Internet Explorer

The latest data from Net Applications indicates that Internet Explorer lost market share in December to browsers from Mozilla and Apple.

According to the Web metrics provider, Microsoft's browser market share has declined by more than six percent since February 2008. The browser held a 68.15 percent market share in December -- its lowest in years.

By contrast, Mozilla Firefox's market share rose one-half of a percentage point from November and has climbed more than four percent since February to reach 21.34 percent in December.

There was no landslide winner as the most important tech product of 2008. But amidst the most challenging economic storm in decades, you could make a case for viable candidates.

Smartphones, especially Apple's iPhone 3G, got smarter, buoyed by the brand-new iTunes App Store.

Portable and inexpensive laptops, dubbed netbooks, got smaller, cheaper and more ubiquitous.

There were innovative, if imperfect, new Web browsers from Microsoft (Internet Explorer 8), Mozilla (Firefox) and, most notably, Google (Chrome).

While Microsoft scrambled to issue an out-of-cycle patch for Internet Explorer on Wednesday, Mozilla did some rushing of its own.

The Firefox developer has issued updates to address "critical vulnerabilities" in versions 2 and 3 of its open-source browser.

Firefox describes a critical vulnerability as one that can be used to run attacker code and install software without user interaction beyond normal browsing.

Security, Stability, Accessibility

Microsoft has issued an emergency patch to fix a critical Internet Explorer vulnerability that puts users at risk. At least two million computers have been infected in the past week, most of them in Asia.

The out-of-cycle patch is available through Microsoft's normal update options, including Windows Server Update Services, Microsoft Update, and Windows Update.

The fact that Microsoft broke its normal patch cycle is an indication of the importance of this patch, according to Wolfgang Kandek, CTO of Qualys.

Microsoft Internet Explorer users, beware. There's a security flaw in all versions of the browser that leaves you wide open for attack. At least two million computers have already been infected.

The exploit doesn't require users to click on links or download software from the Internet. Rather, it infects users when they open a Web page. The goal is to steal passwords, according to security experts, gain access to financial data and otherwise steal the victim's identity.

Yahoo Inc. is plugging its Internet radio service into CBS Corp.'s webcasting network in a move driven by dramatically higher fees for airing music online.

Yahoo's retreat from operating a standalone service, announced Wednesday, makes it the second major Web site this year to flee the rising royalty rates by hitching its radio service to CBS. AOL Radio, owned by Time Warner Inc., hooked up with CBS in June.

Yahoo's radio channel, called Launchcast, will combine with CBS beginning in February.

As in the real-estate market, a key factor in the browser wars has been location, location, location. In the virtual space that browsers inhabit, the most valuable location is to be preinstalled on the computer you buy -- and Google wants that choice location for its Chrome browser.

Mozilla Firefox is the second most-popular browser on PC and Mac platforms (after their respective default browsers, Internet Explorer and Safari) for a few reasons. First, it is secure and blocks pop-ups. It is also free and open source, so a large community is always working to improve it.

Mozilla is adding a private browser feature to its forthcoming Firefox 3.1 release. Private browsing aims to help users make sure their Web browsing doesn't leave traces on their computers, said the function's developer, Ehsan Akhgari.

Apple has gotten to the core of the problems plaguing the company's MobileMe Internet service since its July launch, and has resolved several technical glitches.

Subscribers to MobileMe have been dealing with problems since the service launched and, in an e-mail to employees just weeks after the launch, Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted the company prematurely released the service. What MobileMe is supposed to do is keep e-mail, contacts and calendars up to date across several devices, including an iPhone, iPod touch, Mac and PC. Instead, it has been a mobile mess.