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The point of the video is that IE8 separates the address bar from the search box, so that nothing gets sent over the network when you are just typing in a URL o
by briansmith 17y ago
The point of the video is that IE8 separates the address bar from the search box, so that nothing gets sent over the network when you are just typing in a URL or searching your history. Some might argue that the IE8 design is worse from a usability standpoint, but it seems clearly better from a privacy standpoint.
Back around IE4 or so, everybody was bashing Microsoft on privacy, because if you typed something that wasn't a URL and pressed ENTER in the address bar, IE would do a MSN search automatically.
- metamemetics 17y agoKnowing the type of information someone searches for on the internet will tell you WAY more about them than the URLs they TYPE. To access specific sites, many people use bookmarks\links anyway. Microsoft's argument is akin to saying: Beware of using the new electrical mixer! It includes the option to use electricity, and electricity can cause electrocution. Use our hand operated mixer instead, it does not have that risk. For this article to bee considered to have any substance, Microsoft would need to claim 'This specific electrical mixer causes electrocution' aka 'Google circumvents it's option to disable submitting usage statistics by exploiting the auto-complete feature to store a copy of your browsing history'. They are not making that claim.