Explorer 8 is Microsoft's champion in browser wars

Microsoft is touting freshly-launched internet Explorer 8 as its champion in the competitive web browser arena, urging holdouts to upgrade from earlier versions of the software.

IE 8 has been catching on since its release five months ago, but Microsoft is hoping to leave behind aging IE 6 as well as much-maligned Vista after Windows 7 operating system launches in October. Despite being released nine years ago, IE 6 still claims 27.2 per cent of the browser market, according to figures released in July by Net Applications.

"The reason to still be on IE 6 at this point is lack of awareness, or the 'good-enough' problem that people are satisfied with what they are using," said Amy Barzdukas, general manager of IE and consumer security at Microsoft.

"Particularly in this economy, it is difficult to be cavalier and just say update to IE 8."

Schools, hospitals and other cash-strapped operations could be daunted by the cost of upgrading computer systems to new software.

IE 6 also tends to be used with pirated versions of Windows XP operating system because newer software is better designed to expose illegitimate copies, according to Mr Barzdukas.

Microsoft reports seeing more XP use in emerging economies such as Brazil and India where piracy rates are higher than in the US.

A drawback to people sticking with IE 6 is that Microsoft's image can be maligned by software deficiencies that have been fixed in newer versions," according to Mr Barzdukas.

"People can get frustrated with that experience and say Microsoft stinks, or IE stinks, and base that perception on technology released ten years ago," he said during a visit this week to San Francisco.

"We want them to experience the latest." Microsoft on Thursday released NSS Labs research indicating that IE 8 excels at blocking phishing and malware attacks.

In Microsoft-sponsored testing at a Texas lab, NSS found that IE 8 and an open-source Firefox browser from Mozilla tied for first place when it came to catching "social-engineering" phishing attacks.

"Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3 were the most consistent in the high level of protection they offered," the NSS study said.

When it came to blocking malicious software, malware, IE 8 caught 81 per cent of the "live threats" as compared with the 54-per cent finish by the second-place Firefox browser.