Nickname aside, Microsoft feature in new browser covers your tracks

Excerpts from the blog

For some reason, tech journalists and bloggers love it when there's a chance to use the word "porn" in their stories.

Maybe they're hoping to lure more search engine traffic, or just revealing something about how they use computers.

Either way, they went nuts after the private-browsing feature in Microsoft's new browser was dubbed "porn mode."

That refers to the "InPrivate Browsing" feature in Internet Explorer 8, which became available in beta test form Wednesday. When you browse in this mode, it leaves no tracks.

But don't be put off by the snickering stories. This is a great feature for anyone who is uncomfortable with the Big Brotherish level of user tracking that online ad companies do nowadays. That stealthy monitoring is the obscenity everyone encounters on the Web.

Does anybody really want Google, Yahoo, Amazon, Microsoft and other big tech companies following their tracks, building customer profiles and targeting them with offers?

Internet Explorer 8 won't restore the level of privacy that existed before the Web. It also won't satisfy privacy fanatics who have more complex ways to mask themselves online.

But IE8 will make it easier for average users to have more control over their browsing privacy. This is long overdue.

My favorite addition is the ability to selectively delete cookies, the potentially snoopy bits of software that Web sites deposit in your browser to keep track of users.

You can delete cookies with a click in any browser if you're concerned about privacy. But if you delete them all, you have to re-enter passwords when you come back to sites that you regularly use.

Internet Explorer 8 makes it easy to preserve cookies for "favorite" sites, and delete all the rest. That way you can clean up the browser's cache and history, but preserve stuff that keeps you linked to sites you trust.

Microsoft isn't giving up on targeted ads. But it must be confident that its own Web sites are useful enough that people will list them as favorites and keep its cookies and other targeting technologies intact.

Some think the privacy tools are really intended to derail Google's ad-serving system. I'm sure Google will figure out a way to survive, either by getting itself into the favorites folder or by offering an irresistible toolbar plug-in that puts its technology back into your browser.

Users win either way. They'll love these new features, and other browser makers will have to add more privacy controls or make their existing privacy tools easier to use so they provide the same level of comfort.

Gphone specs

The Android Guys blog has an image and specs providing the most details yet (if correct) on the long-awaited GPhone that T-Mobile will begin selling by year-end.

Of course it's an HTC handset powered by the Android operating system initiated by Google.

New details shown in the image include Google's brand prominently displayed on the back of the handset, similar to the way the iPhone has a big Apple logo on the back. The Gphone, in the rendering, actually says "With Google," but the with is smaller than the Google.

Other features include a Sidekick-like slide-out keyboard, a 3.1 megapixel camera and a trackball that remains exposed, below the screen. The device has a little bend at the end, like the tail of a skateboard.

It may not be the actual device, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's a legitimate, semi-authorized, buzz-building leak from one of the companies involved.

Funny, it appeared the same day as Nokia announced another contender for coolest new phone coming to the U.S. in the fourth quarter — the Nokia N96.

Nokia's pitching the $895, 3G N96 as a video device, with the capability of playing near-DVD quality movies and storing up to 40 hours of content on its internal 16 gigabytes of memory and a memory card.

It also has the ability to receive and record broadcast TV. It also does instant replays and has a program guide — a pocket TiVo, basically.

The N96 also has navigational tools and services and a 5 megapixel camera.

Video's also going to be a highlight of the Gphone, which has a dedicated YouTube player. It has far less memory — 64MB RAM plus a 1 gig card — but also supports streaming video, according to the Android Guys.

Game promotion

Enterprise Seattle is launching a Web site today to promote the region's booming video-game industry.

The site, www.washingtoninteractivenetwork.org, is primarily an economic-development tool intended to help attract companies and talent. But it also includes tools for those already here, including a calendar of industry events.

It's an extension of Enterprise Seattle's research last year into the games business, which found 150 companies in the region that created 15,000 jobs and generated $5 billion in sales.

The economic development group's going to announce the site today during a luncheon where executives from local game companies, including Microsoft and Sony, will discuss the state of the industry.

This material has been edited for print publication.

Brier Dudley's blog appears Thursdays. Reach him at 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.