BrowserPlus rides on Yahoo Messenger coattails

Yahoo has begun bringing its BrowserPlus technology to a broader audience, making installation of the browser-boosting plug-in a default part of installing the beta of the new Yahoo Messenger 10 that emerged this week.

BrowserPlus gives Web sites some better abilities taken for granted in applications that run natively on a computer, and because it's a framework, new abilities can be added later. Among the current features are the ability to drag files from the desktop to the browser, to read accelerometer data to judge a computer's orientation, to edit images, and to upload many files at once.

BrowserPlus is installed by default during the installation of the Yahoo Messenger 10 beta. Those who don't want it can deselect it through the custom installation path.

Yahoo announced BrowserPlus in May 2008, then upgraded it and made it open-source software in November.

BrowserPlus is one of many extras that can be disabled in the custom section of the Yahoo Messenger 10 beta installation.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Adobe Systems' Flash Player plug-in is widely installed, but plug-ins in general are hard to propagate enough that Web site programmers can safely assume they can be used. One way to tackle the issue is to piggyback on the distribution of other, popular software--a technique long employed to encourage adoption of browser toolbars.

Many companies are working hard on the "Open Web," in which advanced abilities are built directly into Web standards such as HTML 5. However, plug-ins such as Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, BrowserPlus, and Google's Gears can advance the state of the art faster.

Update 4:55 p.m. PDT: Yahoo said it does in fact plan to include BrowserPlus in the final version of Yahoo Messenger. Also, it shared this list of the browsers and operating systems the plug-in supports:

• Windows XP: supports Firefox 2 or newer, Safari, IE6 or newer, and Google Chrome

• Windows Vista: supports Firefox 3 or newer, Safari, IE6 or newer, and Google Chrome

• Windows 7: Same as Windows Vista, in experimental status

• Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5: Recent versions of Safari and Firefox 3 or newer

• Mac OS X 10.6: Firefox 3 or better (Safari support in the works)

Updated 1:58 p.m. PDT to correct the initial release date of BrowserPlus.

[cary1]

Malware alert!

Yahoo has this old habit of changing your browser settings, default search engine etc etc etc. You have to unckeck ten things to opt out... and you have to do it with every upgrade.

[FF2009]

reminds me of dirty tricks of M$ Bing Search. Every time I change it to google search, IE8 will change it back to Bing on the next reboot.

[Lennron]

FF2009
Sounds like there's something wrong with your settings, not Microsoft. My IE8 kept google as my default search up until I switched it to Bing myself. Even when I upgraded from IE7 to IE8 it didn't change my default to Bing. Same goes with every computer in my office. Either you did something wrong or you're telling tall tales.

[Lennron]

Actually, I'm leaning more towards you just making that up. With a name like FF2009 and for how much you hate Microsoft, I doubt you've ever even tried IE8, let alone use it as your primary browser.

[lxnyce]

One word...pidigin. Or my new fav...Digsby (just be sure to remove all the extra crap from it). I would never go back to one client chewing up 70MB of memory with useless crap, when I can have a universal client chewing up 35MB of memory with all my IM names and email reporting. It's a no brainer for me.

[totorototoro]

I truly sympathize with companies who want to "propagate" their proprietary plugins that push their own services, so they bury them (along with hijacking the home page, tool bar, and search engine) into the default installation to basically take advantage of less savvy web users.

Wait, no I don't sympathize with them at all. I think they are using sleazy scumbag tricks because they don't have good enough products that stand on their own merits, and lack the decency to be upfront about what they are putting on your computer.

[Shankland]

You may object to Yahoo's methods (like you, I resent how hard it can be to avoid installing lots of extras), but in fairness, BrowserPlus is open-source software, as is Gears from Google. Gears is actually built directly into the Chrome browser, so you don't even get a choice in that case, but I install it myself in Firefox because I like offline Gmail, which Gears enables.

[Mergatroid Mania]

I Agree. I can't cound how many times I have almost accidently installed Yahoo's toolbar because I was installing some other software I downloaded and almost didn't notive the damn check box beside the toolbar option.

I hate it when companies try this method to get us to install their crapware.

I am of the opinion that if I want something, I'll go looking for it. I don't need them to try stuffing it down my throat.

Hey YAHOO, if your freeking software is so great, why aren't people clamering to get it? Get stuffed. The more you try this method to get me to install it, the less likely I am to use your products at all.

And, atm, I don't use ANY Yahoo products and don't use your search engine, so GET STUFFED!

[RompStar_420]

Yahoo is done, they innovate too slowly, free email and instant messaging (everyone has that crap) these days, what else you got ? Ohh, you sold your golden geese to MS for $50 mil a year, dumb!!!!

[bimmin]

Zimbra

[b-e-q]

I think BrowserPlus is interesting (as is Google Gears). Thanks to Stephen Shankland for having followed up on it over the past months.

In regards to the Yahoo Mail redesign that is gradually being rolled out to all users (starting Aug 24th), is the new Yahoo Mail attachment tool actually based on BrowserPlus? If you already installed BrowserPlus, do you still need to install the attachment tool?

See:
http://help.yahoo.com/tutorials/cg/mail/cg_attachments5.html

[Shankland]

Yes, the new attachments feature in Yahoo Mail uses BrowserPlus, according to BrowserPlus developer Steve Spencer:

http://twitter.com/steven_spencer/statuses/3610257291

"@stshank BrowserPlus is now being used with Yahoo Mail. Try the new attachments feature (though your mail farm may not be updated yet)"

Incidentally, Gmail's multi-file uploader uses Flash.

[jake3373]

I actually found a Flash Multi-file Uploader a few months ago on Yahoo Developer (http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/uploader/). It works well with PHP :)

[DropshipAccess]

I feel Yahoo messenger version 8.1 was the most stable release and I use it very ease. I installed latest version 9.0 which sucks and has a lot of bugs. I am not sure what new settings will be there in their latest version. I hope yahoo comes out with a better product.

-Brian from <a href="http://www.dropshipaccess.com/">Dropship</a>

[GuillaumeBcom]

BrowserPlus is actually implemented in the latest Yahoo! Mail refresh for attaching files

[forever4now]

I certainly hope that Yahoo is actively pursing standardization of the functionality being provided by BrowserPlus. It is my understanding that Gears is a transitory plugin, to enable functionality that will be replaced when HTML5 is more widely supported in browsers. The same should be true for BrowserPlus.

[bc651023]

I use it great