Google has recently Bing-ified their images search page. Do you care? You should. Google has always had a very Spartan interface with their searches. When Bing came along a couple years ago, Microsoft brought a very Web 2.0 feel to their search results–especially the Bing image search. The surge in Bing’s popularity has obviously raised eyebrows at Google, as they have recently updated their image search as well. The great news is, Google did not go overboard with their new image search. It has the same look and feel as Bing, but the sidebar menu is still straight-forward and easy to use.

Both Bing and Google provide a steady stream of images as you scroll down the page. There’s no more 2008 way of doing things by having to click on Next to view another page. It just goes and goes and goes–just like we need it to. You can also sort by size, color and type, which makes it easier for you to quickly find the image you’re looking for.

So give Google Images a try and let us know what you think. Google Images

If  you continuously receive the error” Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close,” there are a few steps you can take to resolve the issue. A browser can crash for a lot of reasons, i.e., incompatible add-ons, bad code, malware, etc.  The problem is trying to isolate the cause. It would be easy if the browser only crashed on a specific web page. You could then make the assumption there is bad coding on that site or you are using a lower version of Flash or Java that simply needs to be updated. The error box you might receive could look like this:

Microsoft Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.
If you were in the middle of something, the information you were working on might be lost.
Restart Microsoft Internet Explorer.
Please tell Microsoft about this problem.
We have created an error report that you can send to help us improve Microsoft Internet Explorer. We will treat this report as confidential and anonymous.
To see that data this error report contains, click here.

Fortunately, there are some steps you can take to resolve this issue, such as updating your web browser. For instance, if you’re still running Internet Explorer 6 you could upgrade to the latest version of IE. If you’re running IE 7 or IE 8, you can try a reset of the browser by opening IE and going to Tools>Internet Options>Advanced and then at the bottom click the “Reset” button. This will essentially reinstall the current version of IE.

If you did not want to take such a drastic measure, you can try disabling any browser add-ons you have running. To do so, open IE and go to Tools>Internet Options>Programs, and at the bottom click on “Manage Add-ons” and disable any addons you have running. If the problem is corrected, you can re-enable them one at a time until you find the culprit.

A good policy to have with the Internet is to have more than one browser installed (such as Firefox or Chrome), keeping Windows up to date, having the latest versions of Java and Flash installed, and making sure you have an up to date antivirus running.

SPAM accounts for nearly seventy-five percent of email traffic worldwide. Unfortunately, there isn’t a lot we can do to stop them from being send. We can, however, prevent them from showing up in our Inbox each day. To accomplish this, you will need to change the way you behave on the Internet, as well as the settings in your email client.

Choose Your SPAM-Free Account

If you have been receiving SPAM, it’s already too late for that account. Sure you can use Bayesian filters, firewalls and other Security software, but once your email address is out there on the SPAM lists, your account is tainted and should no longer be used. Instead, create a new account and choose a name that’s relatively long and not a name in the dictionary. SPAMMers will use names, places and titles when guessing email addresses. For example, it’s a good guess that mary@aol.com is a valid email address. It it less likely that maryp123@aol is valid. So when choosing an email account, make sure the name isn’t very common.

Now that you have a fresh email address, you need to protect it. Never give out your real email addresses on websites you do not trust. If you post your email address on a website, it’s likely to get harvested by a human being or a spider programmed to crawl the web looking for the @ symbol or the mailto: tag. You should create a fake email address using GMail, Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail and use that address when posting online.

If a SPAM message arrives in your Inbox, do not click the “Unsubscribe” link. This is will alert the SPAMmer that they have found a valid email address and open the floodgates for more SPAM to your new account. At this point, you will need to start over with a new email account.

If you use Outlook or any of the popular online email clients, they will have filters and Junk mail folders designed to help keep SPAM away from your Inbox. Be sure to configure them. As you train your Junk mail, it will gradually learn what types of mail you flag and which you allow to come through. Gmail is a great mail client that does a fantastic job of automatically filtering SPAM. With patience and new behavior towards email, you will soon be SPAM free.

Internet Explorer is a highly capable web browser if you learn a few simple tips for navigation and search. While these will likely work on all newer versions of IE, these tips really make IE6 more usable. Newer instances of Internet Explorer, like IE7 and IE8 have greatly improved search and navigation. But many of us are still using IE6, so using these shortcuts can help save time and improve your web browsing experience.

Quick Tips to Help Navigate and Search IE

1. Quickly open a new browser Window by hitting CTRL+N.
2. Automatically add the http://www. and the .com by typing the website name into the browser and hitting CTRL + Enter.
3. Search a keyword by typing it into the web browser without the http:// or the .com at the end and it will open an MSN search browser. Newer versions of IE will have a separate search box.
4. Make text larger or smaller by holding the CTRL button and moving the scroll wheel on your mouse forward or backward.
5. View your browser in full screen mode by hitting the F11 key. Hit it again the bring back your menus and address bar.

For more IE navigation and search tips, be sure to visit our computer repair forums.

InPrivate browsing in IE8 allows users to surf with enhanced privacy features enabled that prevent history and cookies from being stored. If privacy is a concern for you, then the new Internet Explorer 8 will help.

A great new feature of Internet Explorer 8 will be the InPrivate browsing option. This can be used in circumstances where you do not want any History or cookies retained during your web browsing session. This is a good idea when reading email at the library or Internet cafe, or performing any task you want to keep to yourself. Just open a new tab and select Start InPrivate Browsing and a more secure browsing session will launch. When in this mode, you will see an InPrivate graphic in the browser address bar.

The main concern with privacy in web browsing is third-party cookies. These are cookies from an external source–maybe an advertiser on that page–that place a cookie to track your habits once you leave that site. This is often done without knowledge of the user and now that individual leaves a trail behind of all the sites visited. This can be used for marketing or other reasons, and InPrivate blocks this type of activity. Once you’re done with that session, close the tab and you can resume normal web browsing.

Also, parents do not need to be concerned about children using this, as InPrivate is disabled if Parental Controls are activated.

Web privacy during browsing is a major concern that InPrivate addresses, but you can also prevent third-party cookie tracking by editing your browser settings. Just open Tools>Internet Options and look under the Privacy tab. Click the Advanced button and disable third-party cookies.

Normally you will always want to install the latest stable version of any web browser. Browsers are frequently updated to provide security fixes and to add functionality. But there could be instances where you want to go back and download a previous release of Firefox. Fortunately, Mozilla gives us access to their FTP site which has all versions of Firefox–past, present and future located there for easy download.

To download a previous version of Firefox, visit the Mozilla download site and pick the release you want. It will download and install just as any other program would. You might want to do this if you are running an older Operating System due to application capability purposes. Or if you’re looking for the latest beta release, you can find it on their download site as well.

If you require a previous version of Internet Explorer, you can get it from the Microsoft IE download site.