Google says it will cease fully supporting Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 for its Google Docs and Google Sites applications on March 1. This deadline also applies to other older Web browser versions, including Mozilla Firefox 2.0, Apple Safari 2.0 and Google’s own Chrome 3.0. The move is part of Google’s push to rid the messaging and collaboration world of the dated, insecure IE 6 and put Google Chrome in its place. Chrome has 4.63 percent of the browser market and Google would love to chomp away at IE’s 63 percent share.

The Marker reports that a former Microsoft employee who has been on the Microsoft cruise ship alleged to have a sex and drug party, claims that the “girls” were brought on board the ship by Turkish partner and Egyptian division manager. The former employee said that this was a private initiative and not a Microsoft sponsored event.

He also claims that although they were invited to participate in the activity, he and other MS reps got off the ship and spent the night on bars and restaurants on shore. At the course of the evening he got a call from his friends on board the ship that they ran out of condoms and was asked to renew the ship’s supply. He said that he did not witness and illegal substance on the ship as claimed in the law suit.

Hackers are exploiting a weakness in the Mozilla Firefox browser to wreak havoc on Freenode and other networks that cater to users of internet relay chat.

Using a piece of javascript embedded into a web link, the hackers force users of the open-source browser to join IRC networks and flood channels with diatribes that include the same internet address. As IRC users with Firefox follow the link, their browsers are also forced to spam the channels, giving the attack a viral quality that has has caused major disruptions for almost a month.

Mozilla has officially released the first mobile Firefox, a condensed version of the popular open-source browser that runs on Nokia’s Maemo platform.

Codenamed ‘Fennec,’ Firefox 1.0 for Maemo was previously available only as a beta. Mozilla calls this the first mobile web browser to accomodate add-ons - long a staple of the Firefox desktop browser. More than 40 add-ons are already available for the new mobile platform, including AdBlock Plus, the most famous of Firefox extensions.