browsers

Could IE8 incompatibilities be a boon for Firefox?

Mary Jo Foley notes that the more standards-compliant Internet Explorer 8 may cause some problems for website owners. Why? Well, many have tailored their websites to non-standards compliant IE7 (as well as prior versions), and may find that opening the doors to IE8 may not be painless.

As Microsoft noted on its IE blog:

What does "getting ready for IE8" mean for web sites? IE8 displays content in IE8 Standards mode - its most standards-compliant layout mode - by default. In previous blog posts, we've discussed how this aligns with our commitment to Web standards interoperability. However, browsing with this default setting may cause content written for previous versions of IE to display differently than intended. This creates a "get ready" call to action for site owners to ensure their content will continue to display seamlessly in IE8.

It also creates a "get ready" call to rival browsers, and particularly Mozilla's Firefox, to capitalize on Microsoft's incompatibility with itself to remind website creators that web standards are just that: Standards that should lead to greater cross-platform/browser compatibility. As more websites code for IE8, it should lead to those same sites working better with Firefox, Safari, and other browsers.… Read more

Newly released Opera 9.5 bundles more protection

Opera 9.5, code-named Kestrel, on Thursday became available for download for Windows and Mac.

The new version of the browser, whose release candidate was released earlier this week, is a security-enhanced version of Opera 9. It includes antiphishing protection from Netcraft and malware protection from Haute Secure, as well as support for Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer (EV SSL).

The browser also has a new "eurotechno" look and feel, a QuickFind address bar feature, better synchronization with its mobile cousin, and a Speed Dial feature for visually bookmarking nine of your favorite sites.

Scandinavia-based Opera Software still … Read more

Yahoo inks InstallShield deal to help propagate toolbar

Upate 9:40 a.m. PT--I clarified the partnership terms for companies that want to bundle the toolbar.

Yahoo announced a partnership with Acresso Software, which develops the InstallShield software installer product, that the companies say will make it easier to spread the Yahoo Toolbar.

Through the deal, it will be easier for the 71,000 software organizations using InstallShield to bundle the toolbar into the installation process, the companies said Thursday. Of course, software companies still must want to bundle the toolbar, but the Acresso option makes that easier to do if they so choose.

The Yahoo Toolbar adds … Read more

The Real Deal 113: Firefox

Rafe and Tom talk Firefox. Find out about the forthcoming new release, some of the best plugins, and whether Firefox is still truly cool or not. Listen now: Download today's podcast Firefox--Version 3PluginsInterfaceStill memory hog? - Consensus seems to be leaks have stopped, but still memory hog. - http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/firefox-3-is-still-a-memory-hog/--FuturePrismWeaveAsus-motherboard embed--Favorite PluginsCustomise Google - Josh L.PicLens - rafeDelicious - Molly - http://del.icio.us/extensions/firefox/delicious.xpiIRC - Tom--ViabilityCan Firefox be a dominant browser?VOICEMAILEMAILIs Firefox Out of favor with geeks?by techpriest - 5/31/08 2:02 PMBack … Read more

Firefox's market share climbs toward world domination

Firefox is set to top 20 percent global market share in July, continuing its steady trend toward world domination through, er, open-source liberation.

Unlike Microsoft's Internet Explorer, which relied on all sorts of tricks and tying to achieve its dominant status, Firefox's gains seem to be coming for two reasons:

It works better ( Better security, better performance, better functionality). It's much more customizable.

As ReadWriteWeb points out, the game is increasingly Firefox's to lose. Internet Explorer used to command 96 percent of the market. Now it's struggling to hold onto 80 percent, with Firefox chipping … Read more

Flock brings more under its wing

The latest Flock update for Windows and Mac introduces more services to its ever-growing list of options, as well as a battery of performance and stability enhancements.

Most notably, Pownce and Digg have been integrated as people services. If you're not familiar with the self-styled "social browser," this means that you can perform all Digg- and Pownce-related chores--sorry, that should be "tasks"--from within the browser's social-networking features. Support for AOL Webmail has also been added, letting you check that account as easily as your Gmail account.

There's still a long list of known bugs … Read more

Google gives glimpse of future Gears goodies

SAN FRANCISCO--Google showed off working prototypes Wednesday of new possibilities for its Gears project to goose Web browsers' abilities.

When Google launched Gears a year ago, the company overemphasized one important feature, its ability to make Web applications work even when the browser is disconnected from the Internet, Chris Prince, a lead Gears engineer, said in a talk at the Google I/O conference here Wednesday. The new features, though, head in dramatically different directions: notifications on the desktop of various events, support for location information, better interactions with a computer's file system, and technology to let large file … Read more

Yahoo BrowserPlus aims for better surfing

A year ago it was Google with its Gears project. Now Yahoo wants to make your browser better, too.

A year after the Google launched its Gears project, Yahoo announced software called BrowserPlus that has a similar philosophy: expand what's possible to make Web applications a better alternative to programs running natively on a personal computer. Right now, it's available only in a "sneak peek" on some Yahoo-operated Web sites.

"BrowserPlus is a technology designed to 'extend the Web,' so that developers can build more exciting Web applications and so end users can get more … Read more

Mozilla: Final Firefox 3 expected in June

Firefox fans looking for a major update to the open-source Web browser probably will get a final version of it next month.

"We're looking for final ship sometime in June," said Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's vice president of engineering, in an interview Wednesday. Mozilla, which was spun out of AOL more than 10 years ago, oversees the Firefox programming project.

One of the Firefox's strengths is the broad collection of hundreds of add-ons, but that also means things move more slowly when programmers must update their projects to be compatible with Firefox 3. And that's … Read more

Opera's new software kit beckons to widget developers

Wednesday's beta release of a software development kit for Opera widgets brings the Norwegian company one step closer to its lofty goal of world browser domination.

Opera Software if offering the SDK for widget authors to deploy their Web applications on the spectrum of devices that support the Opera browser.

The Opera widget SDK was designed on W3C standards to support CSS, JavaScript, Ajax, and HTML languages. The kit itself contains an emulator, libraries, and documentation full of nuggets on best development practices. Along with the emulator, developers may find the included Opera Dragonfly debugging tool most useful; though … Read more