Posted on January 1st, 2010 | 2 Comments »
I’ve been doing my best to keep my finger on the pulse of the browsersphere over on Twitter, but you know you’re not getting the real deal until we go “around the browsersphere.”
General
Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Opera
- In its coverage of Opera’s added support for CSS3 Transitions and 2D Transforms in the pre-alpha build of Opera 10.5, CSS3 . Info mentions that “Opera is the first browser to offer support for Backgrounds and Borders without the need for a vendor prefix, with Firefox and Safari still requiring ‘-moz’ and ‘-webkit’ [respectively].”
- With the pre-alpha release of Opera 10.5, Anne van Kesteren says “we are getting a little better at this iteration stuff.”
- A couple of articles (via Slashdot), Opera 10.50 Unveiled: Opera Is Once Again the Fastest Browser on Earth and Opera 10.5’s new Carakan Javascript engine is fast – Google Chrome fast, go into detail about the impressive performance of Opera’s new Carakan JavaScript engine (which I’ve mentioned here a few times in the past).
- True to form, Opera Watch has a solid rundown on Opera 10.5 pre-alpha as well.
- In reporting on Opera’s State of the Mobile Web report from November, TechCrunch relays that Russia is the top country for Opera Mini usage, but that usage is really growing in Asia and Africa.
- Even though I think it’s a cool feature (which admittedly takes some getting used to), FavBrowser.com lends a hand to those who want to turn off Opera 10.5’s tab thumbnails in Windows 7 (I’m sure this approach works for Safari as well).
- The Opera Core Concerns blog provides some details on Opera’s native support for JSON, including performance comparisons against the other main browsers.
- In Carakan Revisited, improvements made to the Carakan JavaScript engine over the previous Furthark engine are discussed, mainly focusing on garbage collection and caching. The post also touches on some of the plans for future improvements.
- A New Year’s Eve post unveils a newer pre-alpha build of Opera 10.5 and discusses Opera’s new support for HTML5’s <video> tag.
- Introduce yourself to mouse gestures in Opera.
- If you’re excited about the pre-alpha builds of Opera 10.5, you can show it off with some wallpaper.
Minor Players
There’s a lot more to cover, but that should hold you over until 2010.
Happy New Year, everyone.
Tags:
2D Transforms,
Add-on-Con,
Add-ons,
Africa,
Alternatives,
Anne van Kesteren,
Asia,
Avant,
Avencius,
Carakan,
Chrome,
Comparisons,
CSS,
CSS3,
CSS3 Transitions,
Daniel Glazman,
Delays,
Development,
Digg,
Fennec,
Firefox,
Firefox 4,
Furthark,
Google,
Google Chrome,
HTML5,
IE Tweaker,
IE9,
Internet Explorer,
John Montgomery,
JSON,
Localization,
Macworld,
Maxthon,
Microsoft,
Mouse Gestures,
Mozilla,
Multi-process,
Netscape,
Notifications,
Opera 10.5,
Opera Mini,
Performance,
Reviews,
Russia,
Safari,
SeaMonkey,
Shanku Niyogi,
Slashdot,
State of the Mobile Web,
Steve Lucco,
TechCrunch,
Twitter,
Vendor Prefixes,
Videos,
Wallpapers,
WebKit,
Windows 7,
YouTube
Posted on December 31st, 2008 | No Comments »
Let’s take a look at what web browser news has surfaced over at Digg over the past month:
- Firefox sails past 20% market share, IE drops below 70% – “Mozilla achieved an important milestone in November, sailing past 20% market share over an entire month for the first time since its release in November 2004.”
- Google Chrome Browser To Support Customization – A step in Firefox’s direction.
- Safari Tops 7% Of Browser Market Share, Mac OS X On The Rise – Not quite Firefox’s gain, but movement upward nonetheless.
- Firefox Beats Chrome And Webkit Eats Them For Breakfast – Links to some SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark results for bleeding edge builds of Chrome, Firefox and WebKit.
- Opera 10 alpha – The alpha release of Opera 10 features the Presto 2.2 rendering engine.
- Second Firefox 3.1 Beta Due ‘Very Shortly’ – A reference to the since-released Firefox 3.1 Beta 2.
- New trojan targets Firefox, masquerades as Greasemonkey
- Opera 10 Aces Acid3 Browser Test, Boosts Performance by 30% – More on the Opera 10 alpha release.
- Webkit Still The Best And Rips Opera 10 Alpha A New One – Perhaps the hidden gem in this one is the ground Chrome gained on the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark since the aforementioned link’s resulMozilla to pull the plug on Firefox 2 “soon”ts.
- Mozilla to pull the plug on Firefox 2 “soon” – no complaints here.
- First look: Firefox 3.1 beta 2, now with private browsing – The feature appears to be implemented very similarly to Chrome’s implementation.
- Firefox Adds Multitouch Gestures for Macs
- Google Chrome Comes Out of Beta
- Google anticipates a bright and shiny future for Chrome – Links to an interesting ars technica article covering the challenges Chrome faces in trying to catch up with Firefox and IE.
- Google’s Browser Sheds Its ‘Beta’ Label – One post just wasn’t enough.
- Mozilla reverse-engineers OSX to enhance Firefox 3.1 for Mac
- Google grants outsider Chrome-coding privileges – Given the requirements of becoming a Chrome “insider,” I’m not surprised to read that only one outsider has been granted permissions thus far.
- Internet Explorer security alert
- Exclusive: First look at Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 RC1 – RC1, “which is believed to be the first feature-complete version of the browser, will lack in compatibility with web standards and will not match the JavaScript performance of all other major browsers.”
- Has Internet Explorer ever been safe?
- Firefox Issues Eight Patches for Web Browser
- FireTorrent Brings BitTorrent to Firefox
- Google pushing users away from IE?
- 7 Things Google Chrome Needs – Now That It’s Out of Beta – Links to a pretty good wishlist of Chrome improvements and enhancements.
- Firefox is most vulnerable Windows software in 2008 (PDF)
- Firefox 3.1 Beta 2 on Linux uses less memory
- Which sites will make the IE8 Compatibility Hall of Shame? – Apparently the Compatibility Mode feature of IE8 is one of its most critical.
- Firefox picks up 2 out of 3 users IE loses
- Mozilla releases second alpha of Fennec mobile browser – I haven’t covered Fennec here yet, but apparently it’s a descendant of Minimo.
- Mozilla’s mobile browser gets closer to prime time – By the way, a Fennec Fox is “a small nocturnal fox found in the Sahara Desert of North Africa.”
And now for some bonus coverage from Slashdot:
Happy New Year, everybody.
Tags:
Acid3,
Ars Technica,
Benchmarks,
Beta,
BitTorrent,
Chrome,
Compatibility Mode,
Competition,
Digg,
Extensions,
Features,
Fennec,
Firefox,
Firefox 2,
Firefox 3.1,
FireTorrent,
Google,
Greasemonkey,
IE,
IE8,
Internet Explorer,
JavaScript,
Linux,
Mac,
Market Share,
Minimo,
Minor Players,
Opera 10,
OS X,
Performance,
Phishing,
Presto,
Private Browsing,
Rendering Engines,
Safari,
Security,
Slashdot,
SunSpider,
WebKit
Posted on June 22nd, 2008 | No Comments »
It’s that time again. Since the last update, major versions of both Opera and Firefox have been released. Only one of the two has been dominating in terms of Digg presence, though.
- Top 5 Web Browsers That Aren’t IE, Safari or Firefox – A site called OMGLists covers five web browsers that aren’t in what they consider the top three. However, I’m not sure if I’d agree with calling a media player a web browser.
- Clarification about Firefox 3 system-killing performance – Some misunderstandings about Firefox 3 performance on Linux are addressed.
- Mozilla Firefox 3 Guinness World Record (Actual Page) – News of Mozilla’s attempt at a world record hits Digg.
- Ah, the Irony! Microsoft says Safari isn’t Safe on Windows – Discussion of a “carpet bombing” flaw in Safari.
- Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought, Microsoft Warns – Moderate flaws in IE and Safari combine to make one critical flaw.
- Firefox to pass 20% before July? – Early speculation about Download Day’s impact on Firefox’s market share.
- Why Firefox 3 matters – Speed, memory use, phishing and malware protection and bookmark management are among the new features of Firefox 3 that make the browser “matter,” according to the target article.
- WSJ’s MOSSBERG: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Is the Best Browser – Walt Mossberg gives a glowing review of the latest Firefox release.
- What’s new in Firefox 3? Check out this demo! – An overview of some of the new features in Firefox 3.
- Best Firefox Addon Ever?
- Beautiful glyphs – font rendering improvements in Firefox 3 – The system that renders text has been completely reworked in Firefox 3.
- Firefox 3 Download Day Pledges Hit 1 million
- Mozilla Announces Release Date for Firefox 3 — June 17th
- Opera 9.5 released
- Firefox 3 and Safari 4 in browser speed race
- Third Firefox 3 Release Candidate available for download
- A Field Guide to Firefox 3: A Full Inventory of the Goodness
- Web Browsers: Speed Testing the Latest Web Browsers – Lifehacker tests the latest major web browsers on Windows (informally) and Firefox, Safari and Opera all win in various categories.
- Don’t forget to be part of Firefox’s Download Day!
- IE8 development: Microsoft should learn from Apple, Mozilla – The article argues that due to Microsoft’s “closed” approach to developing its browser, IE will always be trailing the other major players in terms of development.
- Mozilla prepares for Firefox 3 release and plans for 3.1 – ars technica covers add-on compatability in Firefox 3 and gives a quick preview of what’s in store for Firefox 3.1, codenamed “Shiretoko.”
- 15 Browser Add Ons. No One Knows Them All!
- The History of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in Screenshots
- Why You Should Download Firefox 3 Right Now – Over 10,000 diggs on this one.
- Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3
- Firefox Download counter
- Forbes: Why Firefox Matters
- The cake is a lie: IE team bakes a treat for Mozilla
- Firefox 3 launch a success: 8 million downloads in 24 hours
- Mozilla Hits Its Firefox 3 Download Goal…and then some!
- Firefox 3 mentioned on the Colbert Report
- And the fastest browser is… – A quick post on CNET News relays information from Zimbra that Safari is the fastest browser with Firefox not far behind.
Tags:
Add-ons,
Apple,
Bugs,
Comparisons,
Digg,
Digg Watch,
Download Day,
Extensions,
Features,
Firefox,
Firefox 3,
Firefox 3.1,
Fonts,
Forbes,
History,
Hybrids,
IE8,
Internet Explorer,
Linux,
Lists,
Market Share,
Microsoft,
Opera,
Performance,
Previews,
Rendering,
Reviews,
Safari,
Screenshots,
Security,
Shiretoko,
Walt Mossberg
Posted on April 28th, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Last time around, I didn’t get any feedback on the format of these “Around the Browsersphere” posts, so I’ll give a slightly more organized approach a try and we’ll see how it goes.
Camino
- Camino 1.6, which features a customizable toolbar search field, software update capabilities, a scrolling tab bar, etc., was released on the 17th.
Firefox
Flock
Internet Explorer
Konqueror
Maxthon
Mozilla
Opera and Opera Mini
Safari
SeaMonkey
Minor Players
Tags:
Add-ons,
Beta,
Camino,
Digg,
Extensions,
Firefox,
Flock,
Internet Explorer,
iPhone,
Konqueror,
Mac,
Market Share,
Maxthon,
Microformats,
Minor Players,
Mozilla,
Opera,
Opera Mini,
Releases,
Safari,
SeaMonkey,
Stats,
Web Standards,
WebKit
Posted on April 20th, 2008 | 2 Comments »
It’s been a few months since we caught up with the popular web browser-related submissions on Digg, so let’s do something about that:
Tags:
Acid3,
Digg,
Features,
Firefox,
Mac,
Market Share,
Minor Players,
Mobile,
Opera,
Opera Mini,
Releases,
Reviews,
Safari,
Web Standards,
WebKit
Posted on January 16th, 2008 | 1 Comment »
As usual, web browsers are getting plenty of coverage over on Digg. Let’s take a look at some of the hot topics over the past month.
Tags:
Digg,
Firefox,
Internet Explorer,
Mozilla,
Netscape,
Opera,
WebKit
Posted on January 2nd, 2008 | No Comments »
I just came across a new minor player I hadn’t yet heard of called flarebrowser via Digg. According to Digg and the browser’s page on Google Code, flarebrowser is a simple browser for Mac OS X that focuses on speed and elegance. It was created by an Irish student and was apparently “once winner of the JSBench browser speed test back in 2004.”
Tags:
Digg,
Mac,
Minor Players
Posted on December 19th, 2007 | No Comments »
I was cruising Digg and spotted a link to MDZakri.com, which in turn pointed me toward the AdSense Notifier extension for Firefox. Apparently, it allows you to track your Google AdSense earnings in real time in the Firefox status bar. Seems like it could be a pretty useful extension for those who are making more money from AdSense than I am
Tags:
Add-ons,
Digg,
Extensions,
Firefox
Posted on November 11th, 2007 | 3 Comments »
I ran across two lists of Firefox alternatives tonight, the first of which is War of the Web Browsers: The Underdogs. It covers Avant, Flock and Opera, while Download Dispatch, Weekend Edition covers those plus Maxthon and a browser I hadn’t yet heard of: Slim Browser.
Mozilla needn’t be too worried, though. As this Digg post points out, Firefox still tops Google’s list.
Tags:
Avant,
Digg,
Firefox,
Flock,
Google,
Maxthon,
Minor Players,
Mozilla,
Opera
Posted on October 14th, 2007 | No Comments »
If you don’t let a single front page item on Digg pass you by unnoticed (like me), you’re likely to run into quite a few browser-related diggs over time. Let’s take a look at some that have shown up over the course of the past month.
- Ubuntu Forums Firefox Plugin – “finding answers to stupid questions was never so easy.”
- Get your Firefox Wonder Edition, most efficient Firefox build! – “Firefox Wonder Edition is a special version of Firefox that combines one of the most efficient Firefox build[s] with special extras that make it the fastest Firefox around for Windows.”
- Firefox memory usage and memory leak news – “Many Mozilla community members, including both volunteers and Mozilla Corporation employees, have been helping to reduce Firefox’s memory usage and fix memory leak bugs lately. Hopefully, the result of this effort will be that Firefox 3 uses less memory than Firefox 2 did, especially after it has been used for several hours.”
- New Firefox 3.0 alpha blocks malware, secures plug-in updates – “Security features debut in latest preview, as Firefox 3.0 heads down the stretch.”
- Firefox/Camino vs. Safari Image Quality — Big difference (IMAGE) – “There seems to be a pretty big significance between these two browser[s] in terms of displaying this image. Not sure why this is happening…but it’s making me consider leaving my favorite browser.”
- New Konqueror web browser icon by Oxygen Team – “Konqueror, KDE web browser get[s] a new icon in Oxygen style. Check it out.”
- Justice in India is done with the help of Linux, OpenOffice and Firefox – “In Uttar Pradesh (most populated state of India), Judges have been distributed laptops powered by Linux, OpenOffice, Evolution, Gnome, Firefox.”
- Proposed Firefox 3 Theme For Mac OS X Looks Exactly Like Safari – “Firefox 3 is having an identity crisis on the Mac. Recent screenshots reveal that the new theme is striking similar to Apple’s Safari. If you can’t innovate, imitate.”
- Can IE’s architect explain why it’s so bloated? – “More good news for Internet Explorer users: Microsoft’s IE chief explains why IE is fatter than Firefox and will never have a similarly comprehensive plugin system.”
- Firefox Coming To Your Phone – “The iPhone, with its fully-functioning Safari browser, showed us that mobile browsing need not be a compromise. Now, the folks at Mozilla are working on a mobile version of Firefox.”
- Mozilla: We’re Ready to Rock the Mobile Web Now – “Here’s some information about what we’re planning to do with hiring, technology, partnerships, and products, and how you can get involved.”
As you can see, Digg is pretty heavy on Firefox, but you got a little Safari and Konqueror in there, too (the IE stuff probably doesn’t count
).
Tags:
Camino,
Digg,
Firefox,
Internet Explorer,
Konqueror,
Mobile,
Mozilla,
Safari,
Themes and Skins