Logging The Cyber World

Tags: add-ons, browser, firefox, rapid release, twitter on firefox

Mozilla released Firefox 8 today, a version that weeds out some add-ons and that will shoulder more responsibility for the organization’s new fast-development process.

Giving the user control over the Web experience has been a longstanding Mozilla priority, and Firefox 8 takes a new step here. With earlier versions, third-party software could extend Firefox with new features–Skype’s tool for highlighting phone numbers for easy online calling, for example. With Firefox 8, though, third-party add-ons will be disabled by default.

“These add-ons installed by third parties present a number of problems: they can slow down Firefox start-up and page loading time, they clutter the interface with toolbars that often go unused, they lag behind on compatibility and security updates, and most importantly, they take the user out of control of their add-ons,” said Mozilla programmer Justin “Fligtar” Scott in a blog post about the feature.

More here

Tags: browser, ie web standard, internet explorer 9, microsoft browser, modern browser

Microsoft has officially launched Internet Explorer 9. The browser, which is being touted by many reviewers already as the best version of the software the company has ever released, follows a long line of predecessors that at times won customers over and at other times failed miserably. But it’s a new day for Microsoft and Internet Explorer. The time has finally come for the company to face Google’s Chrome browser head-on.

But perhaps now Windows users are wondering if they should use Internet Explorer 9. Some of those folks are using previous versions of the browser and might be pleased with it. Others might be using Chrome, Firefox or Opera, and couldn’t fathom the thought of moving to Microsoft’s latest browser.

More on eWeek.com

Tags: browser, faster firefox, firefox 4, firefox development, mozilla

The Mozilla Foundation has issued the first release candidate of Firefox version 4.0, finishing a grueling and ambitious beta development cycle for the browser.

This release candidate represents what the development team feels is a finished browser, said Johnathan Nightingale, director of Firefox development, in an interview.

The quality assurance team will still take feedback from users over the next few weeks, but if no major bugs are found, Mozilla expects to issue the full production release of the browser by the end of the month, he said.

More here

Tags: browser, fastest browser, internet explorer, new internet explorer

Internet Explorer 9 is ‘crazy fast’ according to Microsoft, but the Sunspider JavaScript results published by the company show that the latest browser from Redmond still lags behind many of its rivals.

The Sunspider results have become a familiar metric in how fast browsers are judged to be, and Microsoft’s IE8 was judged harshly for its poor performance.

At the preview event for IE9 at MIX, Microsoft’s Principal Program Lead Jason Weber insisted that the latest version of Internet Explorer would ‘change the way you think’ with its speed.

Read the full article here

Tags: Browsers, death of ie6, ie6 funeral, ie6 internet explorer, ie6 last days, ie9

Microsoft sent flowers to last night’s IE6 funeral, thanking the browser for “all the good times.”

The nine-year-old IE6 was laid to rest yesterday in Denver, Colorado, after suffering a “workplace injury” at the offices of a certain search giant in Mountain View, California. Mourners unable to attend were asked to send flowers, and Redmond’s Internet Explorer team was among those who did so.

“Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven,” read the card, a reference to this month’s MIX tradeshow in Las Vegas, where the company is expected to announce the arrival of a new browser, Internet Explorer 9.

More at TheRegisters

Tags: browser, chrome browser, Google, internet, Open Source

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Google plans to launch Tuesday its own Internet browser, opening up a new challenge in cyberspace to Microsoft and its dominant Internet Explorer.

The California-based Web search leader said the new browser, called Google Chrome, would “add value for users and, at the same time, help drive innovation on the web.”

“We realized … we needed to completely rethink the browser,” Google’s Sundar Pichai said in a blog post.

The application can be downloaded for free in more than 100 countries and its code will be open source so no rights will have to be paid by anyone using or adapting the software.

Full article at Yahoo News
and screenshots at blogoscoped.com

Tags: browser, ie8, internet explorer, security, xss

For more details about this new XSS Filter for Internet Explorer 8, read here (XSSFilter in IE8.0)

Tags: 20 million, browser, downloads, firefox, market share

Mozilla’s Firefox 3 web browser, which was officially released one week ago, has already been downloaded over 20 million times since the official launch. This is a noteworthy achievement for the open source browser, which is rapidly eroding the dominance of Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

The number of Firefox 3 downloads continues to climb, but currently represents only a portion of Firefox’s 170 million daily users. This is primarily because Mozilla has not yet rolled out the new version to existing Firefox 2 users through the update channel. In response to an inquiry, Mozilla told us that they have not finalized the schedule for when Firefox 3 will be made available to Firefox 2 users through the update channel, but they suspect that it will happen within the next two or three months.

Read the full article from arstechnica.com

Tags: browser, download, firefox, guinness world of records, mozilla, Open Source

“Join us in our mission to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours!

Have you attempted to set a World Record with no luck? Well, now is your chance to change that! Help set a Guinness World Record by pledging to download Firefox 3 today. And, help spread the word!”

Download Here

See statistics here

Tags: browser, ie8, internet explorer, Microsoft, standard compliant

Internet Explorer 8 is set to be Microsoft’s most standards compliant browser ever. After originally stating that IE8 would default to the same noncompliant behavior exhibited by IE7, Microsoft relented and plumped for standard-by-default. The first beta of IE8 was released in March and it did indeed default to standards compliance. Web developers have been clamouring for standards compliance for a long time; IE is a long way behind the competition, requiring considerable hacks and workarounds to get pages working properly.

IE8 should make things a lot better—but it will still fall far short of the standards set by Firefox, Safari, and Opera. Some of these problems are technical, but others are cultural. Where the other browser developers are open and communicative, Microsoft is still leaving web developers in the dark.

Read more from arstechnica.com…