NewsFire 1.5 (v73) is now available for download. This release fixes some incorrect graphics and no longer renders large image enclosures from sites such as Flickr. As an aside, I witnessed a curious issue while working on this release, and I’d like to get the fix into the public record. The issue was that NewsFire was repeatedly requesting authentication credentials for an HTTPS feed I had subscribed to. This was curious since the feed had worked fine in the past, and the username and password appeared to be properly stored in the Keychain. Since credential storage and use are a part of the Cocoa URL loading system, it’s likely there’s a deep bug here that’s in Apple’s jurisdiction. Regardless, the fix is trivial… simply delete the credential from the Keychain. After I did this, NewsFire recreated the credential and has worked fine ever since. So, if you ever experience such an issue, just delete the relevant credential in the Keychain and things should work once it’s recreated.

Today, I am very pleased to announce that Yahoo! has acquired the rights to Inquisitor, my instant search extension for Safari.

For those unfamiliar, Inquisitor is a pioneering software extension that provides as-you-type instant search directly within the Safari web browser. Inquisitor makes navigating the web fast and effortless by providing instant search results within an unobtrusive pop-down window. It also performs live autocompletion, prioritizes results based on the user’s search history, and gives the user extensive control over their search experience.

I look forward to assisting Yahoo! in refining and extending the Inquisitor user experience beyond where it is today. I truly believe that Inquisitor and its users can only benefit, both from Yahoo’s resources and attention, and from the product integration possibilities that would have been impossible to pursue on my own.

It’s important to note that while I will continue to be the lead developer behind Inquisitor for Safari, I will not be joining Yahoo! as an employee. I have every desire and intention to remain an independent developer for the Mac, meaning that Inquisitor, Xtorrent, and NewsFire will all continue to be equal priorities in my life.

Inquisitor 3.1 is now available for download. This release improves performance, simplifies the process for switching search providers, and removes affiliate links from the program. For new users, Yahoo! is now the default search provider, however users are free as always to change this as they so desire.