Opera Widget Keeps You Up-to-Date on Browser Security

Posted on July 12th, 2008 | 2 Comments »

An article titled Check the Security Status of Browsers with Opera Widget reads a bit like something coming directly out of the Opera marketing department.  The article covers an Opera widget called Stay Secure that refreshes based on the latest data from Secunia every hour to show you a graph like the following indicating the security levels of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari and Konqueror:

Example of Stay Secure Widget

I say the article reads a bit like a release from the Opera marketing department, because assuming Opera views Firefox as a competitor, the widget screenshot shown in the article and statements like “the test showed that Firefox 3 was [the] most vulnerable one and Opera the least” seem a little biased.  Was this actually a test, or did it happen to be the state of security at that moment the screenshot was taken?  For example, above it looks like Internet Explorer and Konqueror are the two most vulnerable.

Regardless, it seems like a neat little widget for those who like to follow web browser security closely, as long as you’re willing to use Opera to track it, since the widget is Opera-only at present.  For those like me who dabble among various browsers, this isn’t an issue.

Anyone know of similar features/extensions for other web browsers?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #11

Posted on July 11th, 2008 | No Comments »

Since my last installment of Around the Browsersphere was posted back toward the beginning of May, there’s simply way too much going on to get all caught up without breaking things up a bit.  Therefore, this eleventh edition will focus solely on the “minor players,” or the web browsers not named Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari.

Avant

Flock

Konqueror

Maxthon

SeaMonkey

Others

I’m hoping to catch up on the major players soon, so stay tuned.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Review of Five Linux Browsers

Posted on May 19th, 2008 | No Comments »

Craciun Dan has written a decent review of five of the major, GUI-based web browsers on Linux, including Konqueror, Firefox, Opera, Epiphany and Galeon.  See which browser he ends up recommending over at Comparison Between Linux Web Browsers - Review of 5 Linux Browsers.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Twitter Watch #2

Posted on May 15th, 2008 | No Comments »

Last time around I used Tweet Scan, this time I’m giving Summize a try:

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #10

Posted on May 11th, 2008 | 5 Comments »

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

Avant

Firefox

Flock

Internet Explorer

Konqueror

Maxthon

Opera

Opera Mini

Safari

Minor Players

Web Standards

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

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Twitter Watch #1

Posted on April 28th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

Thanks to Tweet Scan, I can get a semi-real time feel for what’s going on in the browsersphere.  So what are people Tweeting about?

And just as a heads-up, I’m interested in following folks on Twitter that are browserphiles like myself, so drop a comment (or email at browsersphere [at] gmail [dot] com) and let me know who you are on there if you don’t mind being “followed.”  And I’m Bernzilla on there, for anyone who might be interested.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #9

Posted on April 28th, 2008 | No 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: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #8

Posted on March 9th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

With at least a couple more Firefox 3 betas on the way, the release of IE8 Beta 1 and the official release of the Acid3 test, there’s a lot going on in the browsersphere these days.  Let’s jump right into it…

Amazingly enough, there’s a lot more to post about, but that should hold you over for a little bit.  I’m interested in hearing if Browsersphere visitors are more interested in somewhat random links like this or if it would be preferable to have the links broken down by the web browser to which they correspond.  If you have any thoughts on that, please leave a comment.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Around the Browsersphere #7

Posted on February 19th, 2008 | 1 Comment »

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…

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

CSS Contents and Browser Compatibility

Posted on November 10th, 2007 | No Comments »

I stumbled upon CSS Contents and Browser Compatibility today via etc..  It has a side-by-side comparison of web browser support of CSS features broken down by selectors, pseudo-classes, declarations and experimental declarations.  The web browsers compared are IE 5.5, IE 6, IE 7, Firefox 2.0, Safari 3.0 (Windows), Opera 9.5 Beta, iCab 3.0 and Konqueror 3.5.7.

It’s not surprising to see that as you scroll down the page semi-quickly, a majority of the red shows up in the Internet Explorer and iCab columns.  Beyond that, it looks like Firefox and Opera deserve some props for having only one red box each for the features in the first three categories.  Konqueror’s not far behind with about two-and-a-half, depending on how you count the “Incorrect” implementation for background-attachment.

What stands out, though, is the support for experimental features.  Konqueror leads in that category with support for three features, Safari’s next with support for two-and-a-half, and then Firefox and Opera with two each.  The other browsers fail to even register in this area (again, not surprisingly).

See anything else interesting in the stats?  Post a comment.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,