Monday was a bittersweet day for Microsoft. Its cyberbrainchild Internet Explorer turned 15, and it's not all birthday cakes and candles as the Web browser continues to battle competition from Chrome and Firefox. With the release of IE9 just around the corner, it will be interesting to see what juicy new upgrades the new version will offer.

In more browser news, things have been going swimmingly for Google Chrome, whose beta got a major upgrade last week. Now resembling the developer's build even more, the beta version features changes to the interface and improved synchronization, among other things. Not only is Chrome upgrading like crazy, but also newer extensions are becoming available by the minute. Among these, Chrome to Phone and TabSense are making life that much easier for avid Chrome users. Firefox 4 also saw a new beta release, which makes some important changes to its JavaScript handling without modifying the interface.

Some more tech tidbits for the week include IM+ for the Web, which brings multichat to your browser, and Freemake Video Converter, which converts a plethora of different file types. Finally, for those of you still hunting for security software, be sure to check out Kaspersky Internet Security 2011. The latest version includes a new tool for cleaning already-infected computers, a system watcher, location filter, and expansion of the program's sandboxing feature.

Not to end on a sad note, but it is time for me to bid farewell to you loyal Download Dispatchers. My summer internship is coming to a close and it has been a pleasure illuminating your minds with the latest download news.

Hopping onto several instant-messaging networks at once is often best done with the help of IM software, but in recent years Web-based chat tools have gotten to the point where software is not as much of a necessity. Shape Services, the maker of several mobile software applications, has put together just such a tool called IM+ for Web that does well to fit into that category.

Like the popular Meebo, IM+ for Web lets you connect to multiple IM networks at once and juggle several chats in one browser window. All the while it provides notifications when new messages arrive, both in the form of yellow highlighting in the chat windows and in your buddy list, as well as a preview of the message with a browser window title bar change and pop-up notification. Compared to a desktop IM app, these attention getters are pretty good for making sure you don't let important messages pass you by.

Among the networks supported at launch are AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, ICQ, Facebook, MySpace, Skype, and Jabber. The service has been set up to let you save your log-ins for each of these, and have them all start up at once when you sign in with your IM+ account. I tried it out with multiple AIM accounts, a Yahoo account, and Google Talk, and had great results.

Similar to its mobile sibling, which has been around for the past eight years, IM+ can keep a log of your past chats with each contact. I found this to be a slightly better experience than Meebo's history browser since you don't just hop from one day of conversation to the next. Instead, you push back the length of its log from the past day, week, two weeks, one month, three months, six months, and finally--one year. As you do this, the length of the conversation expands, which can make finding a particular mention or piece of a conversation an on-page browser search away.

One thing Meebo users may not like, however, is that IM+ for Web reacts less like a desktop software application with floating Windows, and more like a Web mail in-box. For instance, you can only interact with one conversation at a time, instead of having several up on the screen at once. Given the often short and sweet nature of IMs, this is a waste of screen real estate, and can make hopping back and forth between three or more active conversations an arduous experience. At the same time, the aforementioned message preview pop-ups and title bar name changes let you see what's happening in those other conversations without shifting too much of your focus.

Of course, the killer app here is that you can take the mobile experience from the desktop to your mobile phone, then back again--though that's something Meebo has now offered for years. The big difference is that Shape's IM+ paid app on the iPhone is packing quite a few more features than Meebo's, which has not yet been updated for iOS 4's background features. IM+ is also available as a native application on a handful of other mobile platforms, including BlackBerry, Symbian and WebOS.

So, is this worth ditching Meebo, Kool IM, Imo.im, and others? If you're an IM+ mobile user who wants to keep all your chat history in one place when switching platforms, and you have already gone through the effort of plugging in your accounts, then yes. Otherwise, this does not quite have nearly as many bells and whistles as Web and software-based competitors offer. At least not yet.

Originally posted at Web Crawler

TweetDeck for Android is finally here. You can download and preview the new Beta by signing up on its Web site, and TweetDeck will e-mail you instructions on how to install it, according to an announcement TweetDeck made on Thursday. As TweetDeck mentions in its announcement, the application is still a work in progress; there are still multiple kinks that it needs to work out. Though the glitches are annoying, the application has an attractive and semi-intuitive interface that features cross-platform syncing and easy status-message updating.

To install the app onto your Android device, sign up for the preview through TweetDeck's Web site. It will e-mail you a link to download the software. Its installation is fast; however, when we tried to sign into our accounts manually, the app told us that our password is incorrect.

The application is sleek and easy to use. The home screen streams color-coordinated updates with Facebook posts in blue and Twitter in gray. The app displays each update fairly large, making it easy to like and comment on a status from this screen. By tapping on an update, you can easily retweet, reply, like, comment, and all other social networking practices you are used to. Clicking on a link or photo will redirect you to the content in a Web browser, but perhaps this is something TweetDeck will change as it updates the application.

A small bird appears at the left-hand side of your screen when you have a notification alert. Clicking on it and dragging the bar down will show you your alerts page. Alerts is one area where the app needs some improvement. For example, when a friend comments on a photo of you, there is no way to tell which photo they are commenting on. This is slightly vexing. From within the app, you can easily move between your home, notifications, and direct messages screen by flicking left or right.

At the bottom of the application are four icons: post, friend gallery, search, and map. Through the post option, you can update one account or multiple accounts simultaneously. It is easy to disable or enable particular accounts by simply tapping on its icon. The friend gallery is a list of shortcuts to specific friends that you can customize. The search looks through Twitter for specific words, and the map is a map. To manage columns, accounts, refresh, and to quit the application, tap your Android device's menu button.

TweetDeck for Android fails to do some basic Facebook functions; for example, it would be helpful to know which pictures other people comment on. Although it lacks amazing Facebook support, the Twitter functions are simple and offer all of TweetDeck's desktop perks. It is important to remember that this preview is just that--a preview. Until TweetDeck releases the final version, we will be optimistic and hope the company improves upon the application's cons.

Thanks to corporate use and ties to Windows, Internet Explorer has remained dominant in the browser space ever since it won the first browser wars with Netscape a decade ago.

However, by allowing the browser to stagnate after the release of Windows XP in 2001, Microsoft created an opening that paved the way for the rise of Firefox and, more recently, Google's Chrome.

As a result Internet Explorer celebrates its 15th birthday Monday as market leader and like an upstart trying to compete against powerful rivals.

IE through the years

As Microsoft's browser turns 15, a look back at how it's evolved.

1995: Internet Explorer 1.0
The first version of IE came in August 1996, a month after Microsoft released Windows 95. The browser was not part of the operating system, but instead was included as part of an "Internet Jumpstart Kit" in the Microsoft Plus add-in.

1995: Internet Explorer 2.0
In November 1995, Microsoft released Internet Explorer 2.0, its first browser to offer both Macintosh and Windows support. IE 2.0 also added support for the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol, HTTP cookies, and Internet newsgroups.

1996: Internet Explorer 3.0
Released in August 1996, IE3 included support for e-mail, the display of GIF and JPG files, and direct playback of streaming audio without the need for additional applications.

1997: Internet Explorer 4.0
IE4 added support for Dynamic HTML (DHTML), which allowed for interactive Web sites where menus could be expanded or images could be moved around. IE4 also brought the arrival of Microsoft Outlook Express 4, an improvement to the mail and newsgroup readers that had been part of IE.

1998: Internet Explorer 5.0
Released in September 1998, IE5 expanded on the support for DHTML and allowed for greater personalization.

2001: Internet Explorer 6
Released as part of Windows XP, Internet Explorer 6 became the standard in Web browsing for years, eventually to the dismay of the entire industry, including Microsoft itself, which has struggled to move customers to more modern and secure versions of its browser.

2006: Internet Explorer 7
Released in October 2006 for users of Windows XP Service Pack 2 and later as part of Windows Vista, IE7 added support for tabbed browsing along with antimalware protection.

2009: Internet Explorer 8
Released in March 2009, Internet Explorer 8 was an attempt by Microsoft to modernize its underlying browsing engine. Other features included support for creating small "Web clips" of a portion of a Web site as well as the use of "accelerators" to take action on a highlighted piece of text. A version of IE8 was also built in as part of Windows 7.

2011?: Internet Explorer 9
Internet Explorer 9 is the next major update to IE, adding improved HTML5 support, a faster JavaScript engine, and the ability to tap a PC's graphics chip to accelerate text and graphics. Microsoft has released several platform previews and a beta is planned for September. Microsoft has not said when the final release will come, but it is unlikely to be this year.

Source: Microsoft and CNET

Arguably, the browser has never been more important--or competitive. As of July, Microsoft had just over 60 percent of the market, gaining share for two months in a row after years of ceding ground to Firefox and Chrome. Firefox, meanwhile, held about 23 percent, Chrome about 7 percent, and Apple's Safari roughly 5 percent, according to Net Applications.

Google is trying to make the case that not only does it have the best browser in Chrome, but further that the browser--and the Web-based services it connects to--have grown so capable that basic PCs basically need nothing else. That argument will be turned into a product later this year when the first Chrome OS-based Netbooks are scheduled to hit the market.

For its part, Microsoft is counting on an improved Internet Explorer to help its argument that the PC and Windows still matter. With Internet Explorer 9, the company is trying to both reassert itself in the browser wars and show the power of the PC by expanding the browser to tap the graphics power inherent in modern computers.

Redmond has already released a few technical previews of IE9 and is working on a beta version of IE9, set to be released September 15. The company hasn't said when to expect a final version of the browser, but it appears unlikely to happen in 2010. Next spring's Mix trade show seems a reasonable target.

While Microsoft works on the next version of IE, here at CNET we decided to take a look back at Redmond's sometimes troubled history with its browser. What started as a me-too competitor to Netscape's browser at the beginning of the dot-com boom quickly became the main point of contention in Microsoft's antitrust battles with U.S. and European regulators.

At the heart of those fights was a simple question still being asked in computing: Is the operating system or the browser more important? At Microsoft, the answer split the difference: The browser should be part of the operating system. And that's where the trouble began.

Humble beginnings
Internet Explorer made its debut on August 16, 1995, just one month after Microsoft released Windows 95. The browser was part of something called the Internet Jumpstart Kit that was part of the Microsoft Plus add-on to Windows 95.

The browser's origins can be traced to the company's big Internet Strategy Day in which Microsoft announced it had recognized the Internet and would be adding Net capabilities to all of its products. Microsoft got much of the code by licensing the Mosaic browser from Spyglass.

Internet Explorer didn't immediately oust Netscape from the market, with Redmond's rival managing to hold on to more than half of the market through 1997.

A key move for Microsoft came with IE 3.0, which Microsoft included in the operating system--a move that led to significant antitrust scrutiny for Microsoft starting in 1996 and continuing until as recently as last year when Microsoft was told by the European Union that the inclusion of a browser in Windows appeared to violate its laws.

Redmond threatened to pull the browser out of Windows entirely in Europe--a move that would have not only made it hard to use IE--but also to download any other browser. However, the company relented and instead has agreed to use a "ballot screen" in Europe that lets PC buyers or those upgrading Windows choose which browser or browsers they want to install.

Elsewhere, IE remains an integrated part of Windows, though there are options that allow most of its features to be hidden.

Despite its popularity, IE has drawn much scorn from developers and users, particularly the venerable IE6 browser that shipped as part of Windows XP. Even Microsoft itself has been trying to get users off of IE6, but its long life (and that of XP) means that it has remained despite the ire.

The modern browser wars
After winning the first battle against Netscape, Microsoft settled into a slow pace of small evolutions with the browser that tended to come only as Redmond updated Windows itself.

IE6 got a significant security update along with Windows XP with Service Pack 2. However, because Microsoft didn't have a major release of Windows from 2001 until Vista in 2006, IE failed to keep pace on the innovation front, while Firefox continued to add features such as tabbed browsing.

Microsoft caught up a little bit on the features front with IE7 and with IE8, which debuted last year, the company aimed to make up some ground on the standards front.

However, IE9, still in development, is the company's big bet on offering a browser that can compete technically with browsers from Google, Mozilla, and Apple.

Microsoft hasn't said much about how the browser will look, but it has hinted that it aims for a more minimalistic approach.

"The browser is the theater," Microsoft's Ryan Gavin said in an interview last week. "We're not the play. You don't want the theater to block the view."

Originally posted at Beyond Binary

The updates to Kaspersky Lab's 2011 security suites introduce a new tool for cleaning already-infected computers, as well as a system watcher, location filter, and expansion of the program's sandboxing feature. Available Monday exclusively in North America from CNET Download.com, Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 make a good case to longtime Kaspersky users to stick with the company while giving new users enough to consider switching.

The new version of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 includes a proprietary support tool that the company says will install on infected computers and then clean them well enough to then continue with the regular program installation. The suite also expands the SafeRun sandbox feature offered last year outside of the browser with SafeDesktop. As the name implies, it now protects the desktop as well so that you can install programs without running the risk of accidentally damaging your system or installing malware. There's new antiphishing measures in place, and in some cases, Kaspersky said, certain unapproved malicious actions can be undone thanks to changes made to the program's proactive defense system.

Other changes include a new Windows desktop gadget that pushes system security information to an easily viewed location and is customizable so users see only the data that's most important to them. New family-based protections include control over file downloads and video game usage, and a new location-based filter can be used to block incoming content from IP addresses on a per-country basis. Minor improvements in other parts of the program include being able to make not only a recovery CD, but also a recovery USB key. Improvements have been made to the reputation-based detection system, rootkit detection, and spam blocking.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 comes with a free 30-day trial, and a one-year license retails for $79.95. Kaspersky AntiVirus 2011 also comes with a free 30-day trial, and its one-year license retails for $59.95. Full reviews of Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 will be available later today.