Digital Media

From Firefox to IE and from Chrome to Opera and Safari, there's no sitting still for browser makers looking to keep their products fresh and competitive.

Microsoft actively urges IE 6 users to upgrade

A shopping video and eBay promotion are part of Microsoft's effort to give IE 6 users a reason to upgrade. The company also is trying to move corporate customers away.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 30, 2009 3:03 PM PST

Dell brings Chrome OS to its Netbook

With an experimental project, Dell has adapted Google's browser-based operating system to its Mini 10v Netbook.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 30, 2009 1:03 PM PST

Latest Firefox beta gets file-handling feature

The File interface, a draft standard, gives browsers better uploads and other features. Firefox 3.6 beta 4 supports the technology.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 30, 2009 8:32 AM PST

Why to embrace Firefox 3.6's new-tab ethos

A change to how the new browser positions new tabs is subtle but good, especially as browsers rise in importance. But more work is needed in tab switching.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 25, 2009 11:18 AM PST

Chrome extensions site now open for uploads

Google asks programmers to start adding their Chrome extensions to the new gallery. Chrome users can't yet download them, though.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 24, 2009 9:45 a.m. PST

New standard lets browsers get a grip on files

The Files interface, now a draft at the World Wide Web Consortium, could lead to better uploading and other chores. It's largely built into Firefox 3.6.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 24, 2009 7:38 a.m. PST

Firefox hopes to one-up IE with fast graphics

Windows 7 features called Direct2D and DirectWrite will speed up Internet Explorer 9 performance. But Firefox hopes it might retool for the same benefit first.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 24, 2009 4:00 a.m. PST

Browser-server now baked into Opera

Amid promises to "reinvent the Web," the Opera Browser debuted a new beta feature earlier this year. Opera Unite now comes as a regular feature, starting with Opera 10.10.
(Posted in The Download Blog by Seth Rosenblatt)
November 23, 2009 11:36 a.m. PST

previous coverage

Firefox: Heat and the CPU usage problem

Mozilla's browser does not efficiently use a computer's CPU and, consequently, can cause overheating problems in some laptops, particularly ultraportables.
(Posted in Nanotech: The Circuits Blog by Brooke Crothers)
November 21, 2009 9:15 a.m. PST

Browser security features compared

The newest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and other browsers all protect against phishing and malware attacks, and most also let you browse anonymously, though they implement these features in very different ways.
(Posted in Workers' Edge by Dennis O'Reilly)
November 20, 2009 9:00 a.m. PST

Mozilla reveals 2008 revenue: $79 million

The revenue growth rate tapered off to 5 percent from 12 percent the year earlier. A search deal with Google still supplies the bulk of the Firefox backer's money.
• Mozilla not interested in building a Firefox OS
• Google releases Chrome OS source code
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 19, 2009 12:05 p.m. PST

With IE 9, Microsoft fights back in browser wars

By showing its first glimpses of technology in Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft also is showing it's serious about building a competitive browser.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 18, 2009 3:02 p.m. PST

Apple updates Safari for security

A security update from Apple fixes multiple security holes in Safari, but a lack of transparency makes it hard to judge how severe the threats are.
(Posted in The Download Blog by Seth Rosenblatt)
November 11, 2009 6:17 p.m. PST

After 5 years, Firefox faces new challenges

Mozilla helped reshape the Web since releasing Firefox 1.0 five years ago. Now it's got a reawakened Microsoft and Google Chrome to reckon with.
(Posted in Deep Tech by Stephen Shankland)
November 9, 2009 4:00 a.m. PST

If you're a Mac user with a need for speed, you'll struggle to find a better browser than Mozilla's Camino. Apple's Safari will win a drag race, but it lacks the customizability that comes with an open-source browser like Camino. Unfortunately, both Safari and Camino fall incredibly short against Firefox because both are heavy on speed and light on community.

For those who want a highly optimized, lightning fast browsing experience on the Mac, you can't do much better than Camino, as TechCrunch writes. But most of us want more than that. We want Adblock Plus to filter out ads from our browsing experience. We want Bitly Preview to be able to launch and track tweets from the browser. And more.

Sure, you can "PimpMyCamino," but you won't get nearly the level of detailing that comes with Firefox's impressive community. It's not hard, technically, to migrate from Firefox to Camino, but in the move you're going to end up losing most of the add-ons that make Firefox so powerful.

Camino has ad-blocking functionality built into the browser, and you can find an array of themes to dress it up. But really, the primary reason to use Camino is if you want raw speed. But if that's all you want, Safari is likely a better choice, given the somewhat limited customizations and add-ons available for Camino. Or Google Chrome, which hasn't fully launched on the Mac yet but promises a big speed boost once it does.

Browsing is about more than speed. Firefox delivers a global community with a diverse array of needs and solutions, which is why it remains my preferred browser, even as Camino sprints by, unadorned.

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

If you've been following the headlines of late you'll find that StatCounter's research arm, a Web tracking service most Webheads are familiar with, has gone from afterthought to player in just a few short months.

Credit a few handy Bing-happy press releases and handy browser market share stats.

There's a good bit of hubbub about IE market share, which has dropped off since March (Techmeme). The big question is whether we should believe the numbers (below is the year over year trends).

Let's look at the methodology and history of StatCounter's research effort. StatCounter launched its Global Stats service in March. The service primarily measures search, browsers and operating systems.

Here's how StatCounter compiles its states. It tracks its 2 million members globally with 40 percent of that total in the U.S. and 25 percent in Europe. Overall, StatCounter analyzes about 4 billion page loads a month.

The sample certainly sounds large enough to be valid. However, Net Applications, which has been a go-to browser market share tracker, has said it its analyzing "some significant variations in browser and operating system statistics" for June. It remains to be seen whether Net Applications will verify what StatCounter is claiming for IE market share.

Net Applications has this to say about its methodology:

We use a unique methodology for collecting this data. We collect data from the browsers of site visitors to our exclusive on-demand network of live stats customers. The data is compiled from approximately 160 million visitors per month. The information published is an aggregate of the data from this network of hosted website statistics. The site unique visitor and referral information is summarized on a monthly, weekly, daily and hourly basis.

Meanwhile, a statement from Net Applications gives another reason to be mildly skeptical about writing that obit for IE market share. Apparently, IE 8's compatibility mode with IE 7 has lead to some underreporting of IE 8 market share. This wrinkle basically means IE 7 historically got more market share.

Simply put, there enough wrinkles out there to have some healthy skepticism for now about rapid fire market share claims. For instance, StatCounter was claiming Bing made market share gains in its early days. The rub: Bing's market share success will be measured in months and years not days. In the meantime, StatCounter is happy to detail Bing's loss of momentum too.

Perhaps IE's market share has collapsed, but a cross section of data from multiple sources--including panel approaches from comScore and Nielsen--would be helpful.

Opera has released an early version of a browser-based sharing and collaboration service called Unite, which has been criticized by some security experts as having a level of protection that is too low.

Opera Unite, an application platform that turns the user's PC into a Web server, was unveiled in an alpha version by the Norwegian company on Tuesday. Components of the browser-based service include file sharing, photo sharing, a shared media player, a chat lounge, and the ability to run Web sites hosted on the user's PC.

While the user hosting the content needs to be running a particular version of Opera 10 for Windows, Mac, and Linux, those viewing the content can do so from within any browser, including Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Opera is trying to encourage developers to create new applications that use Opera Unite. "It all happens through the browser, so no additional software has to be downloaded, and it will work wherever Opera works (Windows, Mac, Linux and later mobile phones and other devices)," Opera product analyst Lawrence Eng wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. "Opera provides the platform and you provide the applications -- what you create is limited only by your imagination."

Eng referred to the initial Opera Unite applications as "just simple demos" and said the platform would allow for "a whole new class of social software on the Web ... [where] people can all connect directly without needing middlemen who control third-party servers." He also said the service will, in time, work on mobile phones and other devices, as well as on desktop computers.

The content is shared via Opera Unite by people sending other people URLs, and the security for protecting access to the content relies entirely on passwords. However, there are two ways to do this, and one method has been criticized by analysts as potentially posing a security risk.

When a person (the host) wants to share content, there are two options: either send a URL that leads to the host's personal landing page on Opera Unite, or send a URL that links to the application within Opera Unite that relates to the content they want to share.

With the first option, the host must send the viewer a password generated by Opera Unite for them to access the application. With the second option, the URL includes the password at the end, so it is in plain view if the URL is inadvertently shared. Also, with the second option, anyone who sees the URL does not need any further details to view the content, as clicking on the link will take them directly there.

"Be a bit cautious"
A spokeswoman for Opera confirmed to ZDNet UK on Tuesday that there is no encryption involved in the Opera Unite.

Asked whether the platform could be used by someone to access data on the host's PC that the host had not chosen to share, the spokeswoman said: "Definitely not -- unless they're a hacker."

"Opera Unite has been tested by a number of people within Opera, so the more people we have using the service, the more we'll know about the service itself," the spokeswoman added. "At this point, [you should] be a bit cautious in the files you're sharing -- only share amongst people you trust."

Greg Day, a McAfee principal security analyst, said Opera Unite was a "smart idea, going back to people self-hosting," and said there was "some value [from a security perspective], insofar as you are in control of your own data." However, he said there are also security risks associated with the approach.

"The [negative] is you have to have enough security integrated into the technology, or have the personal knowledge to put that security in around the technology," Day warned. "The logical evolution of services like Facebook was about simplifying the process, so you rely on a third party who, in theory, has the expertise to host on your behalf and keep it secure."

Andy Buss, a senior analyst at Canalys, said security based on the distribution of passwords was "an avenue to disaster."

"If there is no transport-layer security, it is easy to intercept the information being transported," Buss said. "This will need to be looked at as an option."

Another potential problem is related to intellectual-property violations, where hosts might illegally store copyrighted content on their PC and then distribute this via Opera Unite. Buss predicted that security and copyright issues will be a challenge for the next generation of internet applications, which will move a lot of activity now done on PCs to cloud-based services. "These services are required and useful, but they have to be as secure as possible," Buss said.

Asked about the copyright issue, Opera's spokeswoman said that if a user was found to be distributing copyrighted material, Opera would ask the user to remove the content and, if the person did not comply, would block the account. "This would only happen if the matter was brought to Opera's attention, as Opera does not monitor your data," the spokeswoman added.

Related story: Speedy Opera 10 beta reconfigures as Web suite

David Meyer of ZDNet UK reported from London.

CARLSBAD, Calif.--Although it has managed to grab nearly a quarter of the browser market, Mozilla now finds itself in an unenviable position--competing against Microsoft, Apple, and Google all at the same time.

Speaking at D: All Things Digital on Thursday, Mozilla's Mitchell Baker noted that the company didn't set out with that in mind.

"That's not the business model you are going to pick," Baker said. "It is a daunting space to compete with the three giants of the era."

That said, Baker and fellow Mozilla executive John Lilly said there is still a place for Firefox.

"We've just got to be us," Lilly said. "Mozilla has always been about scratching an itch."

Another challenge, Lilly said, is that people don't perceive the browser as something that changes their Web experience. "Most people just think it's this pane of glass," Lilly said. Three quarters of people use the browser that comes with their computer, he said.

But browsers are important, Lilly maintained.

"We spend more time with our browser than we do in our cars," Lilly said. "The real truth, I spend more time with my browser than I do with my family."

... Read more

Google has begun supporting a new HTML feature to show video in its Chrome browser as an alternative to Adobe Systems' much more widely used Flash, but the technology overall remains rough around the edges.

The support comes in Chrome 3.0.182.2, a developer preview version that on Wednesday inaugurated work on the 3.0 generation of the Google browser. HTML video is one of a handful of technologies in the still unfinalized HTML 5 standard that Google hopes will transform the Web from a collection of relatively static sites to a foundation for full-blown applications that rival those on PCs.

The "video" tag in HTML already is available in various versions of Apple's Safari, Firefox, and Opera, which at least in theory makes handling video on the Web as easy as handling images. But the HTML 5 standard that includes video isn't finalized yet, so don't expect a coding revolution yet.

The video tag can be used to show video that today would show up in a conventional box, just as with Flash or Microsoft's competing Silverlight plug-in. But it also enables deeper integration with a Web site. For a good example, watch Paul Rouget's demonstration of HTML video in which images, text boxes, and videos are overlaid on another video, with a JavaScript program dynamically changing the appearance.

In a talk Wednesday at the Google I/O conference, Matthew Papakipos, a Google engineering director, said HTML 5 video will permit close integration with the Web site's programming, so for example various actions on the Web site can trigger different videos to start or stop.

HTML 5 video still faces many hurdles to adoption, and browser support being just the first. Next come resolution of browser compatibility problems, upgrades by browser users to support the feature, and real-world use of the technology on Web sites.

The challenge is illustrated by video entertainment site DailyMotion, which on Wednesday announced plans to make 300,000 videos available through the HTML 5 video technology by the third quarter of 2009. DailyMotion recommends the Firefox 3.5 beta version to watch videos, which indeed worked for me, but the newest Chrome developer version and the Safari 4 beta reverted to Flash.

One issue is the technology used to encode and decode video. Firefox supports the Ogg Theora format for video (and the Ogg Vorbis format for the related HTML 5 audio tag), for example, and that's the format that DailyMotion is using.

More common in the real world, though, is the H.264 standard. Papakipos said Chrome will support H.264 video and AAC audio as well as Ogg Theora video and Ogg Vorbis audio format.

More than 800 digital-media enthusiasts in New York RSVP'd for a Tuesday night "meet-up" held by Boxee, the TV browser software company that's ambitiously (and controversially) aimed to make it possible to have a full Web content experience in your living room.

Right now, Boxee sources content from outlets such as Comedy Central, Netflix, CBS (which publishes CNET News), and Web video content hubs such as Blip.tv and Next New Networks.

In conjunction with the get-together, Boxee (still available only for Mac and Linux) made a few notable announcements: First of all, it's overhauled its application program interface (API)--which was only three weeks old to begin with--so that developers can build more complex applications for the platform.

There are a few new ones at launch: streaming-radio provider Pandora now has an application to bring its content to Boxee, as well as terrestrial-radio hub RadioTime. A third-party company called BoxeeHQ has also created an app to stream content from PBS.

Boxee's content-browsing software is now built on the XUL framework, which makes it a "remote cousin of Firefox," CEO Avner Ronen said. It will detect a video in a regular Web page and then attempt to pull it into a full-screen view. Guess what this means: Content from Hulu will be back, at least for now.

For those who stepped in late: Hulu, the joint venture between NBC Universal and News Corp., had been available as a channel on Boxee until access was blocked at the request of content partners. Boxee brought it back by pulling in Hulu's RSS feed, but then Hulu blocked that too.

Still in alpha test mode, Boxee has gained a loyal following among geeks who love its hackability, futurists who see it as the best hope for the why-won't-it-happen-already convergence between TV and the Web, and people fed up with subscription cable services. But on the flip side, it's still unclear as to how the start-up will dig through the complicated stratigraphy of media industry regulations, and it's also unclear as to how it will make money.

Ronen hinted that an "app store" format will be part of its strategy, letting developers charge for their applications and taking a cut of sales, in addition to advertising. Also down the pipeline: an improved search feature that will let members search all Boxee content at once rather than only within individual content providers one at a time.

Boxee also released its first iPhone app this month. It's not a video app, though--it's an app to remotely control the Boxee browser over a Wi-Fi connection. Ronen says the company's received "great feedback" on it.

2nd Update 10:10 a.m. Saturday: To include an updated statement from Boxee.

Update 4:30 p.m. To include quote from Boxee blog post.

Less than a day after Boxee made adjustments to again access Hulu's content, the video portal responded Friday by again blocking Boxee. But on Saturday morning, Boxee presumably made more changes and the service was back to accessing Hulu (who can keep up?).

Boxee is a startup that streams Web video to television set-top boxes. Dave Mathews, who works as an evangelist and adviser to the company, expressed frustration Friday at what has become a game of cat and mouse between the two companies. Mathews said that this a game Hulu can't win.

"These guys are so shortsighted," Mathews said. "It's an RSS reader. What our open-source community will do is just make the Boxee browser look at the Firefox browser."

Mathews said Hulu is obviously blocking Boxee's browser. He described a situation where the two companies enjoy a good relationship and fighting is pointless.

A Hulu spokeswoman was not immediately available to comment.

"Boxee is one of the referring IDs," Mathews said. "We do that on purpose. By excluding our browser they are making a biased move. It would be just like them shutting off Chrome. We're trying to empower the customer.

"From Day 1, we played by their game plan," Mathews said. "We want a good relationship with them."

Boxee released a statement on the company's blog Friday afternoon.

"To our users: if you choose to use Boxee as your media browser to view legal and publicly available content on the Internet, we will do everything we can to ensure that you can access it, no matter what the source...while some of the best things in life are free, sometimes you have to work hard to get them."

Last month, Hulu said in a blog post that its content suppliers asked the video portal to cut off Boxee's access to Hulu content. ""We are respecting their wishes," Hulu said in the post.

Brad Stone at The New York Times was first to report this story.

Boxee CEO Avner Ronen told CNET News last month that he would try and convince Hulu executives Boxee was good for the video site and content producers. On Friday, it became obvious those talks had come to little and Boxee decided to take matters into its own hands.

"Like IE, Firefox, or Google Reader, the RSS reader supports Google Video, Yahoo, YouTube and feeds from many other websites," Avner wrote in a blog post. "While it's not as attractive or robust as our previous Hulu application, it will additionally support Hulu's public RSS feeds."

Brand Thunder, a company that lets people customize Firefox with brands, has received an undisclosed amount of funding from Ohio TechAngels and other angel investors, the company said Tuesday.

The company revamps the open-source Web browser with various brands such as Nascar, hockey teams, country singer Julianne Hough, and various other partners.

To fund its business, Brand Thunder also changes the default search engine to Yahoo, which shares resulting advertising revenue with the company.

Brand Thunder also said it's signed a new partnership with Major League Soccer for a branded browser.

Update 9:45 a.m. PST: The company followed up with details of the funding: $350,000 from TechColumbus, $200,000 from the Ohio TechAngels Fund, and $200,000 from other angel investors.

In addition, the company said it expects to break even by the end of the quarter. It had hoped to do so in February, but a slowdown in Yahoo search delayed it slightly. The company also receives revenue from maintenance, upfront fees, and other sources.