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.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
RSS