When it comes to web browsers, Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, and Google's Chrome get all the attention. But they're not the only web browsers on the market, nor are they necessarily the best.

While you've probably never heard of Flock, K-Meleon, and Maxthon, these three alternative browsers offer features so innovate that once you try them out, you just might feel compelled to add them to your permanent stable of web browsing tools. Read on to find out why.

Flock
Flock (http://www.flock.com/versions) bills itself as "the social web browser," and it has more hooks with popular web 2.0 technologies -including social networking sites - than any other browser.

With Flock's "Accounts and Services" sidebar, for instance, you can aggregate and communicate with your friends from most of the popular social networking sites - including Facebook and Twitter - while you surf other sites.

And because interacting on social networking sites often involves uploading images, Flock has some ingenious tools to make your life easier. With the Photo Upload feature, you can either drag photos from your computer or select multiple images from a folder, and Flock will resize them and send them on to Picasa, Photobucket, or TinyPic.

If you have a blog - whether on a hosted site or one that you created yourself with a popular package such as WordPress - you can add blog entries directly from Flock using the browser's built-in Blog Editor.

Taken together, Flock's social networking features are so handy that you quickly wonder why the big names in web browsing haven't caught on.

If like many web users today, you're active on Picasa, Twitter, Facebook, and a blog, being able to access all of these quickly from Flock's side panel while you do your other work in the browser pane is both convenient and productive.

Add in links to Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and instant messaging in the same Accounts and Services sidebar, and Flock gives you nearly instant access to most of what you're likely to be doing online today - outside of researching and collecting information.

Flock also makes it easier than other web browsers to take advantage of all that a site has to offer.

Log on to a site that offers content or RSS feeds, for instance, and Flock will alert you to their presence, instructing you how to use the orange feed button to add the site to your list of feeds so that you can get content from the site without having to visit it.

Perhaps the best news is that Flock feels as fast and stable as IE or Firefox. IE users, in particular, will be able to adopt Flock with virtually no retraining, since most of the keyboard shortcuts - including those to access Favourites - are identical.

K-Meleon
If what you want in a web browser is speed, speed, and more speed - along with a healthy dose of customizability - then K- Meleon (http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net) will be worth your time.

This little-known browser was launched specifically to be easy on system resources - and therefore speedy where others browsers are not.

Even during installation, you'll see where the emphasis lies: K- Meleon gives you the option of installing a pre-loader that promises to increase browser load times by keeping a portion of the browser's code in memory at all times.

In use, K-Meleon lives up to its speed-first billing. Even without benchmarks, complex pages load noticeably faster than with either IE or Firefox, as both graphics and text appear almost simultaneously.

Keyboard shortcuts and menus resemble those in Firefox, so anyone familiar with that browser won't be burdened by the transition.

The fully tabbed interface works the same way it does on the other major browsers, too, and a handy Sessions menu allows you to save multiple browser tabs to one shortcut, meaning that if you regularly have, say, 10 web sites open in the course of your work, you can reopen them all with one click.

K-Meleon's other primary strength is its array of customisation options. The browser allows you to set up multiple user profiles so that each person who uses a computer can have a unique browser set up.

There are the usual browser-specific options for appearance, toolbars, privacy, and performance, but these are accompanied by a host of advanced configuration settings, mouse accelerators, bookmark options, and view settings.

Maxthon
Originally developed in China, Maxthon (http://www.maxthon.com) boasts that "out of the box" thinking has allowed its developers to create the best "out of box" experience for new users.

Maxthon is indeed different in some immediately noticeable ways, including its interface, which is bereft of the standard title bar, giving you more browser space in which to view web pages.

Like K-Meleon, customizability is a major focus for Maxthon, but Maxthon outdoes even K-Meleon in this area.

Virtually everything about the interface can be customised. You can, for example, get rid of all menus, toolbars, status bars, and sidebars, leaving nothing but a browser window containing your web page.

In this "no interface" mode, Maxthon is more spartan even than Google's Chrome. The effect is quite striking - and it makes Maxthon a notable solution for viewing web pages on small notebook screens.

Maxthon is also easier to control with a keyboard than any other browser. To start, unlike Firefox and Chrome, Maxthon remembers the last link you clicked, so that if you return to a page, you can simply use the Tab key to move to the next link.

But that's just the beginning. Virtually every feature in the browser is accessible with the keyboard, and a lengthy "Shortcut Keys" configuration menu allows you to specify which keys you would like to use to activate particular functions.

You can even assign the function keys on your keyboard to open specific web pages, and you can create "web aliases," which allow you to open a web site or groups of sites merely by typing a few letters or a word into the address bar.

Maxthon's interface mimics that of IE rather than Firefox. In addition to the standard Favourites, Views, and Tools menus, though, a unique Groups menu makes short work of saving a set of open tabs to a single shortcut.

The browser also comes with some useful tools, including a full- featured form filler, a flexible screen capture utility, a "file sniffer" that can help you find the web addresses of videos, and a "collector," or notepad feature, that can save your thoughts from session to session.

There's a complete skinning system as well, which allows you to change the look and feel of the browser. Add it all up, and you have a browser that should have the major players taking notice. - Sapa-dpa

Madrid - Campaigners are stepping up efforts to curb online tracking of Internet use by firms that deliver adverts tailored to the specific interests of consumers, as polls reveal widespread unease with the practice.

Corporations have always collected personal data on the people who buy their products but in the past this information came from sources such as magazine subscriptions and warranty cards, experts at a three-day privacy conference that wrapped up Friday in Madrid said.

Now it is flowing at breakneck speed into databases from multiple online sources, from dating services to newspaper websites, giving companies the unprecedented power to create detailed profiles of their customers, in many cases without their being aware of it, they added.

"There are so many grey areas in advertising that if the end user knew about it all, it would make their hair grey," said Jorg Polakiewicz, the head of the law reform department at the Council of Europe, a European rights watchdog.

The body is working on a new legal instrument on consumer profiling that it hopes will assist its 47 member states to better protect individuals from abuses, he added. So far only a few member states have legislation in place.

In the United States, Rick Boucher, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet, announced in September that he planned to introduce privacy legislation to regulate this so-called behavioural targeting of consumers.

The move towards greater regulation comes as surveys in the United States and Europe show that a majority of consumers on both sides of the Atlantic are against corporations are monitoring their Internet use for marketing purposes.

Two-thirds of Americans object to targeted online ads, according to one of the first independent survey to examine the issue carried out by the University of California and University of Pennsylvania and published last month.

In the European Union 60 percent of people are concerned about the commercial use of data, according to a European Commission survey carried out in April, said Willemien Bax, the deputy director general of European Consumers' Organisation BEUC which is pushing for tougher restrictions.

"It is very important that consumers are firmly in control of their personal data. I think it is unacceptable that our profiles are built up and we cannot see what they are," she said.

Some major corporations have reacted to the concerns by imposing their own limits on the use of online tracking of consumers.

Visitors to web pages belonging to Procter & Gamble, the world's largest household products maker, "must opt in to have an online relationship" with the company, according to the firm's global privacy executive, Sandra R. Hughes.

The company also has set up a privacy education web page and it provides consumers with examples of what kind of adverts and discounts they will receive if they agree to provide personal details.

But Jeffrey Chester, the executive director and founder of the Centre for Digital Democracy, a US consumer watchdog group, said such efforts to self-regulate are largely a failure and stricter legal safeguards are needed.

"Self-regulatory schemes are inadequate, they fail to address the key issues," he said. - AFP

South Africa's biggest broadband comparison website has launched, making choosing the right Internet package easy, simple and quick.

BroadbandChooza.co.za helps users find the best cheapest and fastest Internet packages easily and quickly. The site is designed to be simple to use so those new to broadband can quickly find what they are looking for.

Luke Vincent, CEO and founder says "BroadbandChooza.co.za is a very easy website to use and it will provide a valuable service to current broadband users looking for better broadband deals as well as encouraging more people online by helping them navigate the complex broadband market".

BroadbandChooza.co.za strikes a balance between offering maximum coverage of the market and making it straight forward to find the right package.

The site offers instant live searching and sorting of over 1000 products from more than 40 Internet providers.

Users can focus their search on ADSL, 3G or Wireless access or even compare packages across all three. Results can be filtered by price, speed and data cap.

Internet comparison sites have become a vital tool to help European and American consumers find the cheapest deal and BroadbandChooza is working to give South Africans the same benefits.

Luke Vincent says "in Europe nobody buys anything without first comparing prices on the Internet. There is always a better deal to be found on the online" - Sapa

A Microsoft security report released on Monday warns that cyber crooks are digging into computers for weak spots to penetrate with worms - malicious software that steals control or data.

Rogue security software remained the top hacker threat to computers during the first half of this year, but the number of infections was dropping while penetrations by worms doubled, according to the Security Intelligence Report.

"We still see rogue security software in high volume but not on the rise," Microsoft Malware Protection Centre principal architect Jeff Williams told AFP. "What is on the rise is resurgence of worm activity, particularly Conficker and Taterf."

Worms are programmed to replicate themselves, wriggling from machine to machine by hiding in legitimate applications or piggy-backing on USB drives or other portable data storage devices.

Rogue security software, or "scareware," typically spreads by tricking people with pop-up boxes bearing bogus alerts that their machines are infected.

Spooked computer users are then enticed to pay for applications to fix the supposed computer problems. People that fall for the scam wind up paying hackers; providing them credit card information, and installing malware.

Automated scareware blocking in Web browsers and efforts by law enforcement agencies to crack down on companies peddling rogue security software has helped curb the threat.

"When selecting an anti-virus product, do it from a proven provider, not someone you never heard of who just pops up on your screen," Williams said.

Improving defences of computers was seen as a reason hackers are reverting to worms, which were a top bane about a decade ago.

"We see a rise again in worms as profit-motivated criminals are digging deeper, finding more arcane vulnerabilities to execute remotely," Williams said.

A Conficker worm that plagued the Internet at the start of the year was so pernicious that a task force to combat it was formed by computer software and security firms.

Conficker and Taterf worms have reportedly wriggled into millions of machines.

One of the troublesome ways both worms spread is by stowing away on thumb drives, which are becoming increasingly popular vehicles for people to move music, videos, games, files or other data between computers.

"Think about how and where people play online games," Williams said. "What you tend to see is people remove a drive from home or an Internet kiosk and take it back into the enterprise (workplace)."

A memory stick carried in by a worker tends to bypass computer security systems designed to guard against hackers breaking in from outside the walls of a business, according to Williams.

Businesses should establish security protocols for removable media drives, and have new arrivals automatically scanned for malware, Microsoft recommends.

"The criminals out there are becoming more overt, more malicious and more direct in their attacks," Williams said.

"That emphasises the need for multi-layer protections. It is great we have anti-virus software to remove the threats, but clearly it is better to prevent the threat from getting in."

Cyber criminals are moving with increasing speed when it comes to reverse engineering patches released to fix vulnerabilities in software programs or operating systems, according to Microsoft.

Hackers dissect patches to identify weakness being repaired, then craft malicious code to take advantage of flaws in machines with software that isn't kept up-to-date.

"A patch is released and that is what starts these days of risk" Williams said.

"There is a window of vulnerability, so we need to close that window more quickly" he said. "Making sure you are up-to-date on security updates is one strong method of protecting yourself against attack."

Microsoft's security report is based on data from "billions of scans a day" in more than 200 regions of the world. - AFP

Cape Town - Parliament's communications committee has decided to call cellphone operators for confidential one-on-one briefings on their cost structures over the next few weeks in an endeavour to determine a realistic interconnection rate.

And there is a strong feeling among committee members -- endorsed by the Congress of South African Trade Unions -- that the entire pricing and cost structure of the mobile operators be analysed to make sure they do not try to recoup the lost revenue from the interconnection rate reduction in other areas of their business.

Both Vodacom and MTN have indicated their willingness to provide their commercially sensitive information to the committee, but only on a confidential basis. They have opposed the committee's proposal to reduce mobile termination rates immediately from a peak of R1,25c a minute to 60c, saying this was below cost.

Karel Pienaar, MD of MTN SA, told the committee yesterday its average interconnection cost was about 96c and it could work within a range of 10% below that. But he warned that drastic cuts that did not factor in SA's development needs would be a "business model shock".

Cell C CEO Lars Reichelt also said the 60c proposal was "too strong and not rooted in reality". He estimated the off-peak termination rate for the major players to be 77c, and proposed a flat 75c assymetrical termination rate from the start of the new year for Vodacom and MTN, and 65c for Cell C.

"We believe this proposal can potentially gain support from other players," Reichelt said.

Others have warned about the dangers of arbitrage if different termination rates are applied.

Both Vodacom and MTN have emphasised the need for a longer phase-in period for the reduction, saying they would have to change their business and investment plans. They said revenue from interconnection fees -- estimated at nearly R3bn for both operators -- had provided the funds for the investment in infrastructure and the achievement of SA's high penetration rate.

The mobile operators, together with Competition Commission commissioner Shan Ramburuth stressed the need for regulatory certainty and for the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) rather than Parliament to determine a defensible termination rate on the basis of a sound methodological analysis of costs.

Ramburuth warned that any figure arrived at arbitrarily would be subject to legal challenge. "We should not be guessing these figures," he told the committee.

However, committee chairman Ismail Vadi said that the committee needed to be armed with knowledge about the costs of interconnection so that it could assess whether Icasa had done its job properly when it decided, together with cellphone operators, on the size of the reduction in mobile termination rates.

Vodacom on Wednesday denied that it was against the reduction of interconnection rates by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa.

"We are ready to reduce these mobile terminating rates as long as the cost of terminating another party's call plus a fair profit is demonstrated," Vodacom's Bob Collymore said.

Collymore said it would be unfair for Vodacom to reduce its rates, as it would cause damage to their business, whereas other operators were reluctant to do so.

"Icasa must orchestrate the rate cut. Last week they initiated such talks, and strong progress is being made," Collymore said. Vodacom also said it sent Icasa its cost structure in order for them to ascertain how to decrease the rate, including the termination costs.

Collymore urged Icasa to apply its mind in determining the cut, so that it did not financially damage any operator.

"Because, this would simply reduce the extent of competition in the industry. It would also discourage investment in telecommunications infrastructure which in South Africa generally benefits the poor and marginalised," he said.

He added that international best practice had been to reduce mobile terminating rates over a period of time to avoid business model shocks.

Contrary to generally expressed opinions, the mobile terminating rate only affected the price of, for example, calls made from a Vodacom subscriber to a subscriber of another network.

"That would not then apply on calls from Vodacom to Vodacom," Collymore added.

He said the biggest single operating cost component for every mobile call was the cost of transmission lines which mobile operators had been obliged to hire from Telkom over the past years.

"This cost must also be taken into account when interconnect rates with Telkom are renegotiated." - Sapa

By Edwin Naidu

Cheaper and speedier Internet connection has arrived in South Africa and consumers are already benefiting from the lower costs.

However, the much-anticipated data wars that could take the worldwide web into townships and rural areas would only take place after the 2010 World Cup, said technology experts.

"One expects to see growth in townships throughout South Africa as demand grows because of lowers costs," said Suveer Ramdhani, the spokesman for Seacom, the company whose 15 000km fibre-optic undersea cable links southern and east Africa, Europe and south Asia.

"We need prices to come down because if they remain high, there is no incentive for consumer to use the services."

Seacom is the first operator using the cable to provide broadband to east African countries which used to rely entirely on expensive satellite connections.

Ramdhani said the wholesale cost of links to individual company exchange servers - giving access to internet and e-mail - had dropped by 90 percent since 2007, with the cost now R800 000 a month for a link, compared to R1.8 million two years ago. "Prices have come down and consumers certainly are benefiting," he said.

He added that the expectation was strong within Seacom for its cables to ensure that people are connected in townships like Khayelitsha in Cape Town, Soweto and Umlazi or KwaMashu in KwaZulu-Natal, which have been ignored by traditional players, even Telkom.

Seacom's entry into South Africa was expected initially to kickstart a mini-price war that would escalate after the 2010 World Cup when the country's bandwidth requirements, as required by Fifa would have been fullfilled.

An internet expert, who did not want to be named, said bandwidth requirements for 2010 were already taken for use. "When the soccer ends, there will be a data glut, and see real price drops," he said.

Arthur Goldstuck, the head of world wide worx, the internet research firm, said data prices have come down at a supplier level and have yet to be passed onto consumers. "Over time we will see data become cheaper," he said.

On Monday, Muku Sharma, the head of consumer and channel sales at Neotel, announced that the company had launched its own data card, NeoGo, offering customers up to 50 percent more data within bundle, with an out of bundle rate of 8 cents per MB, which is significantly lower than current offerings in the market.

"The NeoGo Data card with its large data bundle at a competitive price is just what the consumer needs and we don't hide our out of bundle rate which at 8 cents per MB redefines market pricing for data cards," he said.

Vodacom and MTN levies R2 a megabyte out of bundle rate.

However, industry experts believe that the barrier to Neotel still lies in the access cost, i.e. the subscription to the service, and while they may have opened the way for more viable broadband services they could struggle because of coverage and signal strength.

Some have labelled the failure by Vodacom and MTN to target the low-end of the market as "information apartheid" since the clients at the top of the usage list are raking in the profits for them.

However, the Seacom cable has given way to optimism that the internet will grow in areas it has not reached. Hillel Shrock, a director at Internet Solutions (IS), said the South African broadband market was changing.

"Seacom is an important milestone for the local telecommunications industry as it is the first time that South African service providers, other than Telkom, will be able to make a long-term investment in the provisioning of high speed, high capacity international connectivity," he said.

Tim Walter, the general manager: product and marketing at Nashua Mobile, said Seacom would be good news for consumers and businesses because it will, over time, help to drive down international bandwidth costs for internet users.

"Up until now, most of the country's international bandwidth through the Sat-3/Safe cables has been controlled by the incumbent operator and slow satellite connectivity was the only real alternative.

"Now, other networks and service providers have an alternate source for international bandwidth that they can turn to."

Internet expert Steven Ambrose said the arrival of Seacom would bring more capacity to the continent, but little relief for the general public. "Internet is not going to get significantly cheaper in the short to medium term. We are predicting a 20 percent value change this year, and potentially another 20 percent to 30 percent next year," he said.

Ambrose said the cost per gig of data used would drop while the actual overall cost in rands and cents will not change substantially.

"However, the big change we will all want is a low/reasonable cost package with no cap or at the very least a large 20 to 50 gig cap for around R300. This will not happen until 2011 at best," he said.