Browsersphere

Even though we’re venturing into edge case territory here, it’s nonetheless interesting to see how the four main web browsers compare when reduced to their minimum chrome, or browser window, size on Windows 7:

I’m not sure what’s more surprising, how large IE is at its most-minimized state, or how small Chrome is.

You can read more about the differences over at Softpedia.

Tags: Chrome, Comparisons, Firefox, Google Chrome, IE, Internet Explorer, Opera, Screenshots, Windows 7

I debated whether or not I should skip ahead to #14, but I’m not really that superstitious.

General

• SitePoint mentions Firefox, IE and Chrome as “three important browsers to watch” heading into 2010.
• The Windows Club lists 25 (or 26?) web browsers for Windows, many of which have been covered here to some extent.
• Someone important in the history of web browsers, rendering engines, etc., has retired.
• Apparently IE and Firefox users are more likely to click on ads than Safari and Chrome users.

Chrome

• The stable version of Chrome was recently updated to address some crashes.
• As previously mentioned on Twitter, Chrome has overtaken Safari in browser market share, moving into 3rd place overall.
• Though not surprising at all, Chrome extensions are popular with users and developers.
• Google wants you to give Chrome for Christmas.

Firefox

• Apparently envious of Firefox’s use of national park names as codenames, the Thunderbird team has started using the names of beaches as codenames.  No telling if they’ll take their codenames as seriously as Firefox does, though.
• Firefox 3.5.6 was released this week.
• You can take a look at some of Firefox’s top startup bugs, which, once fixed, could improve startup time by 10% in some cases, and up to 25% in at least one case.
• Someone at Mozilla Links has a conspiracy theory about the Red Panda that recently showed up on Bing.
• There’s a Firefox Mobile video on YouTube that needs a little less talk and a little more action, but it’s interesting nonetheless (via Web Browser News and Reviews).

Internet Explorer

• Giorgio Sardo offers up a look at HTML 5 support in IE8.

Opera

• Opera’s CEO has some thoughts on the way things played out with Microsoft’s antitrust case in Europe.
• Opera Mini 5 beta 2 is now available in 26 languages.

The Minor Players

• Avant Browser 11.7 Build 42 was released on Friday.
• AOL Explorer, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant, Sleipnir, and Slim Browser are among the IE alternatives listed in Browsing the browsers: Internet Explorer’s rivals (most likely based on this news).
• TheWorld Browser features a “multi-threaded frame” and “web page mute,” which allows you to disable all sound on a web page via one button.
• Someone made a Korean “translation” for Maxthon.
• This thread clears up why you might see multiple processes running when you use Maxthon (though you can probably guess).
• A YouTube video brought my attention to CometBird, which appears to be a close cousin of Firefox that not many people know about.
• Sunrise, a “web browser for web developers,” has reached version 2.0.2.
• A browser named Vinageer is claimed to be the “third most used web browser in Australia,” and yet the only articles I can find on it appear to be written in French.
• As one might expect, the Flock folks are excited to be included in Microsoft’s coming “browser ballot.”
• Maxthon reached the 300 million download milestone on November 28th.
• Skyfire Mobile Browser 1.5 was released last week with improvements made to their video support.  You can see a short video explaining the new improvements on Vimeo.

Tags: Add-ons, AOL Explorer, Avant, Bing, Christmas, Chrome, Codenames, CometBird, Crashes, Extensions, Features, Firefox, Firefox Mobile, Flock, HTML5, IE, IE8, Jon von Tetzchner, K-Meleon, Korean, Localization, Market Share, Maxthon, Microsoft, Multi-process, Opera, Opera Mini, Performance, Red Panda, Releases, Retirement, Skyfire, Sleipnir, Slim Browser, Sunrise, TheWorld Browser, Thunderbird, Users, Vinageer

The big news in the browsersphere today is that European regulators have dropped their antitrust case against Microsoft after the company agreed to offer European users of Windows a “ballot screen” allowing them to choose from 11 alternate web browsers.  Internet Explorer will continue to be an option, of course, but the following browsers will also be available as choices for the users:  Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, AOL Explorer, Maxthon, K-Meleon, Flock, Avant Browser, Sleipnir and Slim Browser.

For more on the stipulations of the deal, be sure to read the coverage from The New York Times (via @MaxthonNews).

Tags: Alternatives, Antitrust, AOL Explorer, Avant Browser, Chrome, Europe, Firefox, Flock, IE, Internet Explorer, K-Meleon, Legal, Maxthon, Microsoft, Opera, Safari, Sleipnir, Slim Browser, The New York Times

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:

• Too Good To Ignore — 6 Alternative Browsers – Really, it ends up being five alternative browsers with the Mac and PC versions of Opera counting as two.
• A Cheat Sheet To All the Browser Betas
• Firefox 2.0 Update To Remove Phishing Detection
• Safari and Chrome: Tied For the Worst Password Manager
• Chrome Complicates Mozilla/Google Love-In

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

The following is a picture of the cake the IE team sent over to the Mozilla folks when they shipped Firefox 3:

And the following is a mashup of the IE logo and the acid code (presumably from the Acid3 test?) via Twitter:

Tags: Acid3, Branding, Firefox 3, IE, Mozilla, Photos, Twitter

Hot on the heels of my recent post about the browser wars on Twitter, it looks like the IE team may now have a Twitter account.  They may also have a Flickr account, but I’m not sure what “meat donuts” have to do with web browsers.

I’m now following the new account in addition to Chris Wilson’s Twitter account, which is where I caught wind of the new ieteam account.

Tags: Chris Wilson, Flickr, IE, Marketing, Twitter