Browsersphere

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

The Firefox Extension Guru’s Blog reports today that Firefox has surpassed 500 million downloads.  That’s half a trillion billion (thanks, Ian) for those who enjoy big numbers.

Tags: Firefox, Stats

Reza.com reports that according to recently released web browser statistics from Net Applications, all of the major web browsers seem to be at a standstill in terms of market share.  According to the stats, which cover the last couple of months, Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari have all seen very slight losses in their share of the market.  The lone standout seems to be Opera, which apparently saw an increase from 0.87% to 0.99% from September to October of this year.

Tags: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Market Share, Opera, Safari, Stats

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: Bugs, CSS, Development, Features, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Konqueror, Minor Players, Opera, Safari, Stats, Web Standards

Firefox reached 400 million downloads today. Coverage on the milestone is available at Asa Dotzler’s blog, Mozilla Links, Spread Firefox and News.com.

Update: Coverage is now available on TechCrunch and Digg as well.

Tags: Firefox, Market Share, Stats

I found the following chart over at DesktopLinux.com (via Asa Dotzler):

According to their 2007 survey, Firefox is the far-and-away leader on desktop Linux, with 60% of the survey’s participants claiming the open source browser as their web browser of choice. Konqueror is a distant 2nd at 14%, followed by Opera at 12% and then all other browsers combined.

Tags: Firefox, Konqueror, Linux, Market Share, Opera, Stats

Opera Mini seems to be dominating the mobile web browser space these days (and even creeping up on some of the major players in the desktop market). Therefore, it seems fitting to dedicate a post to some of the coverage the little browser that could has gotten lately:

• The Opera Mini 4 beta was listed as part of PC Magazine’s “Cheap, Cool Campus Tech” (via Opera Watch).
• Russell Beattie calls the latest beta Opera’s “best yet” and even goes so far as to suggest that companies like MySpace, Facebook, Amazon.com and eBay could benefit from buying Opera outright.
• Phones with Opera Mini pre-installed, distribution partners, and more gives a complete rundown on the operators and carriers, handset manufacturers and distribution partners that have Opera Mini deals in one form or another.
• Opera Mini is now serving up over a billion pages per month.

For all the latest and greatest Opera Mini news, be sure to keep an eye on Opera Watch and the Opera Mini Blog. With all the buzz around the latest beta, you’re sure to get the latest coverage the quickest there, and in the greatest detail.

Tags: Market Share, Mobile, Opera Mini, Reviews, Stats