Browsersphere

As promised, Firefox 3.6 RC1 was released yesterday.  Despite my warnings against downloading the candidate of the release candidate earlier this week, it doesn’t look like there was ever more than one candidate, so if you jumped the gun and downloaded that candidate, you’ve likely got the same build anyway.

Despite the fact that Firefox 3.6 RC1 was released on schedule yesterday, it has received very little attention from the usual official outlets, as far as I can tell.  For example, there is no mention of the new release candidate on the main Firefox page, and there has been no mention of the release via Firefox’s Twitter account.

Nevertheless, the RC1 build looks official, and the following are some of its key features and changes:

• Changes have been made to the way third party software integrates with Firefox in an attempt to avoid crashes.
• Nearly 100 bugs have been fixed since the last beta build to improve stability, performance, etc.
• JavaScript can now be loaded asynchronously, another performance boost.
• Improved DOM, CSS and HTML5 support.

If you decide to give Firefox 3.6 RC1 a spin, feel free to share your thoughts on the new release here in comments.

Update: I should clarify that the RC1 build is at least mentioned on the beta releases page.

Tags: Crashes, CSS, DOM, Firefox, Firefox 3.6, HTML5, JavaScript, Performance, Release Candidates, Releases, Stability

We’re covering everything from the difference between Yahoo! Answers and Stack Overflow, to Firefox sabotage against IE8 add-ons, to Taco Bell marketing campaigns in this trip around the browsersphere.  Are you ready?

General

• This one is pretty funny, but maybe wouldn’t be as funny if it was true:  someone filed a Firefox bug claiming installing Firefox disabled his or her IE8 add-ons.
• WebKit received one of InfoWorld’s 2010 Technology of the Year awards for being a “tool for creating cross-platform smartphone development,” whatever that means.
• Yahoo! Answers, which is one of the most useless sites on the Internet, in my opinion, runs the gamut in attempting to answer the question “which language should I use to create a web browser?“
• Harry Parsonage went to great lengths to write a “forensics” paper on how privacy can be put at risk by various web browsers’ session restore feature.
• If you’re planning on attending MIX10 in March, Paul Scarpa of Spry Hive Industries is hoping to talk about the past, present and future of web browsers.  You’ll need to vote, though, to make that happen.

Chrome

• An article at Beet.TV claims that Google Chrome has reached 40 million active users worldwide since it’s initial beta release in September of 2008.
• Jim Lynch of ExtremeTech talks about why he switched from Firefox to Chrome on Mac.
• Dwight Silverman is using Chrome on Mac, too, and got pretty excited when a bookmark manager showed up in his build.
• If you’re a Chrome fan and an Ubuntu fan, you may like some of these Ubuntu themes for Google Chrome.
• Chrome’s Dev Channel was updated to version 4.0.288.1 yesterday across all platforms.  TechCrunch points out that the key features are those that showed up for the Mac platform:  bookmark syncing, the new “pin tab” feature, and most importantly, extensions.
• Unlike Yahoo! Answers, Stack Overflow provides a platform at which smart people can provide smart answers, such as this explanation of the difference between the browser process, the render processes and plug-ins in Chrome.

Fennec

• In a blog post that announces his transition from working on Fennec back to the desktop version of Firefox, Gavin Sharp also reveals how developing for Fennec was different than developing for Firefox, and introduces us to a few of the other major contributors to the new mobile browser.

Firefox

• John Lilly tweets about a theme/add-on combination that gives “glimpses of [Firefox] 4.0.”
• John Slater, Mozilla’s Creative Director, vows that Firefox marketing won’t go the Taco Bell route.
• Download Squad reports that Firefox 3.7 is showing some progress with its Windows 7 shell integration.
• Initial tests show that forthcoming multi-processor support in Firefox leads to a 3x speedup in JavaScript performance, but even that is still 50% slower than Google Chrome’s performance using the same test.

Internet Explorer

• Microsoft’s announcement that it had submitted a request to join the SVG Working Group sparked commentary from SitePoint and The Industry Standard.

Opera

• As you probably heard, Opera announced a new CEO this week.
• Opera is planning on releasing a browser beta for Windows CE and looking to find other niches after suffering losses of around $2 million during the last quarter.

The Minor Players

• “Digia @Web is a modern, fully finger touch controllable, web browser for mobile. @Web is currently available for S60 5th Edition and Maemo mobile devices free of charge.”  Techie Buzz has a review, which includes a screenshot.
• SRWare Iron Browser, which was mentioned here last month, has been reviewed, along with screenshots, over at GadgetMix.
• China is making some big investments in free software which could end up benefiting Maxthon.
• Flock 2.5.6 was released this week, fixing some integration issues with Flickr and Twitter.
• Reports from CES say that Ford has developed its own Web browser, which can be operated only while the car is parked (there’s more on the safety implications of related innovations in The New York Times today).  Left Lane reports that Ford’s browser is WebKit-based.
• This review of the Orca browser has plenty of screenshots for anyone who’s curious about the browser.
• Honza Pokorny, who you can follow on Twitter, has created his own browser, appropriately named Honza’s Browser, which you can try out on Linux or Windows.  He has also made the source code available.

Tags: Add-ons, Awards, Bookmarks, Bugs, CEO, China, Chrome, Digia @Web, Fennec, Firefox, Firefox 3.7, Firefox 4, Flickr, Flock, Ford, Gavin Sharp, Google Chrome, Harry Parsonage, Honza's Browser, IE8, Internet Explorer, JavaScript, John Lilly, John Slater, Mac, Marketing, Maxthon, Microsoft, MIX10, Multi-processor, Opera, Orca, Performance, Releases, Safety, Session Restore, SRWare Iron, Stack Overflow, Statistics, SVG Working Group, The New York Times, Themes, Twitter, Ubuntu, WebKit, Windows 7, Windows CE

A couple weeks back, Opera made headlines when it released a browser build supporting the Geolocation API as specified by the W3C.  That prompted Ars Technica to write an article summarizing current Geolocation API support, which mentioned that both Opera and Mozilla (more on the Firefox implementation can be found at Mozilla Links) have released browsers supporting the API.

Now it appears that Safari will soon be supporting the Geolocation API as well.  In documentation that appears to have gone out to iPhone developers regarding new features in iPhone OS 3.0, the following appears:

Safari…supports the Geolocation JavaScript classes, which work with the onboard location services to retrieve the current location of the device.

A Google search for “safari geolocation” doesn’t really turn up much useful information, but it’s obvious from existing WebKit bugs that the feature has been getting some attention as of late.

It’s going to be interesting to see how prevalent the use of this API by web developers becomes as more of the major web browsers add support for its functions.

Tags: Ars Technica, Features, Firefox, Geolocation API, iPhone, JavaScript, Mozilla, Mozilla Links, Opera, Safari, W3C, WebKit

Despite almost feeling like I was there, thanks to the folks I’m following on Twitter, I was very interested in finding out more about what was discussed at the SXSW panel, Browser Wars III: The Platform Wins, which went down yesterday.  Now that I’ve read SXSW: Big Browsers Butt Heads, I think it’s pretty safe to say that no wars actually broke out (despite some people’s wishes).  There was some interesting discussion, though, ranging from Google’s choice to go with WebKit for Chrome instead of Gecko, to what web standards have in common with sausage, to how JavaScript performance became such a huge part of the browser wars of late.  Definitely give the article a read if you get a chance.

Tags: Articles, Browser Wars, Chrome, Gecko, JavaScript, Performance, SXSW, Twitter, Web Standards, WebKit

As announced via Twitter about ten hours ago, Opera 9.64 has been released.  The following features are listed as new to version 9.64:

• Feed Preview: Preview a Feed by clicking on the feed icon, and you will see it in clean and efficient multiple-column layout.
• Opera Link: Opera Link lets you synchronize data of your choice online, or among different computers and devices.
• Quick Find: When using Opera, the browser remembers not only the titles and addresses, but also the actual content of the Web pages you visit.
• Opera Mail: Opera browser offers an e-mail client designed to optimize your daily e-mail-handling requirements.
• New browser engine: Opera is quicker to start, faster at loading Web pages and better at running your favorite Web applications.
• Quick and customizable Web search: Get quick access to Google, eBay, Amazon and more with the search field in the upper right corner.

If I’m reading Wikipedia correctly, this release uses “Core 2″ of the Presto rendering engine and the “Futhark” JavaScript engine (as opposed to the new and improved Carakan engine).

If you’re already an Opera user and feel like upgrading (assuming you’re not already on Opera 10), or if you’re new to Opera and want to kick the tires, download Opera 9.64 today.

Tags: Carakan, Features, Futhark, JavaScript, Opera, Opera 10, Opera 9.64, Presto, Releases, Rendering Engines, Wikipedia

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

Over at the Official Google Blog, Google announced today that they are releasing “a fresh take on the browser” tomorrow which they have dubbed Google Chrome.  Here are the choice tidbits from the article (at least from my perspective):

• The release will be a beta version and will be released in more than 100 countries.
• Google “started from scratch” and used the “best elements out there.”
• The browser is apparently clean and fast.
• The browser supports tabs, and each tab is isolated in such a way that a crash in one shouldn’t affect the others.
• Google created a new JavaScript engine for the browser, which they call “V8.”
• Google is working on versions for Mac and Linux, but it doesn’t sound like they will be ready to download tomorrow.
• The browser is based off of both WebKit and Firefox, and will be released as open source, just like they are.

There are a few other details already available on Wikipedia:

• The address bar will have auto-completion features (apparently called “omnibox”).
• Web apps can be launched in their own web browser window with very little surrounding chrome.
• It is integrated with Google Gears.

Be sure to drop by the Official Google Blog tomorrow if you feel like giving the beta a test drive.  Not that I really needed to tell you that, since I’m sure every single browserphile running Windows will be downloading it tomorrow and seeing what it’s all about.

Tags: Beta, Features, Firefox, Google, Google Chrome, JavaScript, Open Source, V8, WebKit