Posted on January 7th, 2010 | 7 Comments »
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
Chrome
Fennec
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Opera
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
Posted on January 1st, 2010 | No Comments »
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
Posted on December 17th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I debated whether or not I should skip ahead to #14, but I’m not really that superstitious.
General
Chrome
Firefox
Internet Explorer
Opera
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
Posted on December 16th, 2009 | 4 Comments »
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
Posted on June 3rd, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Opera 10 beta, codenamed “Peregrine,” was released today. The high-level features touted on the Opera 10 website are:
- “Opera Turbo for fast browsing on slow connections” – this is essentially the same technology used by Opera Mini to compress content, saving bandwidth and time.
- “New visual tabs and sleek design” – the new design was previously covered here.
- “Speed Dial your way” – users now have the option of customizing the number of websites displayed or the background.
- “Web integration” – tell Opera to use your web-based email client or feed reader as the default for email and feeds, respectively, and it will.
- “Resizable search field”
- “40% faster engine and cutting-edge Web standards support”
While the bulk of those features are notable, it’s pretty obvious that the new visual changes will get the most immediate attention, followed by reviews of the underlying rendering engine, Presto 2.2, once people get some subjective and objective experience with it (does anyone still use a slow connection on their desktop anymore?).
For more on the web standards support added to Presto 2.2, check out Standards support in Opera Presto 2.2 and Opera 10 beta, which among other things, confirms that Opera 10 beta passes the Acid3 test.
To kick the tires on this latest release from Opera, download Opera 10 beta today.
Tags:
Acid3,
Beta,
Features,
Opera,
Opera 10,
Opera 10 Beta,
Opera Mini,
Opera Turbo,
Peregrine,
Presto,
Presto 2.2,
Releases,
Web Standards
Posted on May 27th, 2009 | 1 Comment »
A preview of the new default skin in Opera 10 was unveiled today:

A post from the Opera Desktop Team clarifies that this is not the final version of the skin and that there will be more iterations. A preview build with the new skin is available via links at the bottom of that same post.
I haven’t tested the preview build myself, but from the screenshot, I can say that I like the new look. What do you think?
Tags:
Opera,
Opera 10,
Previews,
Screenshots,
Skins,
Themes and Skins
Posted on April 8th, 2009 | 15 Comments »
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
Posted on March 7th, 2009 | No Comments »
Whoa. Has it really been like eight months since the last time we went around the browsersphere? Not good. I guess we should do something about it…
General
Avant Browser
Camino
Chrome
Firefox
Flock
Internet Explorer
Maxthon
Opera
Opera Mini
- Armenia, a country with around three million people, saw its Opera Mini usage grow by 2800% last year. See this and other interesting statistics in the State of the Mobile Web report (via Choose Opera).
- “Yahoo! is expected to begin distributing Opera Mini via Yahoo! Mobile and also as a standalone download from Yahoo!’s mobile Web sites in the near future.”
Orca Browser
Safari
SeaMonkey
Skyfire
There was a lot to cover this time around, and there’s much more I haven’t yet covered. Hopefully that means we’ll see the 13th installment of “Around the Browsersphere” sooner than November.
Tags:
Add-ons,
Avant,
Avencius,
Beta,
Bugs,
Camino,
Carakan,
Chrome,
Compatibility,
Compatibility View,
Daniel Glazman,
Design,
Extensions,
Features,
Firefox,
Flock,
IE7,
IE8,
IE9,
Internet Explorer,
Internet Explorer 4,
Internet Explorer 5.5,
iRider,
Jesse Ruderman,
John Slater,
Linux,
Lunascape,
Mac,
Market Share,
Mascots,
Maxthon,
Maxthon 2.5,
MaxthonGuy,
Minor Players,
MIX09,
Mobile,
Monetizing,
Mozilla,
Nintendo,
Opera,
Opera 9.64,
Opera Fingertouch,
Opera Mini,
Opera Turbo,
Orca,
Performance,
Releases,
Rendering Engines,
Safari 4 Beta,
Schedules,
Screenshots,
SeaMonkey,
SeaMonkey 2.0,
Security,
Shiira,
Shiretoko,
Skins,
Skyfire,
State of the Mobile Web,
Themes,
Touch,
Triton,
Ultrabrowser,
Windows 7
Posted on March 3rd, 2009 | No Comments »
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
Posted on July 12th, 2008 | 6 Comments »
After reading an article over at the SiteCrafting Blah Blah Blog about different ways to alternate table row colors, it occurred to me that the nth-child approach was not mentioned. Way back in 2004 I had implemented a ridiculous (hindsight is 20/20) proof-of-concept around implementing tables without using the <table> tag. However ridiculous the prototype might have been, one touch I added was the use of the nth-child pseudo-class to display alternating table rows in a different color. Here’s what I wrote about that at the time:
This rule is actually a part of the CSS3 selector set, and if your browser was capable of rendering it correctly (I’m willing to bet it isn’t, at least at the time of posting) you’d see alternate background colors on the table rows (alternating between white and light gray).
Remembering that old proof-of-concept today, I decided to have another look at it. I was disappointed to find that even in the latest version of Firefox (version 3), over four years later, the alternating row colors were nowhere to be found. I was happy to see, though, that the latest versions of Opera (9.51 at the time of writing) and Safari (3.1.2 at the time of writing) actually do display the alternating table row colors. As one might guess, IE7 falls in the Firefox camp on this one.
It’s unfortunate that only half of the major players support this useful feature, but I’m guessing we’ll see support added in Firefox 3.1, of which there is a first alpha targeted for release at the end of this month, since that particular release is meant to include a slew of CSS support geared toward Acid3 compliance. Furthermore, one can hope nth-child support will show up in IE8, but that may be the least likely scenario between the two.
Tags:
CSS,
CSS3,
Firefox,
Firefox 3,
Firefox 3.1,
IE7,
IE8,
nth-child,
Opera,
Safari,
Selectors,
Web Development,
Web Standards