Browsersphere

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

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:

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: Add-ons, Extensions, Firefox, Firefox 3, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Marketing, Opera, Safari, Secunia, Security, Stay Secure, Widgets

Anyone who has followed the support for web standards in today’s popular web browsers knows that the WebKit rendering engine has been at the forefront of that support.  Therefore, if you’re a browserphile like me, there’s a good chance you’re interested in testing out the latest and greatest WebKit build so you can see what all the fuss is about.  The following is a step-by-step list of things I had to do to get WebKit nightly builds working on my Windows computer.

1. Download and install the Safari web browser for Windows.
2. Download the latest WebKit nightly build for Windows.
3. Unzip the contents of the download to a location like C:\Program Files\WebKit Nightlies.
4. In the contents of the extracted folder, run (either from the command line or by double-clicking on the file) run-nightly-webkit.cmd.
5. Watch as several necessary files are copied over to your Safari installation directory.
6. If Safari launches and then crashes, fear not.  First try running the run-nightly-webkit.cmd file again.  If the crashing persists, work backward through the Windows Nightly Build Archive until you find a working build.  Remember, nightly builds are almost always considered dangerous (which is why the Firefox nightlies are called “Minefield“) so it may take some tinkering around before you find a good one.  The last good one I found at the time of writing was r34388.
7. If Safari launches and renders the default start page, you’re in business.

If you want to verify that you’re indeed using the WebKit nightly build you downloaded and not the default Safari rendering engine included with the latest version (3.1.2 at the time of writing), an easy way to check is to head on over to the Acid3 test.

This is what the test looks like in Safari 3.1.2:

And here is what it looks like in WebKit nightly build r34388:

Pretty cool!

I’d be remiss not to mention Swapnonil Mukherjee’s previous post on the subject, which proved to be a pretty good guide to getting a WebKit nightly build running on my computer.

Tags: Acid3, Development, Firefox, Minefield, Nightly Builds, Rendering Engines, Safari, Screenshots, Testing, Unreleased, Web Standards, WebKit, Windows

It’s that time again.  Since the last update, major versions of both Opera and Firefox have been released.  Only one of the two has been dominating in terms of Digg presence, though.

• Top 5 Web Browsers That Aren’t IE, Safari or Firefox - A site called OMGLists covers five web browsers that aren’t in what they consider the top three.  However, I’m not sure if I’d agree with calling a media player a web browser.
• Clarification about Firefox 3 system-killing performance - Some misunderstandings about Firefox 3 performance on Linux are addressed.
• Mozilla Firefox 3 Guinness World Record (Actual Page) - News of Mozilla’s attempt at a world record hits Digg.
• Ah, the Irony! Microsoft says Safari isn’t Safe on Windows - Discussion of a “carpet bombing” flaw in Safari.
• Safari Flaw Worse Than First Thought, Microsoft Warns - Moderate flaws in IE and Safari combine to make one critical flaw.
• Firefox to pass 20% before July? - Early speculation about Download Day’s impact on Firefox’s market share.
• Why Firefox 3 matters - Speed, memory use, phishing and malware protection and bookmark management are among the new features of Firefox 3 that make the browser “matter,” according to the target article.
• WSJ’s MOSSBERG: Mozilla Firefox 3.0 Is the Best Browser - Walt Mossberg gives a glowing review of the latest Firefox release.
• What’s new in Firefox 3? Check out this demo! - An overview of some of the new features in Firefox 3.
• Best Firefox Addon Ever?
• Beautiful glyphs - font rendering improvements in Firefox 3 - The system that renders text has been completely reworked in Firefox 3.
• Firefox 3 Download Day Pledges Hit 1 million
• Mozilla Announces Release Date for Firefox 3 — June 17th
• Opera 9.5 released
• Firefox 3 and Safari 4 in browser speed race
• Third Firefox 3 Release Candidate available for download
• A Field Guide to Firefox 3: A Full Inventory of the Goodness
• Web Browsers: Speed Testing the Latest Web Browsers - Lifehacker tests the latest major web browsers on Windows (informally) and Firefox, Safari and Opera all win in various categories.
• Don’t forget to be part of Firefox’s Download Day!
• IE8 development: Microsoft should learn from Apple, Mozilla - The article argues that due to Microsoft’s “closed” approach to developing its browser, IE will always be trailing the other major players in terms of development.
• Mozilla prepares for Firefox 3 release and plans for 3.1 - ars technica covers add-on compatability in Firefox 3 and gives a quick preview of what’s in store for Firefox 3.1, codenamed “Shiretoko.”
• 15 Browser Add Ons. No One Knows Them All!
• The History of Firefox 1.0 to 3.0 in Screenshots
• Why You Should Download Firefox 3 Right Now - Over 10,000 diggs on this one.
• Power User’s Guide to Firefox 3
• Firefox Download counter
• Forbes: Why Firefox Matters
• The cake is a lie: IE team bakes a treat for Mozilla
• Firefox 3 launch a success: 8 million downloads in 24 hours
• Mozilla Hits Its Firefox 3 Download Goal…and then some!
• Firefox 3 mentioned on the Colbert Report
• And the fastest browser is… - A quick post on CNET News relays information from Zimbra that Safari is the fastest browser with Firefox not far behind.

Tags: Add-ons, Apple, Bugs, Comparisons, Digg, Digg Watch, Download Day, Extensions, Features, Firefox, Firefox 3, Firefox 3.1, Fonts, Forbes, History, Hybrids, IE8, Internet Explorer, Linux, Lists, Market Share, Microsoft, Opera, Performance, Previews, Rendering, Reviews, Safari, Screenshots, Security, Shiretoko, Walt Mossberg

As I’ve been getting more and more active on Twitter in recent weeks (I’m Bernzilla on there), I’ve noticed that a couple web browsers (and their corresponding organizations) have been becoming more active on Twitter as well.  More than a few times, I’ve seen updates from folks like cheeaun referring to the Twitter accounts mozillafirefox and opera, which look like they were created on May 14, 2008 and April 11, 2007, respectively.  Therefore, I think it’s fair to say that Opera’s got quite a head start in the browser wars on Twitter.  That doesn’t necessarily mean, though, that Opera is the most active in that war.

Today, I noticed that a Firefox upgrade on Ubuntu led to the browser identifying itself as Firefox 3.0, with no information regarding whether it was a release candidate (which it is) or other unofficial release.  I Twitter’d about it, and within minutes I had gotten two replies from a Twitter account named firefox_answers, explaining why I was seeing what I was seeing (kind of).  Keep in mind that this isn’t an automated service.  The answers I received and others I’ve seen posted are very thorough and targetted at Firefox questions and/or feedback being tossed into the Twittersphere moment by moment.

Time will tell who ends up winning or at least dominating the browser wars on Twitter, a relatively young and growing platform, but one thing I can say is that it’s fairly obvious that there are at least two obvious guests who haven’t yet arrived at the party (at least, officially).

Tags: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Marketing, Opera, Safari, Twitter, Ubuntu

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

• celeduc switched to Konqueror and then back to Firefox 2.
• Aalaap Ghag is impressed with Opera Mini 4.1’s auto-complete feature.
• noel doesn’t think Safari’s inspector even comes close to Firebug.
• Johnny Canuck realized that Safari’s Private Browsing feature works on Windows, too.
• kennym feels naughty forcing IE8 to render in IE7 mode.
• WebFreelancer thinks that IE8 should use the WebKit rendering engine.
• I’d put money on Chris Lowry being a browserphile.
• I’m pretty sure palalalapolly thinks SeaMonkey is Jesus in the form of a web browser.
  

Tags: Firebug, Firefox, IE7, IE8, Inspector, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Opera Mini, Safari, SeaMonkey, Twitter, WebKit

Google Doctype was released on Wednesday.  It has been described as follows:

Google Doctype is an open encyclopedia and reference library. Written by web developers, for web developers. It includes articles on web security, JavaScript DOM manipulation, CSS tips and tricks, and more. The reference section includes a growing library of test cases for checking cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility.

This is certainly relevant to web browser compatibility, web development, etc., so I figured I’d post it here.  The corresponding video, which features Mark Pilgrim, is full of interesting info as well.  Toward the end, he mentions that the main browsers on which they focus their attention are the “tier 1″ browsers, namely Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Opera.

Tags: Compatibility, Firefox, Google, Internet Explorer, Mark Pilgrim, Opera, Safari, Web Development

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

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?

• Trevor Manternach is amused that Firefox 3’s Crash Reporter crashed.
• Sean Marler (naturally) switched photo sharing apps before switching browsers.
• Bob K Mertz doesn’t regret switching from Firefox to Opera.
• Christine Taylor hasn’t had the best of luck with Firefox’s password management.
• timbevil installed a Twitter add-on for Maxthon.
• Jean-Pierre Avakian insists that Twitter sucks with Konqueror.
• Macluvaosx is splitting browser duties between the Blackberry browser and Opera Mini.
• Corvida claims to have uninstalled IE8 10 minutes after upgrading to it.
• Darren Woodley notes that Netflix’s entire site is broken in IE8.
• Nathan Clark is annoyed that Safari keeps losing (eating?) his cookies.

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: Beta, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Maxthon, Opera, Opera Mini, Safari, Twitter

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