Microsoft Corp yesterday said it would offer Web users a new browsing experience on March 20, with faster, easier and safer Internet surfing.
Microsoft Taiwan Corp unveiled the local version of its Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) platform at a press conference yesterday and introduced the domestic partners it worked with to make the platform more competitive, including FunP.com, UrMap, I’m TV, Pixnet (痞客邦), Ruten.com (露天拍賣) and 1111 Job Bank.
Although Microsoft Taiwan tops the domestic Internet browser market, the company said it hoped the new version of its Web browser would be more than a tool. The IE home page has been designed to woo users from rival Yahoo-Kimo Inc (雅虎奇摩), the nation’s most popular search engine.
“The entire premise of our IE8 is to create user stickiness, so that Internet users don’t need to wander around the Web in search of their favorite sites because Microsoft has already thought ahead and consolidated the sites for them,” Microsoft Taiwan general manager Davis Tsai (蔡恩全) said.
Yahoo-Kimo’s site is tailored to the Taiwanese market, which has helped it secure the lion’s share of the market. The site has an arrival rate of 98 percent, meaning that during a given period of time, 98 percent of users surfing the Web in Taiwan visit its site.
Second in the search engine market is Google Taiwan, with an arrival rate of 80 percent last year.
“One of the many great features of IE8 is ‘accelerators,’ which give users instant access to local Web sites that [feature] maps, Web searches, translation, e-mail and blogging. Our local partnerships with these companies in essence creates a one-stop shop where users can access all this information on our site,” Juno Su (蘇倩慧), the company’s platform marketing manager, told reporters.
Another new function of the IE8 platform is “Web slices,” which allow personalization through subscriptions to specific content within a page to monitor auction items, sports scores, entertainment columns, weather reports and other information, Su said.
Other features include enhanced Web searching that includes images and Web site recommendations based on personal browsing history.
UNPRECEDENTED PACE: Micron Technology has announced plans to expand manufacturing capabilities with the acquisition of a new chip plant in Miaoli Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom. The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement. It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said. As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion
A man walks past real-estate advertisements outside a house in Taipei yesterday. The central bank yesterday said it plans to establish an “Inflation-at-Risk” gauge as a supplementary tool for observing inflation, as policymakers express wish to communicate more effectively with the public when making inflation forecasts.
ABOVE LEGAL REQUIREMENT: The Ministry of Economic Affairs is prepared if LNG supply is disrupted, with more than the legal requirement of 11 days of inventory Taiwan has largely secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies through May and arranged about half of June’s supply, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday. Since the Middle East conflict began on Feb. 28, Taiwan’s LNG inventories have remained more than 12 days, exceeding the legal requirement of 11 days, indicating no major supply concerns for domestic gas and electricity, Kung said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. The ministry aims to increase the figure to 14 days by the end of next year, he said. While one or two LNG or crude oil shipments for May
Taiwan’s food delivery market could undergo a major shift if Singapore-based Grab Holdings Ltd completes its planned acquisition of Delivery Hero SE’s Foodpanda business in Taiwan, industry experts said. Grab on Monday last week announced it would acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan operations for US$600 million. The deal is expected to be finalized in the second half of this year, with Grab aiming to complete user migration to its platform by the first half of next year. A duopoly between Uber Eats and Foodpanda dominates Taiwan’s delivery market, a structure that has remained intact since the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) blocked Uber Technologies Inc’s
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