Symantec's Norton 2009: The Road to Antivirus Innovation

Norton has garnered mixed reviews from users ever since they were owned and developed by Symantec Corporation. While Symantec did a good job of keeping the Norton brand of security software ahead of the antivirus field (unlike the much elder Norman who faded from hero to zero commercially), user complaint of heavy system resources usage, slow database update and stability issues. There was even once in a period where Norton, which is usually excellent in malware detection and removal, fell behind the up and coming pack of antivirus software such as Avast! (Avast improved significantly over these past few years) in terms of detection rate.

Norton reached a milestone in security application development when they released Norton 360, but the software failed to impress worldwide when users report of severe PC lags, slowdowns and performance bugginess due to using the security software.

After the release of the Norton 2008 editions of security software, the amount of complaints towards Norton still did not recede. The issue was the same as usual, more notably on poor system resources management, where users frequently complaint of lags and slow PC speed caused by the antivirus. The detection rate are healthy but not of the best, the live updates are still slow and buggy, and worst of all, users find it hard to uninstall the software to the root; Norton always seems to leave behind some souvenirs in the form of redundant folders, registry keys and system files which some of them are still running and taking up PC resources. Even when Norton issued a removal toolkit for more proper uninstallation, the problems are not solved completely.

Symantec began addressing the issue seriously, particularly as they ware starting to lose some of their market shares to other rival antivirus companies such as Kaspersky Lab and ESET. In certain countries where Norton is never the antivirus market leader, for example Russia, they lost even more shares. The key issue being address by the management and development team of Norton for their 2009 product line is on software performances improvement, and within months they have devised a set of innovative ideas in building their next generation of security software.

Symantec Norton's Market Share in Russia in 2007.

Many employees at Symantec thought of the innovative ideas as impossible. Some argued extensively but carry on towards the engineering; others reacted by quitting their jobs or refusing to handle the seemingly unachievable idea. It took the development team some time to architecture the dream masterpiece and finally on mid 2008, they released the first ever beta version of their innovative security solutions in the form of Norton Antivirus 2009 and Norton Internet Security.

Graphic User Interface of Norton Antivirus 2009 with customizable transparency

Graphical User Interface of Norton Internet Security 2009 with customizable transparency

Early beta versions of Norton 2009 still bears the unmistakable flaws of previous versions, notably its stability. Nevertheless, the development team has echoed to the world that they have successfully taken a step forward in delivering a promising security solution. The beta version of the new Norton 2009 product line installs and uninstalls at a flourish; taking less than a minute in doing so. Their performance in malware protection improved dramatically; smart scan takes only around 3-5 minutes and system scan are now based on a new scanning technique on which Symantec market as the name "Norton Insight". Symantec also reacts to their previously slow Norton Live Updates by issueing updates in smaller, separate clusters, on which they distribute to users' PCs constantly at between 5-15 minutes interval. On active, the software only takes up a surpisingly low 8 MB of memory which topples even antivirus known to be easy on system resources such as ESET NOD32.

Screenshot of the groundbreaking Norton Insight, which dramatically reduce scan times based on trusted files and applications

Settings for Norton Antivirus 2009, where users can customize their Norton's functionality. It is very organized and structuredin my opinion; not too difficult to understand or get used to.

Norton Internet Security 2009's Program Control features under the "Smart Firewall" settings

Detection rates also considerably improved along with performances; Norton Antivirus 2009 recorded a detection rate of 98% on virus and 96% on spywares in a recent VB100 security tests. This statistic is a remarkable effort of Norton to polish up their detection engine, called the Norton SONAR. SONAR has been released previously in their 2008 product line but however, performs weaker than expected. Its detection is behavioral-based, on which Norton intends it to work together with its signature-based detection. Norton also released a series of protection mode which aims to enhance user's experience with their PC while Norton is active in the background.

The new Norton's Quick Scan takes only 3-5 minutes to start and complete, while covering all the important stuffs.

Here are the innovative & improved features of Norton 2009 towards performance:

1. Norton Insight [NEW]

2. Norton Pulse Live Updates [NEW]

3. Recovery Tools Boots & Repairs [NEW]

4. Silent Mode [NEW]

5. Norton Tech Support [NEW]

6. Norton Protection System [IMPROVED]

7. Norton SONAR (Symantec Online Network for Advanced Response) Protection [IMPROVED]

Norton's new Tech Support Features: it allows users direct access to common support through the user interface of Norton Security Solutions.

Whether Norton will be able to recover in time to save its ailing market share with their 2009 brand of product line is yet unknown, but one thing is for certain; Norton has definitely set a new standard in security software protection features and performance and for now, security companies are on the backfoot. They will have to look towards Norton in terms of providing new features for future security solutions-and fast.

For the advertisement on Norton Security 2009's performance, visit the link to Youtube here.

For a 4-minute video on Norton Security 2009 product line, visit the link to Youtube here.

To visit Symantec's Official Website, click here.