How To

Ads that track your online behavior using cookies aren't the worst problem on the Internet, but they are one of the more annoying ones. Internet Explorer 9 offers a tracking ad blocker similar to Firefox's AdBlock Plus add-on, except this one's built in.

In this video, we show you how to enable the list, how to tweak it to your liking, and how to download extra lists to customize it even further.

Taking a page from its competitors but putting its own spin on it, Microsoft has introduced a new way to search in Internet Explorer 9. Called One Box, it combines the search box with the location bar.

You can navigate to a site, search for sites, look at browsing history or favorites, and change search providers on the fly. Check out how to use the One Box in this how-to video. You can also download Internet Explorer 9 here.

Internet Explorer 9 has a lot of cool new features. "Pinned sites" lets you create site-specific browsers on your Windows 7 desktop. Pinned sites by default recolor IE9's Aero glass-style interface based on the color schemes in the site's favicon, which is a neat little trick, and use the site's favicon as the Windows 7 taskbar icon.

If coded properly by the site's developers, a site can customize the jump list links, integrate player controls for streaming media sites such as Pandora, or have a counter display the number of unread e-mails in your … Read more

In every disaster scammers see an opportunity, and the crisis in Japan is no exception. Already there have been fake Red Cross e-mails circulating and there will no doubt be more scams coming.

Those e-mails appear to come from the British Red Cross. They provide some news on the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and urge people to donate to a Yahoo e-mail address on a Moneybookers account, a money transfer service that enables recipients to remain anonymous, according to App River, an e-mail hosting and security services provider.

However, real charities have e-mail addresses with their own domain and … Read more

European advertisers fear they will face a huge new obstacle this May when the European Union's Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive takes effect. The so-called Cookie Directive will require that users explicitly allow Web sites to leave cookies and other data on their machines, according to Raul Mendez on ChiefPrivacyOfficers.com.

It's unclear whether the opt-in requirement will be satisfied by the browser's setting that allows first- and third-party cookies. This uncertainty hasn't prevented some pundits from predicting the end of the world for the European advertising industry, as reported by TechCrunch Europe's Mike Butcher.… Read more

Before you tweet a photo of your delicious, homemade dish, check your settings--your phone might be embedding coordinates in your photos, leaving your location open to prying eyes.

Using the built-in GPS, phone camera applications can embed the latitude and longitude of a location in photos. Coordinates aren't shown in your photo library, but if you post a geotagged pic online, someone with an evil motive can easily extract the photo's EXIF data and find out where you live, eat, or hang out.

Creepy, right? This is a big security risk, especially for parents who post photos of … Read more

You can listen to Google Voice messages from your smartphone, can dial out using your Google number on an Android phone, and can finally port your own cell phone number to Google Voice. But if you're not quite ready to cut the cord with your carrier, you don't have to.

Google Voice has a vast number of benefits, from managing voice mail in an inbox to placing free texts. However, there still are some flaws--barely legible voice transcription and mobile app SMS delays to name two (I know, I know, not everyone experiences the same issues)--and the … Read more

Google points to a software update error that caused thousands of Gmail users to lose e-mail, contacts, and folders last Sunday, but for the unfortunates who were affected by the glitch, any explanation for an emptier inbox is cold comfort.

Thankfully, there are ways to save the contents of your e-mail account online and on your desktop, and I show you three of them in the video above. While I focus on Gmail specifically this time around, the principles are the same for any Web mail service that supports POP forwarding, as most of them do.

If you have a … Read more

Rob Glaser, the founder of Real Networks, is launching SocialEyes at the Demo conference today. It's a new video-calling service that blends Skype and FaceTime features with Facebook's social graph.

On the surface, it seems like just another video-calling service, but its social architecture is unique.

Glaser says, "This is not Skype or YouTube or Facebook." So I asked him, "What is it?" Oddly, he shrugged and said, "We're going to find out." Normally I'd say that not knowing how your product is going to be adopted is a negative … Read more