Ian Dyer - Bayshore Solutions Vice President

By: Ian Dyer – Bayshore Solutions Project Management Team

Microsoft recently announced that its Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Web browser had been downloaded more than two million times in 24 hours. Microsoft is banking heavily on IE9 reclaiming the market share it has lost to its rivals, in particular Google and Mozilla. Firefox has released a beta version of its new FF 4 Web browser with no firm date on general release. With more than 200 mobile browsers also in play, the browser wars continue to heat up!

There are several of new features published by Microsoft. Highlights include performance tuning of supported Operating Systems Vista and Windows 7; a cleaner interface with larger buttons, search bars, and consolidated menus; with a number of advanced security enhancements to filtering and cross-site scripting.

From an online marketing perspective, the most interesting news in the release was a “do-not-track” tool. What this means is that users of IE9 may be able to block some tracking levels of their online habits through the browser’s tracking protection list feature—provided they can figure out how to work it. Sound familiar to Facebook anyone? The user is directed from the browsers safety menu to a page where their preferences can be set. It still isn’t very clear how effective the privacy protection tools in Microsoft’s IE9 browser will be. The do-not-track feature is stated to automatically send out a message to websites and others requesting that the user’s data not be tracked. But there is no standard that requires advertisers to accept, respond, or act on these requests at this time.

This is certainly a developing story that must be closely followed by online advertisers such as Bayshore Solutions, the Federal Trade Commission, and businesses seeking to track and target consumers online. So let’s download a version, make any necessary compatibility updates to our Website applications, and keep-on-keeping-on with our current Internet marketing strategy of delivering measurable results for our businesses!

Ian Dyer is a Vice President at Bayshore Solutions—A Tampa Web Design, Web Development, and Internet Marketing Company.