Not sure when this started occurring exactly, but Yahoo is apparently now letting Firefox users know that they’d be better off switching to the “new, safer Internet Explorer 8″. Apart from this tweet sent out yesterday, we haven’t noticed anyone noticing, so we suspect it’s fresh and a direct result of the recent Yahoo and Microsoft love-fest.
How ironic. About a year ago, following a failed acquisition attempt by Microsoft, Yahoo ran a very different recommendation from their front page, advising Internet Explorer users to switch to the “NEW safer, faster Firefox 3″ instead.
Apparently, Yahoo recommends browsers based on what their latest business alliances are. (update: or as Michael puts it, Apparently The Safest Browser Is Whoever Is Paying Yahoo The Most)
Maybe they should just develop and market their own browser and rid the confusion?
More screenshots:
(Hat tip to @jacook11)
Dich them, get Opera instead.
Opera rulz!
It’s faster than all of them!
The only thing that keeps me from using Opera is that it doesn’t compily to all of the web standards (or even webkit). Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely better than IE. It’s just slighly under Firefox or Chrome in my opinion. (Better than Safari though).
What the hell are you talking about Opera is the only browser that passes the Acid3 test
Internet Explorer too!
(wait, we were playing the “say some bullshit” game, right?)
And btw, I was referring to the speed aspect.
Yahoo Aka “Judas Iscariot ” and Microsoft = Big crap,
Firefox rules
It’s frankly very hard to believe Opera is still in the desktop browser business. Not saying Opera is good or bad, it may be great technically but I don’t get it — they don’t make any money through the desktop browser, hardly anyone uses the browser (2% last time I checked), few devs I know even test in IE and there is little chance in my book they will ever beat IE/Firefox/Safari/Chrome all of which are in a better position for a variety of reasons. Someone explain this…?
The devs you know suck if they don’t check the majority browser.
Opera RULEz,
People who care for speed use Opera
Opera has less than 1% market share in the US but closer to 7% in Europe, where they focus their efforts.
Well, I will interpret all of this confusion as a signal to continue using Safari 4.
How about ditching Yahoo and trying the safer Google or Bing.. This crap is getting old. Its all about politics now.
Its all about TC getting some users. I saw Yahoo! advertising for IE7 also before the partnership with MS. All these TC articles are dumb.
TC gives us some good stuff.
Bing is retarded.
Yahoo recommends browsers based on what their latest business alliances.
>>>>>> This is just open combat. Sure people will lose the trust on Yahoo. Yahoo, is IE 8 really safer else, are you making it safer?
Maybe they should just develop and market their own browser and rid the confusion?
>>>>>> Then Yahoo would always recommend their own browser as the fastest and safest browser.
That was the implied joke with that sentence about yahoo developing their own browser…in the same way that Google used to recommend Firefox and now recommends Chrome, ya know?
Ditch Opera too, ditch Safari, ditch Chrome, ditch evathang, ditch the stupid smart phone, si, ditchem all.
I’m going back to the coin-operated phone booth for my communication needs. Yo, you gotta quarter you can spare?
Tin cans with string attached…. anyone
You’ll need a dime, too.
I actually prefer carrier pidgeons. Smoke signals aren’t too shabby either…
You can gyp the coin mech…get skillz
wow, shows they are just whores at the end of the day.
“they” You mean everyone!
Sell you mom for a marketing deal?
This recommendation is not new and probably has no ties to the msft deal . I received an email on my Yahoo! mail account back in May suggesting I switch to the ’safer’ IE8.
@Derek
“This recommendation is not new and probably has no ties to the MSFT deal”
Errrr… really? If you believe this, I have a really nice bridge for sale that you might be interested in.
I just think its misleading to imply this is a new campaign directly linked to the deal when users were receiving this recommendation two months before the partnership was announced.
Is my name misspelled in my original comment?
will you please forward the email to tips@techcrunch?
Done
http://de.yahoo.com/
They still recommend Firefox 3.5 on the german site.
maybe the yahoo.de guys don’t know about the microsoft deal yet.
It even says: Faster and smarter, the new Firefox 3.5.
>Apparently, Yahoo recommends browsers based on what their latest business alliances are.
No duh. Who doesn’t?
have we all given up on honesty as a possibility?
It just looks like an ad to me, it doesn’t even say they “recommend” it, it’s just a text link saying to get it… I don’t see what the big deal is.
Yes. Why would Yahoo have ever recommended IE when it was competing with MS? Plus, the safest browser between IE 8 and Firefox is not nearly as cut and dried as it was when IE6 was the flagship. Hilariously, firefox’s note about security compares firefox to the disastrous IE 6.
http://www.mozi...refox/security/
How is that for honesty?
Posted from firefox.
last time i checked majority of internet users were still on IE 6. I see nothing wrong with firefox comparing their security to IE 6.
I don’t know, maybe, just maybe, i mean i don’t want to imply, but as a pure coincidence, pure happenstance, as the chance of two mountains coming together…you know, maybe this has something to do with the MS-Yahoo deal?
Of course it does. I cannot believe TC wrote not one but two full-length posts on a topic that most of us will sum up with one word: Micrahoo. They’re hitting levels of mental retardation that I never thought were possible.
Yeah right, nothing to do with getting in bed with MS.
A fish rots from the head down
Guess must have been a hidden clause as part of the deal Yahoo signed with M$oft
not so hidden now…
Word of the day: Credibility
I don’t understand…. why bother poking a tiger if you are not going to eat it. This and the original “get Firefox”, should not be in the corporate memos.
You just don’t expect this from a responsible corporation. Maybe from a moody web developer.
Don’t poke the tiger!
Microsoft’s pimp hand is strong. Y! best not be trippin.
I do not know why my IE 8 always ‘hang’ if I open some site. Even Yahoo. I use win7 …. So, I think yahoo is wrong recommend bad browser … and IMHO, FF still the best
I hope the web devs who wrote the HTML code for that felt *really* dirty!
Don’t you guys see the Chinese food connection?
Speaking of Chinese food…
MA, did anyone get a TC shirt from your Google/Secret Service/Drunk connection post?
I’ll still stick in using Firefox.
So what’s wrong with it? Thanks for the deep article.
It’s supposed to recommend that to users of IE6 and IE7.
It’s well known in web circles, older versions of IE cause a lot of technical problems, and big sites want to encourage the public to do the free upgrade. Microsoft has even put out press releases asking people to upgrade, they know IE6 is worthless.
I love that you guys picked up on this bug so quickly and read into it though, that’s pretty funny.
Yahoo is also killing FF 3.5 with their Yahoo Messenger Web Chat Widget on Y! Mail – when the widget hangs it causes FF to increase its virtual memory like crazy without check, no issues on IE
Just for the record, though, it’s probably comparing IE8 to IE7; it’s not an attack against Firefox. Even so, pretty silly to insert ads at the ends of emails.
I doubt it is any safer than any of their last IE’s. Personally all the bugs in their browsers drive me crazy.
Gee..mybe Yahoo should promote both. Unless Mozilla did pay for that space…
I’ve seen that when using Yahoo Mail for many months. It’s not a new thing there, although they may now be rolling it out elsewhere as well.
I’ll stick with anything (and everything) non-IE, thanks.
MS and Yahoo.. fail… both going down the drain.
Not to interrupt the Microsoft bashfest but I get the same thing using IE7 so I think “New, Safer IE8″ just means its the newest, safest version of IE.
everone recommends …
now prob is which to use ?
really confusing decision
Too funny. I hate to say it, but IE8 isn’t all that bad so far.
The ’setup’ when you first launch is ridiculous though. I stick with FF3.5 whenever I’m browsing still, but I need IE8 for debugging.
How do you change the settings to return the URL and useless default windows back their IE7 functionality???
That was about the one bonehead thing that turned me off and made me go back to 7.
ahaha. good one. I also found this: http://twitter....atus/3430654402 seems yahoo is going down the drain
Yes, I also prefer IE8. Check the link- “Why you should use IE8?” A banking phishing site is blocked by IE8 while Firefox allows it.
I don’t know about IE8 but FireFox 3.5 is slow as molasses on my Macbook. However it’s either that or Safari until they get a decent version of Chrome out.
been using firefox 3.5 on a mac since it came out and i have had no issues with speed. it is either you have too many addons installed, and have plugins that have not been updated or you generally dont clear your cache.
ey! check what it shows on Yahoo! Mexico… a litte more subtle
and taking into account that I’m a mac user…
The image says:
FREE, optimized for Yahoo! (what a bunch of crap). Download the NEW INTERNET EXPLORER 8 – FREE
I thought the whole point of rich web apps today was browser independence? Y! shouldn’t care or promote a browser preference. I don’t see how their legal team allows them to use the term ’safer’ on their public website.
+1
it’s becoming very tricky to code for all browsers nowadays so lots of people just switching to building flash apps instead
Yahoo stinks. Their only services worth using are Flickr and Delicious. The rest of it just plain stinks.
And those were bought.
The banner ad I’m seeing at the top of this page is for IE8.
Seems Yahoo isn’t the only one
.
I can see how it makes logical sense. Since Google is supporting Firefox/Chrome, Yahoo might as well support IE8. But, at least for me, such claims hurt Yahoo’s credibility.
Go to Google.com with IE and you see almost the same stuff for Chrome.
I’m still waiting for a faster, less spammier Yahoo mail
“Apparently, Yahoo recommends browsers based on what their latest business alliances are. ”
Isn’t this OBVIOUS?
If you don’t think so, try pissing off all the advertisers on TechCrunch site by saying shit about them and see if this doesn’t hold true.
Techcrunch and Robin Wauters holier than thou, indeed.
French Yahoo advises FF as well, but Spanish recommends IE8 – go figure!
IE8 optimized for Yahoo,
FF optimized for the Web !!!
IE 8 might be safer but it sure is a clunker
hahahahha does this put the icing on the cake,that Jerry “Ying” Yang over at Yahoo what a joke he has become in life.I would stay as far away from this guy in the tech world.I wonder today what he would sell for a buck and who he would sell.Jerry pull up your pants and take Yahoo back to where it should be
he is no longer CEO. Carol is.
Carol WHO?
Carol Brady?
i suspect because Fx has & recommends AdBlock Plus that kills ad content. we, the users, love that. web devs hate that, so much.
I noticed this on July 31st. Here is a link to my tweet about it on that day.
http://twitter....atus/2948174729
Noticed this on july 31st already, third time I try commenting. You can view the tweet i sent about it on my profile. Think the moderation is because of included link.
Noticed it on July 31st.
Here is a link to the tweet sent about it on that day.
http://twitter....atus/2948174729
You are welcome to delete all the extra comments that got approved.
Here goes Microsoft’s Bing Connection with Yahoo.
As if i would change back to the Internet Explorer just because Yahoo told me so …