Browsersphere

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

• There’ve been about four builds (builds 17-20) of Avant Browser 11.6 released in the past month.
• The Download Blog recommends Avant Browser for “XP users who want a Microsoft-based engine but think that Internet Explorer 7 is a pain.”
• A commenter at Lifehacker points out that Firefox 3’s new fullscreen mode is old news to Avant users.

Flock

• A Mac OS X user moving away from Firefox was pleasantly surprised by and subsequently switched to Flock.
• The Flock blog has announced support for a “deeply localized” version of Flock for German users.

Konqueror

• Linux Hater’s Blog, which I was referred to via Ben Goodger’s blog, rips into some of the usability shortcomings in Konqueror.
• Ruben Schade wonders why the evolt browser archive doesn’t include past versions of Konqueror.
• An Ubuntu user is trying to figure out how to clear Konqueror’s find file history.
• Tork allows you to browse anonymously in Konqueror (and other browsers?).
• Someone thinks that the folks who are triaging Konqueror bugs are contributing to more bugs being fixed than opened in KDE recently.
• Karpion is a Konqueror add-on that “utili[z]es the Open Phishing Database to provide the user with information and tools that help protect against phishing.”
• Someone thinks IE gets something right that Konqueror doesn’t…but that’s about all said person has to say.
• A site called Echoes explains how to add new web shortcuts in Konqueror.
• In a review of Konqueror 3.5.9, the same site calls Konqueror “the great Swiss knife.”
• Over a month ago, Konqueror got support for crash session recovery and session management.

Maxthon

• A sometimes-on-the-verge-of-incomprehensible blog (case in point) suggests that Maxthon is the mathmatical equivalent of IE added to Firefox.
• Maxthon’s CEO, Jeff Chen, has been quoted as saying that they are working on porting Maxthon to Linux (via Maxthon Blog).
• One user thinks Maxthon may be a good browser for translators.
• Another user thinks Maxthon and Firefox have different core goals.
• Someone created a Maxthon logo in “cool” colors.
• There’s a list of requested features from Maxthon 1.x that aren’t in Maxthon 2 in the Maxthon forum.
• Here’s some information on where you can go to chat with fellow Maxthon fans/users.
• Here are some interesting opinions stated as facts, if you’re into that sort of thing.
• Rod Trent was counting down the days ’til he could stop using Firefox 3, but he has enjoyed using Maxthon.
• This blog suggests that Maxthon is the best alternative to Internet Explorer.
• Here’s a friendly discussion on the differences between Maxthon Classic and Firefox 3 and Maxthon 2 and Firefox 2.

SeaMonkey

• The SeaMonkey team has started having semi-weekly status meetings.
• SeaMonkey 1.1.10 was released last week.

Others

• In a request for feedback on Avant, someone mentioned Deepnet Explorer, which claims to be “the world’s first browser with RSS news reader, P2P client integration and phishing alarm.”
• Orca Browser, which has been covered here previously, appears to have resurfaced a week ago as a form of Avant utilizing Gecko 1.9 - the same rendering engine used in Firefox 3 - as opposed to Avant’s use of the Trident rendering engine from Internet Explorer.
• Web Worker Daily points to the Off By One Browser, which has “a footprint of about a megabyte.”  I think I may have mentioned it here before because I recognize the website, but it doesn’t hurt to drop its name here again.

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

Tags: Add-ons, Avant, Ben Goodger, Deepnet Explorer, Extensions, Features, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Flock, Gecko, Gecko 1.9, IE7, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Linux, Localization, Mac, Maxthon, Maxthon 2, Minor Players, Off By One, Opinion, OS X, Phishing, Releases, SeaMonkey, Trident, Ubuntu

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

• Fuzzbot is a Firefox extention that is “useful for detecting embedded semantic information in web pages and performing actions on that semantic data” (via Microformats).
• Firefox Mastery discusses changing the fonts in Firefox.
• Asa Dotzler attempts to clear up some confusion around add-on installations and required logins.
• Chris Beard gives an update on what’s going on at Mozilla Labs.
• Popular extension Adblock Plus is now compatible with the Firefox 3 betas.
• Deb Richardson gave an excellent overview of bookmarks in Firefox 3 (and did a little damage once her post showed up on Digg).
• Find out how you can help beta test the new Mozilla.com redesign.
• Daniel Glazman figured out how to avoid extension version compatability in Firefox.
• Take a look at the Firefox 3 t-shirt design contest winner.
• Firefox’s market share continues to rise in Europe.
• Paul Kim discusses marketing plans as the release of Firefox 3 nears.
• Robert O’Callahan on the turned-off-by-default ActiveX hosting support in Firefox.
• Firefox was apparently spotted in outer space.

Flock

• Flock is apparently delivering on promises.

Internet Explorer

• IEBlog gives some tips on improving performance in Internet Explorer add-ons.
• Read up on HTML and DOM standards compliance in Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1.

Konqueror

• Some improvements are being made to the error pages in Konqueror.

Maxthon

• Read up on the Maxthon Downloader.
• There’s a new IRC channel for Maxthon enthusiasts.
• Some felt there was perhaps some foul play involved when Maxthon won a Webware 100 award, but the Maxthon Blog certainly didn’t think so.
• One user’s in-depth tale of a switch from Maxthon to Firefox.

Mozilla

• You can download some really old Mozilla versions from the Mozilla Archive.
• Mozilla celebrated its 10th birthday last month (more here and here).

Opera and Opera Mini

• Opera was the first to 106 in the Acid3 test
• A version of Opera Mini has been created to work on Google’s Android platform.
• Indexing and searching in Opera 9.5 explained.
• With Daniel Goldman moving on to bigger and better things, the Opera Watch team is changing.
• David Storey has shed a little more light on Opera Dragonfly.

Safari

• Non-Safari users were none too pleased about some of Apple’s recent software update techniques (more links to evidence at Asa Dotzler’s blog).
• It looks like HTML5’s client-side database storage may be coming to Safari and the iPhone.
• Safari 3 was compared to Firefox 3 (from a Mac user’s perspective) over at Daring Fireball.
• WebKit hackers will be busy in this year’s Summer of Code.
• PayPal says they won’t be blocking Safari users from accessing their site.
• Some Safari-related stats would be better served more carefully worded

SeaMonkey

• Some SeaMonkey contributors recently got together for a Hack’n'Cook.

Minor Players

• There is a whole bunch of minor players (and the major ones, too) listed in “A wealth of browsers.”
• GreenBrowser is “lightest on resources” of the IE clones, according to one forum post.
• Interesting abstract about a tactile web browser for the visually disabled.
• Interested in a little web browser history trivia?

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

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:

• John’s Blog: Apple Software Update and Safari - People didn’t take too kindly to Apple’s decision to bundle Safari with a recent iTunes update.
• Mozilla CEO says Apple’s Safari auto-update ‘wrong’ - Mozilla’s CEO was among them.
• Three Powerful Safari Features That Few People Use - The features include browsing and search snapback, URL path navigation and Web Inspector.
• Safari 3.1 on Windows: a true competitor arrives (seriously) - The post claims that Safari 3.1 on Windows has improved greatly over the Safari 3 beta that came out last summer.
• Apple Forbids Windows Users from Installing Safari - Some interesting licensing terms were found in the Safari license.
• Mozilla: Final Version of Firefox 3 Will Ship in June - This one speaks for itself.
• WebKit achieves Acid3 100/100 in public build - Announcement regarding WebKit’s race toward Acid3 compliance.
• 100% Organic Software -Your New “Green” Firefox Browser - Worth the read, even if only for the image of the Firefox chomping on the IE logo.
• Opera releases experimental public build that passes Acid3 - Yet more evidence of the race toward Acid3 compliance.
• When in Rome: engineering the Firefox 3 user experience - ars technica discusses some of the usability/visual identity-related changes in Firefox 3 with Alex Faaborg.
• Internet Explorer: A Browser Breaks - Some market share statistics regarding IE and Enterprise.
• Firefox Gains On Internet Explorer In Businesses - Along the same lines as the previous, only with a Firefox slant.
• Firefox 3 Beta 5 (Final beta) released! - News of the release of the latest Firefox 3 beta.
• Samsung Instinct: Browse Web Pages with Tilt Navigation - A look (in video form) at a web browser that lets you navigate using tilt movements.
• Opera Mini 4.1 beta is out - News of the release of the Opera Mini 4.1 beta.
• Firefox 3.0 Beta 5 faster on Mac OS X than Safari 3.1 - When it comes to JavaScript, at least.
• Incredible Firefox Keyboard Shortcuts You May Not Know About
• Latest iPhone Firmware Saves Pictures from Safari - Apparently you can save pictures directly from the iPhone browser as of the 1.2.0 beta firmware.
• Updated Web Browsers: Which One Works Best? - A review from PC World.

Tags: Acid3, Digg, Features, Firefox, Mac, Market Share, Minor Players, Mobile, Opera, Opera Mini, Releases, Reviews, Safari, Web Standards, WebKit

For those interested in the development of Latitude, which was covered here in the past, be sure to check out the new official website at latitudebrowser.com and a very informative interview with the Latitude team over at Mac Fanatic.

Tags: Development, Interviews, Mac, Minor Players

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…

• First off, it’s now March, so Netscape Navigator is officially dead (but do you really believe that?).
• The Opera Desktop Team has released what they are calling a Plugin Milestone Build.
• I think this guy may be more into web browsers than I am.
• Mozilla’s been getting some fan mail.
• Opera has made the switch back to Google for search in Opera Mini and Opera Mobile (see a screenshot of the new Opera Mini start page).  There’s more on this over at TechCrunch as well.
• Sebastiaan de With (remember him?) thinks that the Firefox 3 interface is going nowhere.
• A forum post pointed me toward another minor player called Acoo Browser, which is another browser built on Trident.
• CyberNet claims that Avant Browser 11 will be the best version of the browser yet.
• Ben Moore seems to have mixed feelings about some of the changes made between Maxthon v1 and v2.
• sKatterBrainZ claims that “there’s nothing in Safari that is truly innovative or unique to the world of web browsing.”
• Somewhat contradictory to that, Ian Hixie, the author of the Acid3 test, seems pretty impressed with how quickly the Safari/WebKit team has responded to the issues uncovered by Acid3 (I’ve covered this here as well).
• Ian Clifton had some interesting points to make about the Internet Explorer team’s original stance on standards support in the forthcoming IE8.
• microformatique points out that the IE team has used the hAtom microformat to implement their WebSlices feature.
• CyberNet says the SpaceTime 3D Browser is “mostly for fun” and shows off a video demo of the interesting browser.
• Firefox 3 Beta 3 has replaced Firefox 2 as the default browser in Alpha 6 of Ubuntu Hardy Heron.
• Opera Mini users browsed over 1.8 million web pages back in January.
• Kevin Yank says that table-based layouts will be “the next big thing” (via Simon Willison).
• Daniel Glazman wrote a CSS3 Selector test suite and posted the results for Firefox 3.0b4pre (Minefield), Safari 3.0.4 for Windows, Opera 9.23 and Internet Explorer 7.  He was impressed to see that the latest builds of Opera pass all of his tests.
• Opera Twitters (via Opera Watch).
• Myk Melez talks about what it’s like to sheriff for Mozilla.
• Opera Mini users can now zoom images.
• Mitchell Baker has posted about the Mozilla Steering Committee.
• Jesse Ruderman created a Greasemonkey script for those who spend a lot of time looking at the Firefox tinderbox.
• Opera’s Charles McCathieNevile, Mozilla’s Brendan Eich and Microsoft’s Chris Wilson will square off at SXSW tomorrow in a panel called “Browser Wars: Deja Vu All Over Again?”
• It doesn’t look like many CSS3 features have made their way into IE8 yet.
• Konqueror 4 for Windows has been reviewed.
• Someone decided to show off how they made a web browser with Visual Basic 2008 in under three minutes on YouTube.
• Okiwi is a free web browser for the Nintendo DS.
• An online poll asking what the greatest web browser ever is has some interesting options from which to choose.
• A C|Net podcast covers, among other things, BMWs that feature full-blown in-dash web browsers.
• Dan Gayle digs Lynx.
• Auto Web Browser “will consult the search engines from a user defined list, download the pages to your computer, filter and analyze them and then it will automatically surf further, downloading other potentially interesting pages using the links from the meaningful part of the relevant documents.”
• The Off By One Web Browser “may be the world’s smallest and fastest web browser with full HTML 3.2 support.”
• The WorldWideWeb browser (which was later renamed Nexus) turned 17 years old last month.
• You can view your Firefox web browser history visually with ThumbStrip.
• Firefox, Flock, Internet Explorer, Maxthon, Opera and Safari are nominated in the Browsing category of the Webware 100.
• Anne van Kesteren covers some of the “evil” things about IE8.

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: Acid3, Add-ons, Avant, Beta, CSS, Extensions, Firefox, Flock, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Linux, Lynx, Maxthon, Microformats, Minor Players, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Opera Mini, Safari, Trident, Ubuntu, Video, Web Standards, YouTube

As promised, I sent some questions to Sebastiaan de With, the icon and interface designer who came up with the idea for a new web browser, Latitude, which was covered here at Browsersphere recently.

Sebastiaan was kind enough to come back with very thorough and informative answers, so I’ve posted them here in full, with a few minor edits and links added.

Has the idea for Latitude been lingering in your mind for a long time, or is it something that sprang to life only recently?

I’ve been thinking about browser interfaces since the last few months, mostly inspired by the expressions of Mac users about the lack of a Mac-experience in browsers like Firefox and Flock. Although most people consider an .app bundle adequately ‘Mac-like’, I think it goes down to the very mental model the user has of the software he’s using. Take, for example, Safari’s bookmark management. There’s this great bookmark bar, that lets you toggle between the bookmark view and your website. It’s a tiny button that usually confuses some novice users I know, but I can understand that’s no priority. However, the same kind of view pops up if you access ‘History’ from the menu. It’s something a lot of users find confusing, because these completely different content views are all accessed from different places and are dismissed differently (discounting tabs and undo). Firefox also does this wrong, using a separate sidebar for anything you might be able to imagine. No user wants to think “in what sidebar is this thing I need?”

There [are] two options to improve on Firefox’s models; you either take away all the crud, without reinventing the basic principle (Safari’s path), or you re-think browser interfaces from scratch, keeping in mind the paradigms of Mac OS X, and for example iTunes. Why can my mother buy a song in iTunes, while she can’t find a fun movie on the internet, or keep track of what’s happening in the world?  It then struck me that original ideas should be implemented to reduce the screen estate the interface would consume, and the pieces of the puzzle soon clicked together. What do you want in a browser? I’m sure I could ask any intermediate computer user and get a list of his most wanted features. Now try condensing that into a new browser, with the basic premise that the UI should be minimal.

In your “My dream browser” post you wrote “I am aware of several ‘new generation’ browser projects, but none really line up with my ideas.”  Can you share a few of these “new generation” projects and/or why you think they fall short?

The two projects that really [caught] my attention were Flock and Shiira; these two browsers are ideologically opposed to each other. Flock tried to make an integrated browsing experience and failed, in my opinion. The Mac version of Flock once counted no more than 10 buttons; these days, its toolbar is chock full of nondescript buttons and widgets. To me, it wasn’t just visually busy, but it was mostly a browser that seemed like a big hassle to get my head around. I just want something I don’t have to learn, while still being feature-packed. Shiira really did much better in this regard, but simply went a different direction, reinventing parts of the interface, making things more intuitive and visual, but in no way expanding on the feature set of browsers. I really want both; an intuitive browser that’s as functional for viewing web content as the Finder is for viewing files on your disk. Finder doesn’t just handle one format of files either; it can handle your content. And in my opinion, that’s what a browser should do today. Focus on content.

The feedback to both of your posts on the subject has been very positive based on the comments.  Have you gotten a lot of other feedback through email or by other means, and has it been just as positive?  Are there any instances where you received constructive criticism or even negative feedback?

I’ve gotten a lot of email from developers and people who really want to see this developed. I chatted with a few developers, but as I’m very occupied as a full-time icon and interface designer, I can’t oversee or manage such a project right now.

I’ve gotten more than enough constructive criticism and even negative feedback; from people saying my interface mockups are just ‘someone with Photoshop‘ to dismissing certain ideas or even calling me names for proposing to take away the tab bar when the sidebar is active. I think a lot of people misinterpret my designs; most think it’s intended to completely throw every interface paradigm in browsers today overboard, but that’s the opposite of my intention.

I want to make a browser with a more accessible and less cluttered interface. For loose ideas, like the ‘Time Machine’ view for history I mocked up, criticism is fierce, while I’ve always mentioned that it is just a mock-up of a more visual way to view your history for one website, suggesting a different view for all website history. But most people who express the most intense critique fail to offer any real better solutions to the problem.

In your “Latitude” post, you wrote “Several developers have contacted me with the desire to develop it, and some have already actively begun programming whole aspects of it.”  Can you share what aspects have already gone under development?

Thanks to Apple’s WebKit, developers are able to implement a multitude of my interface ideas and gauge the feasibility other features I suggested . Currently, basic work is being done on making more intelligent sidebar behavior, fullscreen browsing, and changing things like Downloads and Bookmarks from their conventional format to something ready for the sidebar.

Will you be making the design document and centralized website you mentioned in that same post available for public consumption, or are you trying to limit it to only those actively working on the project?

I intend to make this as open as possible, and I hope all developers working on the project are eager to allow other people to chip in and collaborate to make a better browser reality.

I noticed some criticism of Firefox in your other blog entries.  Is this your primary web browser today?  If so, what do you think are its biggest shortcomings?

Although Firefox is not my primary web browser (Safari is), it is one of the most used browsers today, and the last beta version for OS X showed an interface that is absolutely nonstandard and horribly designed. I think Firefox, while aiming for a ‘good’ look and feel on all platforms, really fails to deliver on any, with perhaps the notable exception of Linux. As I said in the response to your first question, the lack of invention in the interface causes the user to go on a quest to find the features he needs, and disappoints most of the time in providing them.

Have you put any thought into working your visual design ideas into an already existing platform (e.g. Firefox) via extensions or themes in order to bypass all of the work that goes into creating a new rendering engine, etc.?

As I said in my response to question 4, WebKit already allows this, and thanks to that, I can deliver the interface in full Cocoa glory. Firefox (with the exception of Camino) still uses XUL to render its interface, which is something I wouldn’t want to touch with a ten foot cattle prod. Also, I think drastically changing the structure and interface of a browser like Firefox would require so much more than an extension, that working ‘from scratch’ is automatically the preferred option.

If readers of Browsersphere are interested in contributing, what kinds of help are you looking for?

Anything! If you can code a website, feel free to drop an email, but especially (talented) developers are encouraged to contact me to get details on the project before the official website goes live.

Tags: Camino, Development, Features, Firefox, Flock, Interviews, Mac, Minor Players, Mock-ups, Safari, WebKit

Typically I might not blog about a web browser that is nothing more than an idea here at Browsersphere, but then again, why not?

I caught wind of Latitude, self-billed as “the 21st century web browser,” via ma.gnolia.  Apparently Latitude is the brainchild of Sebastiaan de With, and started out as nothing more than a few mock-ups he threw together to show off his idea of a “dream browser.”  That post garnered some attention, and within about a week-and-a-half, Sebastiaan had expanded on his idea, including the revelation that various contributors have expressed interest in developing his vision and a few have even “begun programming whole aspects of it.”

I have to say, the mock-up that shows off a minimalist, black-hued chrome combined with a screen real estate that appears to take up the entire desktop is definitely visually appealing.  I know from experience, though, that creating an entirely new web browser is an enormous undertaking and requires more than just a few snazzy user interface ideas.  However, I have to give props to Sebastiaan for putting his idea out there and soliciting feedback.  He’s definitely turned a few heads so far.

It will be interesting to see how things progress with the idea.  I’ll be tracking his blog and posting any updates here as they become available.  I’ll also shoot him an email and see if he has any additional insight to share with us here at Browsersphere.

Stay posted.

Tags: Mac, Minor Players, Mock-ups

Unfortunately, at least for fans of Avant Browser, there isn’t a whole lot to report about what’s been going on with the browser lately.

The latest version came out in September and was primarily a bug fix release.

However, in looking for anything new to report, I did stumble upon Orca Browser, which appears to be a “Gecko version of Avant Browser,” simply using the Gecko layout engine from Mozilla rather than Avant Browser’s traditional Trident engine.

I think we can file Orca Browser in the “minor players” category, since there doesn’t seem to be anything really official about it on the web, and the latest flurry of announcements seems to have come sometime in the 2005 time frame.

Interesting nonetheless for those of us who like to know what’s being developed and used out there in the browsersphere.

Tags: Avant, Extensions, Gecko, Minor Players, Trident

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

If you’ll recall, I covered Wyzo back in September.  Martin over at gHacks has posted a review of the browser titled “Wyzo an alternative to Bittorrent clients?“  He basically came to the same conclusion that I did in that it might be useful to some, but its feature set is also relatively easily achievable via Firefox add-ons.

We’ll continue to track Wyzo and see if it gains any popularity as its development progresses.

Tags: Add-ons, Features, Firefox, Minor Players, Reviews