Every software company (hopefully) runs focus groups and other investigations into the user experience that they offer (some also interrogate the experience offered by their competitors).  AVG has learned from their own program that existing users wanted four things: Speed, Great detection, Ease of use and Peace of mind.

AVG 2011 already offered great speed, and to temper it, the ability to scale back a scheduled scan when user activity was detected.  The programming team at AVG has spent a lot of time profiling the scan engine and has (they believe) dramatically improved its speed yet again.

The user interface has also received a make-over with a reduction in the number of icons displayed - 17 down to 11.

Users of AVG 2011 may have noticed some new (but not activated) features recently added to their control panel.  These include Family Safety and LiveKive.

LiveKive is a combined cloud-based backup location and shareable file store and will be available very soon.

Of greater interest to the target audience of AVG (home and small business users) is the new Family Safety product, which offers a wide-ranging suite of applications to ensure a kid-friendly home internet experience.

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With the ability to create individual profiles for each child, Family Safety can detect instances of cyber bullying and grooming.  If detected, parents can be notified via email or SMS.  In addition, limits on the content children can access may be maintained.  Full reports on children's online activity can regularly be made to parents via the mobile phone or any email address.

Family Safety will be available for 99c with the entire proceeds being donated to The Red Cross.  The site also has a useful book to assist parents to discuss internet safety with pre-schoolers called, "Little Bird's Internet Security Adventure."

Next, there is the new download accelerator.  This component will dramatically improve the speed of downloads from two sites identified and having some of the largest impact on file transfer; Download.com and YouTube.com.  Gone (with any luck) will be the endless pauses while attempting to watch the latest Justin Bieber video!

AVG research suggests that significant improvement will be made on files of at least 8MB.

Finally, AVG 2012 has added patent-pending technology to detect fake AntiVirus.  Fake AV generally has two possible intentions - to cheat the 'victim' out of money by finding faults that it will happily fix (for a fee) or to install some malware.

AVG 2012 is aware of many of the characteristics of such software and can alert the user to the impact of agreeing to use this software.

AVG 2012 is available for immediate download. Pricing for a one-year, one-seat licence for AVG Internet Security 2012 is A$69.99. A one year, one-seat licence for AVG Anti-Virus 2012 is A$51.50. Two year licence periods are also available, plus multi-packs of 2, 3, 5 or 10 seat licences (with LiveKive and Family Safety to be available soon).