To promote and help boost the popularity of their latest web browser Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft created an online game called Master of the Web. As a bonus, Microsoft is giving away cash prizes – $100 to the weekly top scorer for the next 12 weeks and a grand prize of $3,000 to the overall top scorer at the end of 12 weeks.

Master of the Web is made up of three lessons (levels) and three different games.

Lesson 1: Speedy Scrambling Hands Style
Objective: Catch as many eggs as you can within 1 minutes.

• You need to click on the egg once it is thrown at you and then click on the bowl to drop it.
• Each successfully deposited egg gives you 10 points.
• If you miss a egg and it hits you, you will be unable to catch any eggs for 3 seconds.

Lesson 2: Beginner’s Muck
Objective: Clean six paintings within two minutes.

• Click and drag over the paintings to clean them.
• As you are doing so, the sponge will dirtier – until it can no longer be used.
• Click on the sponge icon to get a new one and continue cleaning.
• Points will be allocated according to how fast you clean all paintings, or how much of them you clean.

Lesson 3: Trust or Bust!
Objective: Fend off your attackers.

• Click on the enemies to repel them.
• For every attacker you hit, you’ll score 10 points.
• If they manage to hit you, you’ll lose 5 points.
• Grab the IE9 icon for an immunity power-up. This means points will no longer be deducted when you get hit!

NOTE: This game is only available to a select number of countries namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and New Zealand. If you’re not from any of the countries listed, you can still play and enjoy the game but you won’t be eligible to enter the contest.

If you’re into these type of games and have time to spare, why don’t you give it a shot? Aside from enjoying and having fun, you also get a shot at winning the $100 weekly prize and the $3,000 grand prize. Btw, if you want to play this game make sure to use Internet Explorer 9 to get the best gaming experience. Master of the Web was designed/optimized to work with IE9.

Who else tried the Master of the Web Internet Explorer 9 game? Do you like the game? What’s your best score?

Microsoft released the latest version of their web browser – Internet Explorer 9 to the public last Monday and racked up a total of 2.35 million downloads in it’s first 24 hours of availability. I’ve been very busy since Monday and it was only today that I got to download, install and try out Internet Explorer 9 and to be honest, I kinda like it.

Here are the new features or changes made from previous versions of Internet Explorer:

• User Interface – Pinned Sites, Security-enabled Download Manager, Address Bar Search, Enhanced Tabs and Tab Page, Add-on Performance Advisor and Compact user interface.
• Scripting – Javascript Engine, DOM
• CSS
• HTML5 – HTML5 Media, HTML5 Canvas, HTML5 Inline SVG support
• Web typographyMalware protection

Unfortunately for Windows XP users, Internet Explorer 9 only works with the following versions of Windows – Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

One of the cool features of IE9 that I like is the Pinned Sites feature which integrates with the Windows 7 taskbar and allows the user to “pin” a site to the taskbar and use it as a shortcut. If you want to “pin” a site, all you need to do is type the URL of the website that you want to pin and once the site has completely loaded, just click on the tab, drag towards the taskbar and when it says “Pin to Taskbar” release it. See screenshot below.

I’m sure some of you will like the Internet Explorer 9′s built-in F12 Developer Tools, this is similar to the Firebug extension on Firefox or Developer Tools on Google Chrome which allows the user to edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.

If you’re trying to look for a Search bar on Internet Explorer 9, you won’t find any because it doesn’t have one. On Internet Explorer 9, the address bar doubles as the search bar. If you choose Google as your default search engine, you can enable Google Suggest (an auto-suggest feature).

Other cool features include InPrivate Browsing (same as Google Chrome’s Incognito) which prevents Internet Explorer from storing your browsing session data – cookies, temporary Internet files, history, etc. and the Tracking Protection feature which blocks ads, third-party cookies, tracking pixels, web beacons, hit counters, analytics scripts and other tools used by ad agencies and other organizations to track and profile the activities of web users.

I really like Internet Explorer 9 because it is a whole lot better than its predecessors and it has some very cool new features, but I’m still sticking to Mozilla Firefox as my default web browser because of the extensions/addons/plugins that I rely on for work and make things so much easy and convenient for me. Although, I might consider replacing Google Chrome and use Internet Explorer 9 as my secondary web browser.

Download Internet Explorer 9

Anyone installed and tried Internet Explorer 9? How do you like it so far? Which feature/s of Internet Explorer 9 do you like the most? Would you consider using it as your default web browser? Please share your thoughts.

10 years ago a browser was born.

Its name was Internet Explorer 6. Now that we’re in 2011, in an era of modern web standards, it’s time to say goodbye.

This website is dedicated to watching Internet Explorer 6 usage drop to less than 1% worldwide, so more websites can choose to drop support for Internet Explorer 6, saving hours of work for web developers.

The Internet Explorer 6 Countdown website not only encourages users to get rid or abandon the aged browser but it also displays data based on the usage of Internet Explorer 6 around the world.

The website also provides users resources on how to spread the word about IE6 Countdown campaign or how to educate others on why they should stop using IE6. They even provide a tool for displaying a “You are using an outdated browser” banner for use on websites and blogs.

Microsoft has also designed special programs called “migration workshops” that are designed to help companies and business organizations that still use IE6 to have an easier and smoother transition to a more modern web browser. The program covers topics like how to address compatibility issues and virtualization solutions for IE6.

Some of you might be wondering what all the fuss is about IE6. Here’s a little background information for those who don’t have any idea about this topic. IE6 is the default web browser installed on Windows XP & Windows Server 2003 and because it is a very outdated browser, it has a lot of security issues and lacks support for modern web standards (XHTML, CSS, HTML5, etc.).

If you’re still using Internet Explorer 6, please do yourself a favor and upgrade to a later version of Internet Explorer or use an alternative web browser like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Opera.

Do you or someone you know still use Internet Explorer 6 or IE6 as their default web browser? What do you think of the Internet Explorer 6 Countdown website? Are you helping in spreading the word to get IE6 completely eradicated?

Earlier this week, Facebook rolled out several updates including the Mobile Initiative with updates on its Facebook iPhone/Android apps. However, the most noticeable update and the one that got a lot reaction/complaints is the Facebook font size. A lot of Facebook users are complaining about the smaller font size because it’s causing them to squint and strain their eyes just to be able to read stuff on Facebook.

I didn’t notice the new font size because I use the Facebook for iPhone app most of the time. I found out about it because of several status updates posted by my friends. It’s not certain whether the font size will be reverted to the original size but according to Facebook, the smaller font size is just an experiment on making the site more efficient for users.

Because of the amount of complaints and frustration I’ve seen from many Facebook users, I’ve decided to write this short and simple tutorial to help them with the Facebook font size issue. This tutorial will enable users to adjust Facebook’s font size to make it bigger and more readable (this is applicable to any website). This procedure doesn’t require any changes done to your Facebook profile settings but utilizes a built-in “universal” shortcut command for all web browsers.

It doesn’t matter what web browser you’re using – Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, etc. because the procedure is the same. All you need to do is login to Facebook and once you get to your profile, just press and hold CTRL then press the + (plus) key and that would automagically resize the font on your browser, making it bigger and easier to read.

Here’s a sample I made while viewing my Facebook profile:

BEFORE

AFTER

If you compare the BEFORE and AFTER screenshots, you can see that the font is a little bit bigger after performing the procedure and is now easier to read.

Usually, doing the procedure once is enough to make the font size readable for most people, but in case it’s still too small for you to read, you can make the font size larger but repeating the process. In case you want to revert and/or make the font size smaller, instead of the + (plus key), press the - (minus) key. So press and hold CTRL and then press - (minus).

Btw, some users may not experience any issues with Facebook’s new font size due to web browser settings. Also, if you’re logged in to Facebook on the iPhone or Android app then you also won’t be affected by this update. It’s still uncertain whether Facebook will revert back to the original font size or provide font size options, so for now this tutorial can be used as a temporary solution while the new smaller font size is still in effect. I hope this short and simple tutorial will be useful for those having problems with the Facebook font size. Please don’t forget to share this with your friends on Facebook.

Anyone having problems reading stuff with the new Facebook font size? Do you prefer or hate the smaller font size? Please share your thoughts.

Back in October of 2009, Mozilla launched the Mozilla Plugin Check tool to help Firefox users keep their plugins/addons up-to-date, addressing the issue of outdated plugins being a major source of security and stability risks for users.

Yesterday, Mozilla announced that the Mozilla Plugin Check tool will now also be supporting other web browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera.

We believe that plugin safety is an issue for the web as a whole, so while our initial efforts focused on building a page that would work for Firefox users, the team has since expanded plugin check coverage to work with Safari 4, Chrome 4, and Opera 10.5. We have added support for Internet Explorer 7 and 8 for the most popular plugins, as well, but since IE requires specific code to be written for each plugin it will take us a little longer to get to full coverage.

The Mozilla Plugin Check tool can identify most popular plugins – Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, Quicktime, Shockwave Flash, DivX, Windows Media Player and RealPlayer just to name a few. Although the plugin database is maintained and frequently updated by Mozilla, there could be some instances where the plugin cannot be recognized or the web-based tool cannot provide accurate information regarding a certain plugin.

To use the Mozilla Plugin Check tool, just visit the Plugin Check page and it will automatically scan and detect all plugins installed in the web browser and will display information on which plugins are up-to-date or needs to be updated.

Anyone else using the Mozilla Plugin Checker tool? Are all your browser plugins up-to-date? What other features or options would you like to add to the Mozilla Plugin Checker? Please share your thoughts.