Web Browser Guide

Windows Vista shipped with a very nasty component that many people disliked so much they tried to do away with it right away by downgrading to the older and more stable XP. But with Microsoft announcing the end of support date for XP this coming month’s end, there may be no other option for the may who stuck with XP but to purchase the new and supposedly improved Win 7 or the failure that is Vista. The much debated annoyance that is the Windows UAC (the ever present pop-up box that prompts you for admin access) has a way of being circumvented by hackers who can quickly exploit holes in security that is also to be included with Win 7. Read the rest of this entry »

Due to several brushes with respect to anti-competitive laws among some, Microsoft has announced that the release version for Windows 7 that will be released in the EU will be shipping without the much debated Internet Explorer. Cases of anti-competitiveness that has their operating system denying access to alternate browsers and issues with the much known WGA tool that first tried to make it’s entry without the user knowing of it raised a lot of angry arms against the Redmond Software giant, some of which have resulted in hefty fines and other settlement issues. They have been continuously battling the EU for their actions but has not managed to sway lawmakers in the many cases that has been levied against it. Read the rest of this entry »

Bing has launched and many see some movement on the browser arena with respect to curiosity of the new web browser from the software giant that is Microsoft. is it going to make the cut as “the browser to compete with”, it may be too early to tell but it surely is raising eyebrows as the company has or will be spending an estimated $100 million on ads and other drives to raise awareness of their new product. Microsoft has been increasing it’s visibility in the open-source market due to the appeal and maybe even the bite the many other open-sourced projects have taken out of their market share. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s face it – Windows’ default web browser, Internet Explorer (now at version 7) isn’t really hot. It’s slow and consumes a lot of memory, it loads pages slower and is less stable that its current counterparts, Mozilla Firefox 3 and Google Chrome.

However, with the development of Windows 7, an improvement over another badly reviewed Microsoft product – Windows Vista – is the development of a new and improved browser: Internet Explorer 8. Microsoft touts that the IE 8 will be faster, easier to use, and generally be cooler than its predecessor. Child and sensor controls have also been improved, as well as the general ease with which the interface is used.

So far, the final version is set to be released at the end of next month, so only then will people see whether or not Microsoft is true to it’s word.

The many security issues that are currently bugging the many web browsers mainly due to their links to the most popular Operating System Windows can be addressed by taking the browser into the cloud. That was an idea that a new start-up is trying to bring out, a browser that exists in the cloud or in the data center with usage making a call to the application and service is given. Read the rest of this entry »

Using one computer at home or at the office? Tired of always having to clear the Firefox’s cache because the other users may find out what your username is or what sites you visited? Then it maybe time to get your own profile in Firefox.

Lifehacker’s Gina Trapani has provided us with the way on how to do it.

To get started setting up your multiple browser users, you’ll start up the Firefox profile manager. To do so, from the command line, run Firefox with the –profilemanager argument.

On the Mac, the command is:

/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin –profilemanager
The first time you run it, Firefox’s profile manager will show only the default profile you’ve been using. There you can create, rename and delete alternate browsing personalities, like say, “work,” “blogging,” or “ball and chain,” as shown.

More details here

グーグル・クロム・ウェブ・ブラウザーは最近市場にリリースされて以来、シェアを着実にインターネット・エクスプローラーとモジラ・ファイアーフォックスに譲渡しつつあります。 これは2008年9月2日に初リリースされました。 それ以来、グーグルクロムは市場シェアを1%以上獲得し、初めの48時間に約200万ほどのダウンロードを記録しました。 その後、この新米ブラウザーのシェアは先週には0.77%まで落ちました。失ったシェアはIEとファイアーフォックスが半分づつ獲得しました。 私も試して見ましたが、まだプログラムの不具合やその他、未知の問題が残っています。 多くの人が試してみましたが、継続して使用されません。 ベーターアプリケーションでは自然の成り行きです。 人によってはクロムを使用することで、グーグルが多量のデータを収集することを怖れています。 プライバシーは常に問題となることです。 グーグルがこのブラウザーをメディアの狂乱と全力を尽くした結果、開始したわけではないことは明らかです 多くの人はグーグルが興味を持っているのは、IEとファイヤーフォックスと競争する市場シェアではなく、サーチエンジンのオンライン・アプリケーションの中核となる製品だろうと考えています。

イメージ提供: siliconrepublic.com

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It is estimated that there are 250 million internet users in China. Thus it is but natural to come up with a Chinese version of a browser. Firefox for one, introduced a Chinese enabled browser specifically for its Chinese users. it enables the users to browse through the internet using Firefox displaying Chinese characters. It also recently included in its features is Live Margins. Live Margins is simply a side bar in the right part of the screen used to compliment the function of tab browsing. It gives additional search results, music and videos. This feature is somewhat intended for local usage rather than for international release. But the point is clear, you can expect more open source applications coming from China in the near future.

Image Source: techblog.dallasnews.com

The new beta version of Firefox and Google Chrome out in the market have made huge steps in the speed of browsing. When Google released its Chrome browser, they ran a Javascript test for speed on the Mozilla Firefox 3, Chrome, its beta version, Internet Explorer 7 and Safari 3.1.2. Amazingly, Chrome came in first, as the fastest in the speed test. It scored an overall 1851. Mozilla Firefox came in second with 205. And running the same type of test on the later version of Google’s Chrome, the speed is boosted with a browser’s score to 2265. Clearly, a 22% increase in its speed. Firefox still came in second with a score increase of about 15%. But this test was done without its new Javascript TraceMonkey engine enabled because of some bugs needed to be fixed. Last September it fixed its bug and enabled the TraceMonkey, expectedly, it rose to lead on the speed competition of these browsers.

The Google Chrome Web browser, which was recently released in the market has been steadily giving up its gains to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. It was reported that during the first day of its release Sept. 2 2008, Google Chrome gained more than 1% of the market share or roughly around 2 million downloads within the first 48 hours. Since then, the upstart browser has fallen to 0.77% as of last week, with the losses shared evenly between IE and Firefox. I myself tried it but it has yet to be tested for bugs and other unforeseen problems. Many people gave it a try but didn’t really continue using it. That has always been the case with beta applications. Some people fear that by using Chrome, Google will amass a large amount of data. Privacy is always an issue, right? Its obvious that Google launched the browser without the media hype and all the works. Many believe that Google is not mainly interested in market share competition with IE and Firefox but as core product for the search engine’s online applications.

Image Source: siliconrepublic.com