Microsoft hints at "porn browsing" feature in IE

One of the most interesting feature that didn’t quite make it into the final release of Firefox 3 is “Private Browsing”, a.k.a. porn mode.

The only other browser with this feature built-in today is Safari (another reason to try it in case you haven’t), however, Microsoft may also be building a similar feature into Internet Explorer 8 if two trademark filings are any indications.

On July 30th, Microsoft filed two trademarks for:

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; and computer programs for deleting search history after accessing websites

IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer programs for accessing and using the Internet and the world wide web; computer programs for disabling the history and file caching features of a web browser; and computer software for notifying a user of a web browser when others are tracking web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use

Although “private browsing” can be easily associated with viewing particular genres of media content, the Mozilla foundation argues “while viewing pornography may be a popular use case due to the nature of content on the Web, assuming that this is the only reason that users need private browsing trivializes the overall feature. For instance, users may wish to begin a private browsing session to research a medical condition, or plan a surprise vacation or birthday party for a loved one.”

If indeed Microsoft is rolling out such a feature in Internet Explorer 8, I can imagine it becoming very popular with surprise birthday planners across the world. Oh those birthday people are in for a treat.

SOURCE

Don't think you could trust Microsoft to not record what has been deleted somewhere.

This is really silly and another un necessary from MS,  Boot into a livecd with your chioce of anything but IE and when you shut down is nothing because it all goes away.  Takes about 50mb of cd space and can use from a flash stick.  I guess MS is out to trademark the delete history and selective use of Ccleaner which have been doing this even in the MS Reg. for near ten years., better yet use an os thats not going to track all your PC use in the first place.  I know I am ranting again, but this kind of stuff really earns it. 

What a load of crap!

Opera has had an 'Empty Cache on Exit' for longer than I can remember.

Select it . . when you close Opera all you cache is deleted.

But of course Micro$oft will claim it for there own . . along with 'Tabbed' browsing that everyone has copies from Opera . ..

Yes Opera which is my main browser can, but if you use it on windows drill down into the reg. and you will find every url you've been to, MS must be cleaned up or better yet not used for browsing in the first place.  Clear history and cache is good enough for most, but a knowing user would know where and how to find it.  MS feature is made to maybe try and clean up that act after ten years of hearing about it.  Its been one of the main reasons so many get and install Ccleaner.  Then you have all the internet tracks cleaning software you can buy, but why?  If you need to worry about tracks don't make them in the first place, use a live session from RAM only.  Push one button its all gone.  I would have to think pretty hard to come up with a reason to be that carefull, but to run out and start trademarking everything in site just gals me.  After all, they are light years behind on the subject in the first place.

You speak as geeks. The vast vast majority of people who use the web aren't and I suspect a large chunk of them would welcome easily accessible privacy facilities built into their default browser.

Well like I said  "Clear history and cache is good enough for most"  the real point is all browsers already have it and have for years.  By trademarking this MS will soon say no other program can clean windows without paying them for the right to do so,  Its coming.

Internet Explorer has a set of files (index.dat) that aren't removed by clearing the cache. A progam called 'Spider' will remove these files.

Thats one of them you add to Ccleaner, which can be set to run at shutdown automaticly.  The only real problem with always cleaning is it can slow the browser without the cache everything can be slower.  Its best not to use your normal browser for specail projects thats where the livecd works so well or a kiosk cd version.  Just download the iso and burn to a cd.  Start pc with cd in, it runs you surf, shut down, that easy.  Not geeky at all, you can check the birthday party list at your e mail site and notify everyone what to bring. 

Fantastic, a friend of mine would like to know (he is planning a surprise birthday party), how to accomplish the same thing with Mozilla Firefox. And do the dat files as well. Possible? Need firefox add-on?

Thanks, my friend is really interested to know.

So just exactly how long has Safari had it's Private Browsing feature?

Mozilla has planty of add-ons that provide the services anyway.

As for MS... Yeah.. whatever.

I think this is worthy of repeat though

a treat.

Google Chrome has this too, and despite being rubbish for typing replies in forums (there is a lag between what you and what you type) its actually pretty quick.

I don't really get how it works.

It turns off the history recording, cookies, autocomplete, etc. etc.

But what is

"software for notifying a user of a web browser when others are tracking web use and for controlling the information others can access about such use"

???

This post has been edited by zzdocxx: 2008-09-12 09:42:42