Browsersphere

There are some rumblings in the browsersphere as of late with a Firefox 3 RC1 release right around the corner, news that the latest service pack for XP isn’t compatible with a pre-installed IE8 Beta 1, etc.  So let’s get caught up.

General

• Any web browser review that uses phrases like “donkey’s years,” “boffins” and “heebie-jeebies” is worth a read, isn’t it?
• Jeremy Keith has written a good summary of some of the more recent innovations in web browsers, including support for CSS3, HTML 5, ARIA, etc.
• TechRadar.com has compiled a list of the top eight alternative web browsers, which includes a few interesting minor players I hadn’t heard of before.
• The Washington Post reports that hackers are starting to focus their sights on Firefox and Safari rather than their usual victim, Internet Explorer (via Digg).

Avant

• One user thinks Avant is brilliant; another thinks it’s the worst browser.

Firefox

• Andy Atkinson demonstrates how CSS3 rounded corner rendering has improved from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3.
• Something for those who like mozzarrella on their Firefox…I guess?
• Be mindful of your warranty in Firefox 3.
• The Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog, which just celebrated its 2nd birthday, has some tips on how to remove stuff from the Firefox 3 UI.
• Michael Kaply shares his thoughts on Firefox branding.
• A Firefox screencast contest will kick off on May 19th (via Mozilla Developer News).
• The Firefox 3 themes now have names.
• Firefox had an encounter with Tron Guy at ROFLcon.
• The Firefox team is currently accepting last-minute changes to and suggestions for the Firefox 3 credits.
• Work on the next version of Gecko appears to be starting to pick up steam.
• Asa Dotzler cleared up some misconceptions about a Vietnamese Language Pack at the For the Record blog.
• Read up on site identification in Firefox 3.
• Firefox pulled in quite a win in LinuxJournal’s Readers’ Choice Awards.
• An Opera user believes that “Mozilla has vastly improved their product [in Firefox 3 Beta 5].”
• Firefox market share continues to climb in Europe (via Digg).

Flock

• “Flock is the baddest ass browser for internet losers.”
• Flock won a webby for social networking.

Internet Explorer

• One user got some help implementing a liquid faux column layout in IE7.
• Dariusz Siedlecki thinks that IE8’s “rendering model is…too precise.”
• IE8 will feature per-user ActiveX.
• Lifehacker walks you through how to get Firefox’s “best” features in Internet Explorer.
• Security researcher Aviv Raff has uncovered a 0day vulnerability in Internet Explorer but has hidden it somewhere on his blog rather than disclosing its details outright (via Digg).

Konqueror

• KDelicious adds del.icio.us functionality to the right-click menu in Konqueror.
• Don’t confuse Konqueror with Conkeror.
• Some information on running Python scripts directly from Konqueror.
• Apparently the WordPress visual editor doesn’t work correctly in Konqueror.
• It sounds like the spellchecking in Konqueror (and KDE) leaves something to be desired.
• Perhaps it goes without saying, but some KHTML and Konqueror bugs have been being dealt with.
• There are some comparisons between Konqueror and Firefox over in an Ubuntu forum.
• Neither Opera nor Konqueror got much love in the Readers’ Choice Awards 2008 (Linux).
• One user claims that Konqueror is excellent for dealing with cookies.
• Epiphany will be following in the footsteps of Konqueror and switching to WebKit.

Maxthon

• One user ponders why there are so many more Firefox ads than Maxthon ads.
• Disabling Ad Hunter can help with cookie-related problems in Maxthon and maybe others as well.
• It sounds like, in some cases at least, Maxthon’s ad-blocking may be too good.
• Maxthon’s support for cached images may not have parity with Opera.
• If you’re interested in the history of Maxthon, one blog has a pretty good synopsis.

Opera

• The latest Opera snapshots have gotten more efficient thanks to something called profile-guided optimization.
• Opera announced a specification for File I/O access in widgets.
• Opera 9.5 Beta 2 was recently reviewed by ars technica (via Digg).

Opera Mini

• The Opera Mini 4 servers were recently upgraded with some improvements, specifically around RSS feed support.
• Opera Mini 4.1 is scheduled to be released this coming week (and there’s a summary of the new features listed at Opera Watch).

Safari

• Safari tripled its market share on Windows in April (although the statistics in question have been brought up for debate).

Minor Players

• A forum post points to two lightweight browsers, Scope and NetWorker, the former of which claims to take up only 250k of disk space.
• HydraBrowser is another IE shell that apparently utilizes user interface elements similar to those in Office 2007 products.
• Watch the ACE browser as its implemented in Visual Studio 2008.
• There’s a heated debate on whether a Zune browser would be possible or usable.
• Leet Browser allows you to multitask with non-gaming applications from within your game (via Digg).
• GeneNET Web Browser is “hack-proof” and there is a screenshot available.
• Sunrise is billed as a web browser for web developers and utilizes the KHTML rendering engine (see screenshot).
• BigScreenLive is geared toward the elderly and “computer-phobics.”
• WebGoo 4 is 70% faster.  Than what?  I couldn’t tell you.
• Have a look at the web browser on the HTC Touch Diamond (Blip.tv video).
• OWB is a web browser for CE devices that is based on KHTML.
• Midori is another browser billed as “lightweight” and it utilizes WebKit under the hood.  There’s a pretty good review of the browser and its potential over at Associated Content.
• Read about how Shiira has plans to overtake Safari on Macs.
• Someone spotted a browser called DeepFish in a YouTube video.
• IBM is working on a voice-controlled web browser called Spoken Web.

Web Standards

• The WHATWG wiki has a list (or an attempt at a list) of all known implementations of HTML 5 in today’s web browsers.
• Writing web browsers can apparently lead you to hate the W3C with a “purple throbbing passion.”
• Dave Hyatt implemented support for CSS Gradients in WebKit in about four days (via Daniel Glazman).  Support for CSS Reflections (web developers are going to go nuts with this one) and CSS Masks has been implemented as well.
• Read a bit about “CSS Qualified Selectors” and why they’re a pain in the butt (via CSS3 . Info).
• Mark Pilgrim wrote a particularly scathing article concerning Mozilla’s approach to the Acid3 test, which is perhaps best observed in blog posts from Mike Shaver and David Baron.  It’s an interesting read; form opinions as you will.

Holy cow.  That’s a lot of information.  The browsersphere is a bustling place.  Hopefully you found something useful in all that.

Tags: Acid3, Avant, BigScreenLive, Branding, CSS3, Dave Hyatt, Deepfish, Epiphany, Extensions, Firefox, Flock, GeneNET, History, HTML 5, Hydra Browser, IE7, IE8, KHTML, Konqueror, Leet Browser, Linux, Mac, Maxthon, NetWorker, Opera, OWB, Reviews, Safari, Scope, Security, Shiira, Spoken Web, Sunrise, Vulnerabilities, W3C, WebGoo, WebKit

Believe it or not it’s been over three months since the last edition of Around the Browsersphere, so we’re long overdue.  Let’s get to it…

• Mozilla turned ten last month.
• Camino 1.5.5, a maintenance release, was made available a couple weeks ago, and Camino 1.6 Beta 2 was released a couple weeks before that.
• Add-on developers need to get their butts in gear and start updating their extensions to work with Firefox 3, primarily because the browser will be out in a couple months and secondarily because I don’t like using the Minefield builds without my favorite extensions
• The Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog points out that over 600 million Firefox add-ons have been downloaded, and that in anticipation of the release of Firefox 3, addons.mozilla.org is being redesigned.
• The Opera Desktop Team has been experimenting with document.all cloaking and is giving users more control over tab-related behavior (more on that here) in the latest builds.
• SeaMonkey 1.1.8 was released earlier this month.
• The Safari team has added support for the new W3C Selectors API and appears to be busy chipping away at bugs related to the Acid3 test.
• The WebKit team has been spending some time focused on SVG performance improvements and a native, Cairo-based Windows port of the rendering engine.
• The forthcoming Opera Mobile 9.5 (not 9.0) is twice as fast as Opera Mobile 8.65 and four times faster than Internet Explorer on Windows Mobile.  Screenshots and videos of the new release have been appearing quite a bit.
• Alex Faaborg has provided a second glimpse at the icons to be used in Firefox 3 (you can see the full sheet of icons here).  Apparently the throbber is still up in the air.
• Firefox has about:config, now Opera Mini has opera:config.
• Glubble is a parental controls suite for the Firefox browser (via Asa Dotzler).
• Will IE8 really pass the Acid2 test?
• Cross-window messaging is coming to Firefox 3 (via Simon Willison).
• VnTutor has a list of 10 hidden features of Konqueror.
• The creator of KHTML, Lars Knoll, has been promoted to VP of engineering at Trolltech.
• Everyone has a pet feature.
• Take a look at Maxthon’s split-view feature in action.

Tags: Add-ons, Camino, Extensions, Firefox, Internet Explorer, KHTML, Konqueror, Maxthon, Mozilla, Opera, Opera Mini, Previews, Releases, Safari, SeaMonkey, Web Standards, WebKit

It’s been a while, and there’s a lot to catch up on in the browsersphere.  This time around, let’s focus on all things Konqueror:

• Rozengain.com points us to KHTML on Windows part III, which shows how you can test your web designs in the KHTML rendering engine (used by Konqueror) on Windows using VMWare and a SUSE 10 image.
• According to this post on Digg and its first comment, a patch has been created for Konqueror that would allow for “plasmoids,” which apparently are somewhat equivalent to widgets in Opera.
• Blue GNU discusses the possibility of a KHTML/WebKit merge.
• Roderick Greening beckons the KHTML and WebKit folks to make a decision that will benefit the web and web users.
• Zack Rusin responds to Harri Porten as part of a debate that I won’t pretend to understand.
• A post at The Gay Bar (?) titled “Browsers Suck” says that Konqueror “is just ridiculously hideous, lacks the features Opera has.”  Not that the post has anything nice to say about Opera either.
• SensoryMetrics released the browser stats from its visitors and revealed that Konqueror was dead last in terms of usage.  A post the next day then lamented the omission of the browser in a speed test (via Web 3.0).

Tags: KHTML, Konqueror, Links, Market Share, Opera, Performance, Safari, WebKit, Widgets