Browsersphere

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

• This one is pretty funny, but maybe wouldn’t be as funny if it was true:  someone filed a Firefox bug claiming installing Firefox disabled his or her IE8 add-ons.
• WebKit received one of InfoWorld’s 2010 Technology of the Year awards for being a “tool for creating cross-platform smartphone development,” whatever that means.
• Yahoo! Answers, which is one of the most useless sites on the Internet, in my opinion, runs the gamut in attempting to answer the question “which language should I use to create a web browser?“
• Harry Parsonage went to great lengths to write a “forensics” paper on how privacy can be put at risk by various web browsers’ session restore feature.
• If you’re planning on attending MIX10 in March, Paul Scarpa of Spry Hive Industries is hoping to talk about the past, present and future of web browsers.  You’ll need to vote, though, to make that happen.

Chrome

• An article at Beet.TV claims that Google Chrome has reached 40 million active users worldwide since it’s initial beta release in September of 2008.
• Jim Lynch of ExtremeTech talks about why he switched from Firefox to Chrome on Mac.
• Dwight Silverman is using Chrome on Mac, too, and got pretty excited when a bookmark manager showed up in his build.
• If you’re a Chrome fan and an Ubuntu fan, you may like some of these Ubuntu themes for Google Chrome.
• Chrome’s Dev Channel was updated to version 4.0.288.1 yesterday across all platforms.  TechCrunch points out that the key features are those that showed up for the Mac platform:  bookmark syncing, the new “pin tab” feature, and most importantly, extensions.
• Unlike Yahoo! Answers, Stack Overflow provides a platform at which smart people can provide smart answers, such as this explanation of the difference between the browser process, the render processes and plug-ins in Chrome.

Fennec

• In a blog post that announces his transition from working on Fennec back to the desktop version of Firefox, Gavin Sharp also reveals how developing for Fennec was different than developing for Firefox, and introduces us to a few of the other major contributors to the new mobile browser.

Firefox

• John Lilly tweets about a theme/add-on combination that gives “glimpses of [Firefox] 4.0.”
• John Slater, Mozilla’s Creative Director, vows that Firefox marketing won’t go the Taco Bell route.
• Download Squad reports that Firefox 3.7 is showing some progress with its Windows 7 shell integration.
• Initial tests show that forthcoming multi-processor support in Firefox leads to a 3x speedup in JavaScript performance, but even that is still 50% slower than Google Chrome’s performance using the same test.

Internet Explorer

• Microsoft’s announcement that it had submitted a request to join the SVG Working Group sparked commentary from SitePoint and The Industry Standard.

Opera

• As you probably heard, Opera announced a new CEO this week.
• Opera is planning on releasing a browser beta for Windows CE and looking to find other niches after suffering losses of around $2 million during the last quarter.

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

To borrow from Pink Floyd, is there anybody out there?

Ironically enough, Browsersphere has been neglecting the browsersphere a little like Microsoft neglected Internet Explorer earlier this decade.  After all, my last post was way back in June.  However, unlike Microsoft, it isn’t the competition that has jolted this site back to life.  On the contrary, sites like Avencius and Twitter accounts like @AltBrowser have actually made me feel a little bit better about the whole ordeal, knowing that at least someone is out there covering the browsersphere in my absence.  Truth is, the site went dark out of pure laziness on my part.  Well, that and the fact that I’ve been pretty consumed by another project.  Nevertheless, I’m back, and after catching up a bit on what’s been going on, my first order of business is to share a little bit about what’s been tweeted in the browsersphere lately.  So let’s get to it.

• Looks like @ryan45419 is working on his own web browser named iSurfWeb.
• @humancell points out that Firefox and Safari accounted for 79% of all web vulnerabilities in the first half of this year.
• @ByteEye appears to be working on its own web browser as well.
• @erichthewebguy is happy to be seeing Firefox used more and more on TV these days.
• As someone who appears to have given up on Firefox for Chrome on the Mac, @lee_cummings may have coined a new term: “nozilla.”
• @UKTJPR wonders if anyone is willing to give up their web browser for a week.
• @DevJonny points out SRWare Iron, a browser created with the Chromium source code that apparently doesn’t have all the privacy concerns of Chrome.
• @BemusedWolf, who has come up with some colorful names for Firefox and Internet Explorer, might be interested in SRWare Iron.
• @SuperDuperCam had some colorful words to share about Firefox as well.
• @BrowserNews, the creator of the Dolphin3D browser, is touting it as “a better web browser.”
• @mrtech points us to a blog entry about what the Firefox team is doing about crashes and startup time.
• @usingpond wonders if Blackbird, which sells itself as an African American browser, is for real.
• @msacks makes reference to the Lobo browser, which is all-Java and uses a rendering engine called Cobra.
• @waynehastings and @deanq appear to be pleased with Chrome for Mac OS X, with the later giving a parting shot to both Firefox and Safari.
• @chrispy2004 appears to be displeased, however, claiming that Chrome for Mac OS X is the slowest browser he’s used in a long time.
• @GameFreak4321 doesn’t seem all that pleased either.
• @JasonTselentis thanks the “Facebook browser” for finally taking away Internet Explorer’s market share.
• @KileyG wonders what the threshold is for the number of open tabs before someone becomes unproductive.
• @muhanov discovers and shares the fact that the Android web browser doesn’t support FTP.
• @ganetsky wonders how it’s possible that no one has created a web browser named “Bowser.”  Good question!  Though to be fair, some people have referred to IE as the “Bowser” browser.
• @Andrew_James claims to be in “web browser heaven.”  I wonder if Netscape’s there.
• Both @jamienguyenle and @jinkhet refer to Chrome using sexual terms.
• @nicnab asserts that Firefox’s remembering of per-site zoom levels is enough to keep him hooked on said browser.
• @ConduitYourSite wonders what the best Twitter lists for browsers and web-related tools are.
• As I often have, @alex_crawshaw finds it ironic that you need to use a web browser in order to download an alternative one.
• @propstm wonders if IE6 users even realize what they’re missing out on, using such an out-of-date web browser.
• @derickthemacguy says Google Chrome looks like “a Fisher Price version of a web browser.”
• @souravghosh says that Mosaic “is considered the first browser to make the Internet easily accessible to non-techies.”
• @C_Hernandez_ heard that Camino is the fastest browser for Macs and apparently is going to check it out.
• @omegatron laments, as do many I’m sure, the fact that his mom doesn’t know the difference between a web browser and a web page.
• @Allyssen points us to a split-screen browser for the iPhone called iNetDual.
• @ericylai recommends the Bolt browser, which also happens to support a split-screen mode (check out the demo), for those tired of the default Blackberry browser.
• @IHtherapies finds KidZui, a web browser targeted at kids, very cool.
• Even if it’s “a bit slow,” Firefox is still @flyfiddlesticks‘ favorite browser.
• @abhishek tweeted about the Facebooker browser, which is currently available as a release candidate.
• @juandelpozo makes reference to Infinity Web Browser, a web browser for Android.
• @va3stl gave Midori a try.
• @wordtree likes the idea of trying a text-based web browser like Lynx.
• @tr4st recommends Lunascape, the “world’s first and only triple engine browser,” to web developers.
• @sphereinabox wants to know what mobile web browsers, other than Safari, support offline storage.  If geek.com is to believed, it looks like Fennec does, too.
• And finally, @rodhilton loves that Ubuntu lets him use a web browser while the operating system is still installing.

That’s it for Twitter Watch #3.  Believe it or not, Twitter Watch #2 was so long ago that I was still using Summize to search for tweets.

Before I end this post, since we’re on the subject of Twitter, I should mention that Browsersphere is now on Twitter as well.  Just follow @Browsersphere for real-time updates, links to new site content, etc.

Tags: Android, Avencius, Blackberry, Blackbird, Bolt, Chrome, Chromium, Cobra, Dolphin3D, Facebook, Facebooker, Fennec, Firefox, Google Chrome, iNetDual, Infinity, Internet Explorer, iPhone, iSurfWeb, KidZui, Lobo, Lunascape, Lynx, Mac, Microsoft, Midori, Mosaic, Netscape, Performance, Privacy, Rendering, Rendering Engines, Safari, Split-screen, SRWare Iron, Summize, Tabs, TV, Twitter, Ubuntu, Vul, Vulnerabilities

A post at Tombuntu uncovers the fact, for me anyway, that there is a pre-alpha version of Chromium already available for use on Linux.  The following is an excerpt of the author’s review:

Chromium for Linux is pre-alpha software, but farther along in development than I expected. The GTK-based Linux interface looks and works just like Windows interface. The browser rendered sites I tested it with just fine, and I haven’t been able to crash the it yet. Lots of features, such as bookmarks, the options window, and even the about window, are simply…not implemented yet.

The review goes on to say that the tab bar is also missing, making it difficult to do anything with tabbed web pages, but that, like on the Google Chrome Windows counterpart, each tab runs in its own process.

Apparently getting the pre-alpha build is as simple as issuing the following from the command line:

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

You can read much more about the Chromium build(s) in question over at Chromium on Ubuntu.

Hap-tip to Lim Chee Aun.

Tags: Alpha, Chrome, Chromium, Google Chrome, Lim Chee Aun, Linux, Reviews, Ubuntu, Windows

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

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

This probably isn’t even worth a post here at Browsersphere, simply because it’s so easy, but I installed Opera 9.5 Beta 2 on Ubuntu tonight and figured I’d share how I did it.  Unlike installing most packages on Ubuntu, it wasn’t as simple as using something like sudo apt-get install opera, but it was still straightforward.

First, I downloaded Opera 9.5 Beta 2 directly from the Opera website.  That launched the Debian package manager, which informed me that two dependencies were required and allowed me to install the software with one button click.  Once the install was finished, I optimistically glanced at my Applications, Internet menu to see if a shortcut to Opera had been added automatically, but it had not.  I started looking around online to see what the easiest way to add it was, but then noticed in the menu manager that the Opera icon was already showing up.  Fearing that it had already been added but that the Ubuntu menus simply hadn’t been refreshed, I quickly logged out and back in, and voila, there was the shortcut to Opera, already available in the Applications, Internet menu.

So there you have it.  Installing Opera 9.5 Beta 2 on Ubuntu 8.04 is easy as pie.  If you’ve used the browser on Windows like I have, it’s very familiar on Linux.

Tags: Howto, Linux, Opera, Ubuntu

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