values.”

Heinemann warns against putting too many eggs in the social basket, saying that email converts massively, and retailers need to do smart things to build their email database, and then use it well.

One caveat: there’s significantly more traffic from social than there is from email … so even with a lower conversion rate, social can still provide a significant amount of value.

You can download the entire report here.

Image credit: Mirexon/ShutterStock

Chrome, Google’s speedy web browser, eclipsed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer in global market share back in May and is now leading by a significant margin of nearly 2 percent.

StatCounter, a site that (you guessed it!) tallies statistics around web browsers and websites, showed Chrome sliding past IE by a very slim margin a few months ago. Between May 14 and May 20, Chrome was ahead of Internet Explorer for the first time in its brief history (the browser launched publicly September 2008).

At that time, StatCounter showed Chrome having a lead of just three tenths of a percent. Today, Chrome claims 33.81 percent to IE’s 32.04 percent. The situation has changed quite a bit since this time last year, when IE had 42.45 percent of the global browser market and Chrome claimed a mere 22.14 percent.

The stats service moreover showed Chrome passing Firefox in popularity at the end of last year, when it claimed a 25.7 percent share of the global browser market to Firefox’s 25.2 percent share.

Still, StatCounter is just one resource for browser-tracking. Another source is NetMarketShare, which showed that after months of steady losses, Internet Explorer did experience some staunching of the bleeding around the release of IE9, a more modern and competitive browser, and during Microsoft’s concerted campaign to rid people’s PCs of the oft-maligned IE6.

“IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away,” wrote Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, at the beginning of the year.

“This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward,” wrote Internet Explorer Senior Director Ryan Gavin at the end of last year. “The Web overall is better — and safer — when more people run the most up-to-date browser.”

But overall, the trends as analyzed by StatCounter don’t favor IE for the long haul. Here’s a chart showing where the major browsers stand and how we got here:

Top image courtesy of mikeledray, Shutterstock

“More than 85 percent of Firefox users have at least one add-on installed,” Mozilla’s Erica Jostedt wrote. Of those Firefox users who have add-ons installed, most have five customizations. AdBlock Plus is the most popular add-on, followed by Firebug, NoScript, Personas Plus and Video DownloadHelper. Privacy, security and search top the most popular categories of add-ons.

The add-ons were introduced in 2004 and then went mobile in 2009 as more consumers browsed by phone. Today, there are more than 150,000 collections of Firefox add-ons, such as Family Organizer, Sports Fanatic and the Paranoid Kit. More there are more than 25,000 Firefox add-on developers, Mozilla said.

Firefox may be feeling the heat from Google Chrome’s growing competition. However, the free browser isn’t standing still. Along with featuring a major recent update for Android smartphones, it still can claim dominance over Internet Explorer, the previous desktop champion.

Europe’s second-highest court has upheld a massive antitrust fine against Microsoft for hindering competition, but it lowered the fine slightly by €39 million to €860 million ($1.1 billion), according to the Associated Press.

“The General Court essentially upholds the Commission’s decision imposing a periodic penalty payment on Microsoft for failing to allow its competitors access to interoperability information on reasonable terms,” the court said in a statement.

Microsoft initially was ordered in 2004 to share product information and code about its server software with smaller rival companies, but in 2008 the EU said Microsoft had not complied with the order and fined it €899 million. Micosoft appealed the decision and has been fighting since that time to have the fine thrown out or reduced. Apparently, it didn’t convince the court well enough to throw out the case, and the company will now end up spending a total of €1.64 billion on the case.

“Although the General Court slightly reduced the fine, we are disappointed with the Court’s ruling,” Microsoft said in a statement.

With this case coming to a close, Microsoft will now be in the clear (for now) with European regulators. In 2009, Microsoft entered into an agreement with governing bodies that resolved almost all of the EU’s competition concerns, minus this pending case. Notably, the bodies had been concerned about Internet Explorer being bundled with Windows was creating an unfair advantage. Microsoft agreed to give customers a range of browsers to pick from to end the scrutiny.

Steve Ballmer photo: Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat

Microsoft is certainly doing a good job of painting itself as a consumer advocate in regards to the new “Do Not Track” browser option, but its unyielding stance might be doing more harm than good.

The DNT feature allows people to stop websites from having their personal information tracked and collected for ad targeting/marketing purposes. Not only has Microsoft come out in support of DNT, but it’s also making it the default option for people using its Internet Explorer 10 browser, as VentureBeat previously reported.

The move didn’t exactly sit well with advertising industry groups, because it will likely translate into less effective advertising and lower revenue. And let’s be honest, the majority of people won’t go out of their way to let advertisers track and catalog their personal data.

Now, a handful of highly influential privacy advocates — including Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Peter Eckersley, Mozilla’s Tom Lowenthal, and Stanford University professor Jonathan Mayer — are voicing disagreement with Microsoft’s decision over the DNT default setting. The privacy advocates are charged with overseeing a “Do Not Track Compromise” (PDF) proposal for the W3C, the organization charged with issuing official web standards. Yesterday, that proposal, which is endorsed by the FTC, was updated to reflect the sentiments of the advertising community.

While noting that the changes haven’t been reviewed by committee, the group did explain the proposal’s update in a conference call, saying:

Today we reaffirmed the group consensus that a user agent MUST NOT set a default of DNT:1 or DNT:0, unless the act of selecting that user agent is itself a choice that expresses the user’s preference for privacy. In all cases, a DNT signal MUST be an expression of a user’s preference.

Microsoft IE, as a general purpose user agent, will not be able to claim compliance with DNT once we have a published W3C Recommendation. As a practical matter they can continue their current default settings, since DNT is a voluntary standard in the first place. But if they claim to comply with the W3C Recommendation and do not, that is a matter the FTC (and others) can enforce.

Avoiding Do Not Track legislation

The ad industry’s compliance with DNT standards is basically to avoid having the Federal Trade Commission call for legislation regarding online data tracking. If you’ve paid attention to U.S. legislators’ attempts to pass laws for the web, you’ll understand they aren’t very good at it. (If you’d like proof, check out our coverage of SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA.) The best-case scenario for online privacy tracking regulation would be for everyone (advertisers, websites, and browsers) to work together on a comprehensive set of standards that are fair, logical, and able to evolve with behavior and technology trends, without bringing Congress into the mix.

If other browsers (or “user agents”) start following Microsoft’s lead with a default DNT option, it could jeopardize the ad industry’s willingness to work towards online tracking standards that aren’t mandated by a new law. In other words, it could slow the “Do Not Track” movement to a crawl.

Microsoft, however, is staying firm on its decision to keep DNT as a default. And for that, it gains some approval from tech-savvy web users who don’t want to be tracked, and probably also improves its standing next to ad-revenue-dependent rival Google.

“We are engaged with the W3C, as we are with many international standards bodies. While we respect the W3C’s perspective, we believe that a standard should support a privacy by default choice for consumers,” Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch said in a statement to VentureBeat.

The biggest disadvantage of Microsoft’s stance on DNT is that Internet Explorer, which accounts for about a fifth of all browser usage, will no longer be able to claim compliance with W3C standards. That means, theoretically, advertisers can simply ignore IE10′s attempt to stop data from being tracked. That could lead to Microsoft or its users employing more powerful DNT methods.

Many people criticize popular ways to stop advertisers and others from tracking your web activity, such as those used by NoScript and AdBlock Plus. But without a universal standard, these tools are pretty much your only option today.

IE10′s impact on advertising

At the same time, Microsoft’s decision might not have a big enough impact to matter, according to StrangeLoop president Joshua Bixby, whose firm helps companies understand browser usage trends to boost revenue. In fact, there might even be an incentive for companies to allow IE10 to work as intended.

“Microsoft isn’t going to really disrupt things by keeping (DNT) default in IE,” Bixby told VentureBeat. He explained Internet Explorer usage is higher, and therefore more crucial, among online consumers when looking at the individual companies he’s worked with.

But the number of people who will upgrade to IE10 (the only version of the web browser that will feature the default DNT option) probably won’t be large enough to seriously hurt revenue, he said. This is also true because, for the DNT functionality to work, websites need to comply with a set of standards. It’s a voluntary effort at this point, so there’s no telling when a large number of big websites will jump on board.

Bixby added that IE10 users who can’t be tracked will provide companies, as well as the analytics firms they work with, “enough time to adapt technologies to create new and more open standards for how to track people.”

Essentially, the absence of user data from IE10 users can serve as a test case for new methods of ad/data tracking. When those methods prove successful, they can be pushed out to other consumers without fear of flying blind. In this sense, Microsoft is unwittingly helping the DNT movement, but that could quickly change if others start offering a default setting to stop advertisers from tracking data.

“Using the Facebook IPO as a watermark, this is the beginning of the ad business needing to change on the Internet,” Bixby said.

Top image via grynold/Shutterstock

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Mobile Safari, the browser found on Apple’s iOS devices, is quickly emerging as a major player in the new browser wars. Now as Internet Explorer’s market share is falling, mobile Safari is snapping up Internet Explorer users alongside Google’s Chrome browser, according to the latest data from ecommerce technology company Monetate.

Based on data from the more than 100 websites using Monetate’s platform, the company found that mobile Safari market share jumped to 11.12 percent in the January-March 2012 quarter, up from 5.84 percent a year ago. Meanwhile, Internet Explorer’s share fell from 53.45 percent last year to 42.35 percent.

Safari’s growth was slightly faster than Google Chrome, which grew from 8.08 percent last year to 14.42 percent this quarter. Given the continued success of the iPhone and iPad, I suppose it’s not too surprising that a mobile browser is now shaping up to be a browser war contender.

The news is particularly interesting since recent data from NetMarketShare showed Internet Explorer was finally regaining market share.

As always, we should take this data with a grain of salt based on Monetate’s sampling, but it’s still interesting to see. Check out the full infographic below (click to enlarge), which also lists browser market share data from StatCounter.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 10 web browser will include a default “Do Not Track” feature that allows users to stop advertisers from tracking and collecting their personal data while surfing the net, the company announced late yesterday.

Apparently, Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the DNT feature would be adopted by a significant number of companies online before the end of the year. The DNT feature built into web browsers allows websites to give their visitors the option of having their personal information tracked and collected for ad targeting and marketing purposes. Twitter is one of the first major websites to support the new feature, with Microsoft saying it’ll make its own sites compatible with DNT soon.

Internet Explorer (all versions), which accounts for more than 18 percent of global browser usage, is the second web browser to adopt the DNT feature. Mozilla’s Firefox has been testing the DNT feature since last year, but users must turn it on through the browser’s preference options. IE10, by contrast, will have the feature turned on by default, as demonstrated in the Windows 8 Release Preview that rolled out yesterday.

“We’ve made today’s decision because we believe in putting people first,” wrote Microsoft Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch. “We believe that consumers should have more control over how information about their online behavior is tracked, shared, and used.”

Reading between the lines a bit, it’s easy to see that this move will clearly win over some of Microsoft’s customers. And even if its advertising revenue suffers in the long run, Microsoft isn’t a company that’s entirely reliant on its ad business. One of Microsoft’s major competitors, Google, can’t say the same.

However, at least one group is really not happy about Microsoft’s decision. While Lynch noted that Microsoft still sees value in targeted advertising, as well as its importance in the industry to make money for publishers and bring new products to market, having the DNT feature turned on by default in IE10 didn’t sit well with major ad industry group the Digital Advertising Alliance.

In an agreement with the White House back in February (PDF), the DAA agreed to the terms of the FTC’s initial “Do Not Track” guidelines so long as the feature wasn’t made as a default option. DAA General Council Stu Ingis told the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft’s decision “raises a lot of concern,” and that his group supports “consumer choice, not a choice made by one browser or technology vendor.”

Photo via karamish/Shutterstock

Google Chrome isn’t just for über-geeks anymore. Google’s minimalist web browser is now the most popular web browser in the world, according to the latest figures from StatCounter.

For the week of May 14th to May 20th, Chrome edged out Internet Explorer — which has been losing market share precipitously — for the first time ever. StatCounter’s data shows that Mozilla Firefox has been slowly dipping in popularity, and that Chrome surpassed it in market share in early November last year (though Firefox usage shot up a bit in recent weeks).

The news isn’t too surprising, since Google has done a remarkable job of quickly improving Chrome and adding features that easily tie into your Google account. Last week, the company added a useful tab synchronization feature to the latest version of Chrome, which likely helped drive new downloads.

Looking at the browser market by region, it’s clear that South America gave Chrome a big push in worldwide numbers. Chrome’s popularity skyrocketed in South America over the last year, almost doubling to 52 percent. It’s unclear what exactly is driving Chrome’s numbers in the region, though I assume the popularity of Google’s Orkut social network in Brazil has something to do with it.

In North America, Internet Explorer is still slightly more popular than Chrome, though Microsoft’s browser has been steadily dropping in popularity over the last year. That generally seems to be the story of most regions — even though Internet Explorer 9 was a surprisingly intriguing release, it wasn’t enough to fight against the rising tide of Chrome hype.

Via The Verge; Photo via Van_PC/Flickr

Microsoft and Motorola Mobility are locked in a bitter patent suit regarding the use of H.264 video compression and encoding. Many of Microsoft’s products and services utilize this technology,  and it is rapidly becoming an Internet standard for embedded media.

The ongoing legal battle lead to a German judge issuing an injunction in Motorola’s favor. If  Motorola chose to enforce the injunction, it could halt the sales and distribution of the Xbox 360, Windows 7 software, and even Internet Explorer in the country. Germany was the center of Microsoft’s European distribution, but the company relocated this hub to the Netherlands in anticipation of the ruling.

“This is one step in a long process, and we are confident that Motorola will eventually be held to its promise to make its standard essential patents available on fair and reasonable terms for the benefit of consumers who enjoy video on the web,” Microsoft said in a statement.

It is now up to Motorola to enforce the injunction, but they likely will not based on three key points:

1. A ruling by a Seattle court in April preemptively barred Motorola from blocking the sales of certain Microsoft products in Germany. A hearing in this trial is scheduled for May 7.

“Motorola is prohibited from acting on today’s decision, and our business in Germany will continue as usual while we appeal this decision and pursue the fundamental issue of Motorola’s broken promise,” Microsoft said in a statement.

2. Microsoft can appeal the ruling. If they do, Motorola will have to post millions of euros as bond to secure any revenue Microsoft might lose if another court overturned the ban.  Tech company LG enforced a similar embargo on PlayStation 3s in 2011 following a dispute over the use of Blu-ray technology in the console.  When courts lifted the ban, LG was hit with a hefty fine for the 300,000 PS3s that were impounded.

3. A higher German court could stop the ban until it made a final ruling on an appeal. So far, the case has not moved beyond the current ruling.

In April, the U.S. International Trade Commission ruled that Microsoft did infringe 0n four of Motorola’s five patents regarding video compression and Wi-Fi connectivity. A review of these findings is currently underway and scheduled for completion by August 23.

In an interesting turn of events, another ITC judge found that Motorola Mobility was actually in violation of one of Microsoft’s seven patents. The ITC is currently reviewing this information and plans to release its decision May 18.

Should the ITC’s investigation ending on August 23 confirm that Microsoft is in violation of Motorola’s patents, courts could also halt the distribution and importation of the Xbox 360 in the U.S. because the console is manufactured in Asia.

Image courtesy of  Time Techland

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Internet Explorer has been sliding downhill in market share for the past few years, but recently mined stats show something the critics never expected to see: A small but significant uptick in IE’s numbers since the beginning of 2012.

Data from NetMarketShare show that while IE had indeed been in a slump for quite some time, the browser picked up slightly more than one percent of market share between December 2011 and January 2012.

And that percentage point wasn’t just a fluke; IE held steady between January and February but grew nearly another whole point between February and March 2012.

We did some spreadsheet jockeying with NetMarketShare’s numbers, and here are some pretty shapes and colors we came up with to represent the trends:

Regardless of waxing and waning percentage points in recent months, Internet Explorer has been the unquestioned top dog in this race for quite some time. Chrome, one of the fastest-gaining players in the browser wars, only recently reached the number-two spot in a tight race with Firefox; and both of those browsers only claim around 25 percent of the market each.

So, what could have happened to shift the tides in IE’s favor?

For one thing, Microsoft has been working to kill off older versions, such as the much maligned IE6.

“IE6 has been the punch line of browser jokes for a while, and we’ve been as eager as anyone to see it go away,” wrote Roger Capriotti, Director of Internet Explorer Marketing, at the beginning of the year. “Less than a year later, I’m thrilled to say that the United States has joined the ranks of Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway in dropping below 1% usage of IE6.”

Along with killing off “bad” versions, the company has been working on getting machines to automatically update to newer versions of Internet Explorer. “This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward,” wrote Internet Explorer Senior Director Ryan Gavin at the end of last year. “The Web overall is better — and safer — when more people run the most up-to-date browser.”

And when it comes to the most recent version of IE, it had the distinction of being named “a browser you might actually want to use” by VentureBeat’s own Sean Ludwig. High praise from a man with high standards.

So next time you critics try to put IE on death row, just remember — you can’t keep a good dog down.

Top image courtesy of mikeledray, Shutterstock

The story starts about a month ago, when the WSJ broke the news that Google and a few other advertisers had been bypassing default privacy controls on Apple’s mobile and desktop browser Safari and depositing cookies, which can track browsing habits. The big issue is that Safari blocks cookies by default, and Google had written code to get around that.

After getting wind of the issue, Microsoft investigated and found that the same practice was affecting people who used Internet Explorer, where cookies are also blocked by default.

Google removed the code from its site to remedy the problem, but clearly enough damage had been done. Now, U.S. state and federal agencies and France’s Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL) are investigating Google’s privacy missteps.

The Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google to see if this practice violates a settlement reached between the search engine and the U.S. government last year. Terms of the agreement prevent Google from misrepresenting its privacy policies, reports the WSJ. If the FTC finds Google in violation, the company could face a hefty fine. The company would be charged $16,000 per violation, per day, which could add up to a lot of money.

In Europe, the issue has been added to the CNIL’s European investigation of Google, which includes recent changes the company made to its privacy policy, which went into effect March 1.

VentureBeat reached out to Google and received this response:

We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. We created a temporary communication link between Safari browsers and Google’s servers, so that we could ascertain whether Safari users were also signed into Google, and had opted for personalized ads and other content. However, the Safari browser contained functionality that then enabled other Google advertising cookies to be set on the browser. We will of course cooperate with any officials who have questions. But it’s important to remember that we didn’t anticipate this would happen, and we have been removing these advertising cookies from Safari browsers.

Microsoft published a post on its Internet Explorer Engineering Team blog today calling out Google for bypassing Internet Explorer’s privacy settings.

Last Friday, The Wall Street Journal broke the news that Google has been bypassing privacy settings set by users on Apple’s Safari browser. After hearing this, Microsoft investigated whether Google was doing the same to Internet Explorer. After some digging, IE’s engineering team got their answer: yes, Google was going over user’s privacy controls.

Specifically, Google has been bypassing Internet Explorer’s P3P Privacy Protection feature, which defines how cookies are used by browsers and websites. P3P Compact Policy statements are provided by websites to explain how the site’s cookies will be impact a visitor’s privacy while browsing.

Dean Hachamovitch, corporate vice president for Internet Explorer, explains on the IE blog how the browser handles P3P statements:

By default, IE blocks third-party cookies unless the site presents a P3P Compact Policy Statement indicating how the site will use the cookie and that the site’s use does not include tracking the user. Google’s P3P policy causes Internet Explorer to accept Google’s cookies even though the policy does not state Google’s intent.

The same situation arose with Safari. The browser by default blocks third-party cookies, and Google bypassed this feature. Only time and more digging will tell if Firefox users have experienced this privacy issue as well. VentureBeat reached to Microsoft and Google on this issue.

Google’s Rachel Whetstone, Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, told VentureBeat in an email:

Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P”) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form.  It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality.  We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites. Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational.

Microsoft has responded to the situation with a Tracking Protection List that Internet Explorer users can add to their browser to keep track of this kind of activity should it persist. The link for the list is available on the IE Engineering Team blog.

These allegations follow the developing controversy over Google’s new privacy changes, which allow for shared information across all Google services.

Image courtesy of Minerva Studio, Shutterstock

This morning, Microsoft is showing off Love Is in the Air, a browser demo intended to show off the latest, shiniest HTML5 toys available to the modern browser.

“This experience brings together hardware-accelerated HTML5 canvas, SVG, CSS transforms & transitions, WOFF, audio, and more,” wrote IE group program manager Rob Mauceri today on the company blog.

“On Windows Developer Preview with support for multi-touch in IE10, you can reach out and swipe to reveal a special message of love, or just use your mouse. If you think your browser can keep up, turn up the volume to 1000 floating hearts.”

Microsoft particularly recommends using IE9 or IE10 with built-in hardware acceleration for this demo, although we had a fine time playing with the page in Chrome, as well.

As the web rolls on and newer, cooler apps (including Facebook’s Timeline) ditch support for older Internet Explorer versions, IE is upping the ante by implementing automatic updates to the software.

And, as we stated about a year ago, Internet Explorer isn’t as bad as its reputation. In fact, our own Devindra Hardawar said IE 9 was the best browsing experience Microsoft had provided to date and a “major departure” from past versions.

Currently, Internet Explorer is the number-one browser in the world, claiming 40 percent of the global market.

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July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Mozilla has decided to begin work on a touch-enabled version of its popular Firefox web browser for Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 operating system, the company revealed yesterday.

The Windows 8 OS allows companies to develop apps for its touch-based Metro interface as well as for a traditional desktop interface. But while Mozilla has the traditional side essentially covered with the current iteration of Firefox for PCs, the company has to start developing the Metro app, which requires much different coding.

“Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points,” the Firefox team said in its Windows 8 planning document. “The feature goal here is a new Gecko-based browser built for and integrated with the Metro environment. Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts.”

Mozilla said it plans to have a “proof-of-concept” version of its signature browser ready for the Metro interface next quarter, and it will then release further versions throughout the rest of the year.

Firefox will compete with Microsoft’s pre-installed Internet Explorer 10 for Metro. Google, Apple, and Opera — which all make rival web browsers — have thus far not announced creating Metro-enabled browsers for Windows 8. But as momentum builds for Windows 8′s launch later this year, we expect they will jump on board.

Would you like to see all browser makers create Metro-style apps?

Red Panda photo (which looks like a Firefox): Flickr/Ogwen

VentureBeat is holding its second annual Mobile Summit this April 2-3 in Sausalito, Calif. The invitation-only event will debate the five key business and technology challenges facing the mobile industry today, and participants — 180 mobile executives, investors, and policymakers — will develop concrete, actionable solutions that will shape the future of the mobile industry. You can find out more at our Mobile Summit site.

“IE7 users visiting profile pages that would otherwise be Timeline-enabled are presented with the old Facebook profile design, complete with a number of very evident styling issues,” The Sociable is reporting.

Before you cry foul, keep in mind that IE7, like IE6, is going the way of the dodo. The outdated browser, released in Oct. 2006, was holding on to 10.5 percent of the browser market at the start of 2011, but has since dropped off to just 4 percent global market share, according to StatCounter.

The silver lining here is that should you wish to avoid Timeline altogether — we know change is hard — you can turn to IE7 as your knight in shining armor. Though this could be the beginning of the end for IE7 support from Facebook.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for clarification. Its help center also does not indicate which browsers the social network officially supports. Instead, a help entry recommends that members use the most up-to-date version of Firefox, Safari, Chrome or Internet Explorer.

Image via kk/Flickr

Competing browsers, like Firefox and Apple’s Safari, have provided automatic updates for years. IE’s decision to follow suit is still significant, though. IE still commands 21.2 percent of all browser usage, according to data collected by W3schools.com. However, within that figure, only 5.1 percent of people in November 2011 are using the most recent version of the browser, IE 9.

“This is an important step in helping to move the Web forward,” wrote Internet Explorer Senior Director Ryan Gavin on the IE blog. “The Web overall is better – and safer – when more people run the most up-to-date browser.”

Updating to the latest browser version will also help speed up HTML5 adoption across all websites — meaning websites will be more dynamic and able to function regardless of the device constraints (mobile, desktop, etc.). It’ll also cut down on security exploits that enable identify theft.

Microsoft is pushing out the automatic IE updates starting in January to all machines running Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 to users in Australia and Brazil, with the worldwide roll out to follow. Only users who have explicitly turned on the “automatic updates” feature will experience the auto updates. However, many people may have this setting enabled due to constant prompts by Windows each time there’s an available update.

Inevitably, many IT departments will be hesitant about upgrading automatically because they don’t know exactly how the changes will interact with their company’s infrastructure. (And generally speaking, many IT departments also like to test any new upgrades before rolling them out company-wide to ensure everything continues running smoothly.) Gavin acknowledges this and advises them to use the Internet Explorer 8 and Internet Explorer 9 Automatic Update Blocker toolkits to prevent this from happening.

Shodogg, a startup focused on consuming and syncing video easily across platforms and devices, wants to change that. The company, which has been in stealth mode since early this year, has a patent-pending technology that lets you jump from TV screen to phone screen to laptop screen without missing a beat.

Shodogg first told the world a bit about its technology at VentureBeat’s DEMO event in New York City in October, and the company will officially debut its service and apps at the CES conference in Las Vegas in early January. Shodogg CEO and co-founder Herb Mitschele decided to share a few more details behind his promising-sounding startup before the CES launch to give us a better idea of what his technology can do.

The company’s grand vision is to change the way “people access, navigate, control and share online videos.” If you can start watching a movie on the iPhone 4S on your train ride home, then tap a button and move it to your big-screen Samsung TV when you arrive, the barriers to how you actually consume video almost evaporate. Apple, Google, Viacom, News Corp, NBC Universal or other media companies often charge to allow you to access content across new devices, but with Shodogg that won’t be case.

However, the company stressed that it does not want media companies to think of it as a disruptor of their content and sales strategies and wants them onboard as partners. While that notion might be a tough sell, Mitschele said Shodogg’s technology will actually help “preserve branded content” but just make it possible to watch it on a more convenient or better-looking screen. The media company still gets your dollars to buy or stream a movie, but Shodogg gives the viewer more options for how to consume it.

“The next step is to secure a lot of media deals,” Mitschele said. “We will display content partners we’re working with at CES.”

The company’s patent-pending technology is still young, and as such, it has limitations. Outside of working on almost every standard browser (IE10, Chrome, Firefox, Safari), it only works on connected TVs that have a browser and through Shodogg’s applications for iOS 5 and Android 2.1 and up. Those applications are not in Apple’s App Store or the Android Marketplace as of this writing, but Mitschele said the apps will be available in January.

For real use cases, Mitschele said YouTube was the service’s starting point because of its open API. You can watch a YouTube clip or movie through the Shodogg app on an iPhone, then open the same clip through Shodogg on your desktop browser and the clip will begin right where you left off. It is working on hooking up with other video services to make the experience as seamless as YouTube.

One powerful example Mitschele illustrated to better explain how Shodogg works was this: Mitschele set up Shodogg on his mother’s home computer. Now, he can be hundreds of miles away from her house and share videos from his phone to her computer without any hassle. “I call her up and say ‘Hey Mom, go sit in front of the computer and then send the video to her screen,” Mitschele said.

The Valhalla, New York-based company has thus far raised $1.6 million in funding from several “senior media executives.” It has a nice list of advisers on hand as well: Gregg Spiridellis, founder and CEO of JibJab; Linda Yaccarino, NBCU President of cable and digital ad sales; and Jerry Needel, COO of Buzzmetrics.

Check out the slick promo video of Shodogg below: