Microsoft Offers Phone Support For IE 7

An anonymous reader writes "The BBC is running a short piece detailing Microsoft's newest step in testing Internet Explorer 7, which just went into Beta 2 yesterday. They're now offering free phone support to U.S., German, and Japanese users who try out the trial software." From the article: "'We believe that IE 7, even at this beta stage, is a significant improvement and we want as many people as possible to try it and use it,' said the browser development team in a post on its blog. 'IE 7 is feature complete and has been through significant compatibility and reliability testing. People (especially technology enthusiasts) will have a good experience with it,' continued the post. Microsoft said the new version addresses some problems affecting banking and news sites. It is also designed to be more secure than the current version, with built-in protection against malicious software and online phishing scams."

Typical Microsoft Response

[kungfuSiR]

I thought the days of Microsoft rushing products in an attempt to maintain market share were over with adoption of the trusted computing model. I guess I was wrong. When I used IE7 last, I found it to be far from completion and could definetly not recommend it to any of my clients or even my friends. I definetly saw some cool features in it, but I do not understand how they can be pushing this as a viable solution for some.

Yesterday?

[rjstanford]

That's what the website says -- released 4/24. Yet I've been using IE7 for a while now, I'm thinking about 6 weeks, and I could have sworn it was Beta 2. In fact, my Help/About box claims that its Beta 2 as well. So is this a rerelease or really version 2.1?

Phishing scam protection - MY FOOT !!!

[mritunjai]

No it does NOT prevent phishing scams, but actually IE actually makes various online hosting providers' anti-phishing filters useless. If someone hosts a text (yeah, .txt) file with HTML, *only* IE renders it as an HTML page.

One of my friends who was drowsy late night after cramming for exams, got phished!!! All fault of IE and partially his (being too drowsy!)... by this site : http://newphotosfamyli.bravehost.com/link2.txt [bravehost.com]

(Yeah, the site is still up after being reported to concerned people! If someone knows this fellow please punch him in the gut for me, thanks!).

More details and comparison of how Opera, Firefox and IE handle this phishing site are in my blog : http://blog.mritunjai.com/2006/04/23/gone-phishing / [mritunjai.com]

Why dont they depreciate some of their bloat in IE

[VGfort]

Stuff like page transitions, HTML TIME, their own proprietary tags for fancy text shadows, blur and gradiants. I realize a few rare people might use those but I think they could just use open standards instead. So many other programs out their depreciate things over time, why cant they? Thats how Firefox (phoenix) became the lightweight champ it is, it dropped a lot of the bloat Mozilla had.

Re:Phishing scam protection - MY FOOT !!!

[nursegirl]

This is really disturbing - Safari renders it as html instead of text as well. Good thing I use Firefox for unknown sites. I need to mention this to other Mac users. Everyone I know has been told about the inherent unsafety of IE, but most people think Safari is safe.

Has anyone tried Konqueror on this site?

Re:Acid 2 & install problems.

[ausoleil]

So, you are saying that you probably messed up Firefox by loading one extension or the other, imply that you have no idea what it was, and then turn around and claim that IE7 renders pages quicker in pristine form?

You're right. It wasn't scientifically conducted, even if you ignore the variables of your net connection. Not knowing exactly what you were testing with Firefox, etc., and then comparing it to a new install of another browser is outside of common sense.

However, the fact that you were honest about that (unlike certain marketing people in Redmond, WA ever will be) makes it an interesting comparison.

Re:ActiveX?

[Mistshadow2k4]

How long do you think it will take before an exploit is found that allows a malicious web site to turn on ActiveX without the user's permission? Bets, anyone?

Re:Phishing scam protection - MY FOOT !!!

[nixkuroi]

I know has been told about the inherent unsafety of IE, but most people think Safari is safe.

Everyone I know has been told about the inherent safety of firefox, but most people didn't know that at one point, firefox had a bug that allowed you to script to other tabs.

Browsers are only safe until you find the next bug. IE has plenty, but Firefox, Safari, Opera et al. are not completely safe. There are just fewer hackers trying to prove that they aren't.

I'm still not sure why IE is being criticized for releasing a new, more secure version. Sure, there are still problems, but they are STILL IN BETA. Are people concerned that now that MS has absorbed tabs, rss and phishing protection, that firefox will lose market share? The browsing experience for IE won't do anything but force firefox to keep coming up with innovative ways to make the browsing experience better. What wrong with that? As a side note: Your friend counting on a beta product to protect him from phishing attacks is a little naive don't you think? If I install a beta of almost anything, most of the time I expect that I might have to reinstall the OS shortly after.