browsers

Buzz Out Loud 763: Average people suck

By average people we mean, mean people. As we have learned that mean and average are indubitably the same thing. However, we also learned on today's show that men are from Redmond and women are from Cupertino. That and a lot of news that actually isn't about the iPhone. Though we covered that to. Listen now: Download today's podcast

EPISODE 763

iPhone 2.0 software available for download http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987221-93.html http://www.macrumors.com/2008/07/10/iphone-2-0-firmware-5a347-available-early/

Apple launches new iTunes with App Store http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-9987100-93.html

It’s … Read more

Bank of America may finally embrace Firefox

The largest bank in the United States has officially ignored the second most popular Web browser--until recently.

A tipster for Networkworld.com pointed out recently that Bank of America's Web site did not list the Mozilla Foundation's Firefox as a "supported browser," even though Firefox now commands almost 20 percent of the browser market. The bank's site lists Microsoft's Internet Explorer, Apple's Safari, and Netscape as acceptable browsers.

Netscape? Even AOL, Netscape's former owner, doesn't support Netscape Navigator anymore.

Of course, Firefox, which was released in 2004 and recently set a Guiness record for downloads … Read more

Featured Freeware: ThunderBrowse

ThunderBrowse remains one of the best plug-ins for Mozilla Thunderbird. It's a favorite of mine, but if you haven't tried it recently there are some excellent new features worth noting.

If you've never used it before, ThunderBrowse lets you open Web links in Thunderbird's preview pane. It's that simple, which is why it's such an useful tool to have. From social networking friend invites to quickly scanning that hometown article sent by Your Dear Ma, ThunderBrowse cuts out huge chunks of time from your work flow by speedily opening HTML pages in its own … Read more

Maybe this Slashdot user should get a Mac

One Slashdot user is blaming his ThinkPad for an inability to use Slashdot error-free. Dude, you should have got a Mac. It works flawlessly with Slashdot.

In fact, as an interesting sidenote, my Mac browsers (Firefox and, on occasion, Safari) work with an increasing array of websites. Yes, Firefox and Safari have always worked with 98 percent of websites, but I would occasionally stumble across one (like Delta.com's print-a-ticket page) that didn't work properly with one or the other. Those poorly designed pages seem to have grown up, or perhaps the browsers have been improving compatibility.

Either … Read more

Researchers: 637 million browser users at risk

A group of researches on Tuesday said 637 million Web users are surfing with outdated Internet browsers and therefore at greater risk of Web-based attacks.

Using data collected from Google Web searches and security firm Secunia, the researchers, Stefan Frei (of ETH, Zurich), Thomas D?bendorfer (Google), Gunter Ollmann (IBM ISS), and Martin May (ETH, Zurich), analyzed the browsers used in a new report (PDF). They did so in an effort to understand why so many recent attacks by criminal hackers have been aimed at the browser, and why those attacks have been so successful.

Overall the authors found that … Read more

Featured Freeware: Avant Browser

There's a Web browser out there for everybody, and Avant should appeal to those users who like their customization in-house and built on an IE-rendering engine. Avant takes off in a different direction from Internet Explorer, though. It's IE if it were being produced by a small firm instead of Microsoft.

The browser is sufficiently zippy, preloaded with two dozen similar skins as well as tabbed browsing and modular toolbars. The Menu bar, though, is counterintuitively pinned to the upper-right corner, and icons for proprietary functions, such as an in-page search term highlighting toggle, aren't instantly comprehensible. … Read more

Firefox 3 hits 4 percent market share...in just one week

Opera has been striving to break 1 percent of the browser market for years. Firefox 3 did four times that amount in just one week, according to Net Applications.

This not to criticize Opera but rather to laud Firefox 3. If you haven't downloaded it and tried it out, do so. It's lightning fast and stocked with a plethora of add-ons (many of which have, in fact, been updated to work on Firefox 3, and not merely Firefox 2).

And the fastest browser is...

Which is the world's fastest browser? According to Zimbra, Safari runs fastest, though it didn't beat out Firefox by much. Both Safari and Firefox were roughly twice as fast as Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7.

Of course, Zimbra was testing for how these browsers perform with the Zimbra Web application. Your mileage may vary with other applications. In fact, I'd love to see a wide range of tests for different sites and applications. Who's next?

As an aside, I continue to be impressed at how Zimbra treats non-Microsoft platforms as first-class citizens (along with Microsoft). Firefox … Read more

Yahoo releases Delicious plug-in for IE

Investors and industry watchers may have their eyes on Yahoo's executive departures and coming reorganization, but for most people involved with Yahoo are just users of the company's technology.

Which is why it's interesting that Yahoo released a version of its Delicious plug-in for Internet Explorer on Thursday. (Download Delicious Internet Explorer extension 1.0 for Windows.)

The plug-in, which Yahoo released in beta form in May, makes it easier for people to use the Delicious "social bookmarking" site. Delicious lets people store Web page bookmarks on a central server, label them with a description … Read more