OpenDNS Hijacks Bing Searches – Workaround
Posted on July 8, 2011, under Software.
Update 8/15/2011: Thankfully, OpenDNS is no longer redirecting Bing searches. The Founder, David Ulevitch, posted on their blog in regards to ISPs hijacking searches. I posted a comment about OpenDNS’s behavior, and Mr. Ulevitch sent me a personal e-mail saying he understood the sentiments, and that’s why he directed the proxy to be shut down. I tested it, and sure enough – no more hijacking! I’m glad OpenDNS was able to take and act on feedback.
While I have loved the OpenDNS service for the last several years, this week it has started hijacking web searches I perform in IE’s address bar that should be going to Bing. I don’t like this. So far support is saying this is a change with IE9, but obviously IE9 has been out for quite some time, and this behavior is new.
You can even see the direct for yourself using this short video I made:
http://screencast.com/t/uBiL34Giq
Until OpenDNS receives enough attention that they look at changing this, there is a workaround…
Update I: In the OpenDNS forums, there is a post where others complain of the same behavior. A support person from OpenDNS vaguely says it is not a bug, but that there might be an issue with the proxy. They then closed the forum thread, directing people to support tickets. I have a ticket open, and so far they are saying it is my fault for not using my browser correctly.
Workaround
Internet Explorer lets you set custom search providers for the address bar, using a page Microsoft has set up on the IE Addons site:
Create your own Search Provider
Follow the instructions to create a new entry for Bing. In my case, I simply named it "Bing 2". Then click the "Install Search Provider" button.
You will be prompted to install the new search provider. Select that you want to use it as your default search provider.
Now when you search in IE’s address bar, your searches will correctly be sent to Bing.
Delicious Toolbar hangs IE8
Posted on April 27, 2009, under Technology.
Update 9/5/2009: The newest version of the IE Toolbar released recently works now. WOOHOO!
I’m running into a problem with the Delicious Toolbar 1.12.273.0 causing IE8 to hang on Windows XP SP3. It is super annoying, as I would like to use the Favorite Tags functionality on this machine.
worksforme – On Vista
I have the Delicious Toolbar running with IE8 on Vista with no problems. However for some reason the other computer I use running WinXP is choking on the Delicious addon.
Issue
After I install the Delicious Toolbar, I can open IE8 for one session. After closing the browser, the IE window disappears like everything is normal. When I try to open IE again, the chrome starts to load, but the window hangs. My home page doesn’t open, and the IE functions are frozen.
Behind the scenes, there are two iexplorer.exe processes, and one DeliciousManager.exe process still running. IE8 becomes responsive again once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process in the Task Manager. Once I kill the DeliciousManager.exe process, the iexplorer.exe processes are freed up and end normally. Then I can start a new web browser session, until I run into the issue again when I close IE.
Attempt 1 – Disable potential conflicts
I tried disabling all other IE addons, setting exclusions in antivirus for real-time scans on the Delicious Toolbar data directories, and disabling the firewall. The DeliciousManager.exe task would still hang IE8.
Any Ideas?
Does anyone out there have any other ideas? If I find a solution, I will post a follow-up here.
IE8 Performance Problems
Posted on March 25, 2009, under Technology.
I am still testing IE8 on my home machine, and ran across a page that shows some performance issues with the new browser.
When I open up this page in IE8, the browser is extremely slow after the page finishes loading. I have not taken the time to dig real deep, but AJAX is being used to bring in the body content, and I see jQuery in use quite a bit behind the scenes. For what it’s worth, I used the “Report a Webpage Problem Internet Explorer 8 Add-On” to let Microsoft know of the performance issue.
When I use Firefox 3.0.7, I have no performance issues on the test page. I have not tested IE7 yet to see if the performance problem is in that version as well.
New HTML and DOM Standards Compliance in IE8 Beta 1
Posted on April 11, 2008, under Technology.
The IEBlog lists new HTML and DOM standards compliance ehancements in IE8 Beta 1. If you mess with JavaScript or the DOM at all, this is good stuff to keep aware of. I’m a little removed from this level of web development as compared to my old role, but I know I would have been pretty excited overall with the enhancements that IE8 brings to the development arena. Hopefully it doesn’t take years to get adopted by IE users once released. 
