Modern browsers for modern applications
Monday, February 01, 2010
The web has evolved in the last ten years, from simple text pages to rich, interactive applications including video and voice. Unfortunately, very old browsers cannot run many of these new features effectively. So to help ensure your business can use the latest, most advanced web apps, we encourage you to update your browsers as soon as possible. There are many choices:
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+
Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products -- as well as new Docs and Sites features -- won’t work properly in older browsers.
2010 is going to be a great year for Google Apps and we want to ensure that everyone can make the most of what we are developing. Please take the time to switch your organization to the most up-to-date browsers available.
Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager
Official Google Enterprise Blog: Modern browsers for modern applications
Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+
Mozilla Firefox 3.0+
Google Chrome 4.0+
Safari 3.0+
Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites. As a result you may find that from March 1 key functionality within these products -- as well as new Docs and Sites features -- won’t work properly in older browsers.
2010 is going to be a great year for Google Apps and we want to ensure that everyone can make the most of what we are developing. Please take the time to switch your organization to the most up-to-date browsers available.
Posted by Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager
Official Google Enterprise Blog: Modern browsers for modern applications
Labels: Firefox browser, Google Apps Engine, Internet Explorer, Web browser
Exciting web browser trends in 2010
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Next year is going to be a big year for web browsers. In 2010, we’ll hopefully see Firefox 4, Internet Explorer 9, Safari 5, and possibly even Chrome 5. This new batch of browsers will include several new features that have the potential to entirely change the way we interact with the Web.
What follows are five trends that we’ll be seeing in these new browser releases, and what they’ll mean to you. Some browsers may not see all of these upgrades, but you can bet that every developer in the browser field is paying close attention to what the competition is doing.
1. HTML 5 makes its mark
Anyone interested in the future of the Web should be paying close attention to the rise of HTML 5. It will to a large extent replace the need for Flash elements, but it’s so much more than that. HTML 5 is the first step toward more desktop-like web applications. It’s also replacing everything Google is doing with Gears, i.e. it will offer offline storage support, drag and drop file capabilities, and much more.
All of the upcoming browsers mentioned above will be paying particular attention to HTML 5 support, even though the specification won’t be finalized for several more years. It’s similar to how wireless router manufacturers began implementing draft versions of the 802.11n wireless spec well before it was finished. The 802.11n spec went through eleven drafts after the first was proposed in 2006, and it was only finalized recently on October 29, 2009. All the while, 802.11n routers were on the market.
2. Chrome rolls out Firefox-like extensions
2010 will also see increased focus on browser extensions. Google already offers extension support for developer Chrome builds, and it will be rolled out to the public with the release of Chrome 4. While it may just seem like Google is aping Firefox’s most unique feature, they’re also innovating by making their extensions much easier to build (they’re basically just web pages), more stable (they run in their own process), and easier to distribute (they’ll be immediately available on the Extensions Gallery after developers submit them).
After using Chrome’s extensions for a few hours, I immediately made it my primary web browser. I held off in the past because I was so dependent on many Firefox extensions – but when I realized that Chrome had pretty much all of the popular Firefox extensions, and that it was also much faster in other respects, the decision was practically made for me.
Firefox still has more extensions, but poorly made extensions also have the uncanny ability to destroy your Firefox experience. Mozilla will surely look into this for 2010 Firefox releases as they also work to catch up to Chrome on the Javascript rendering front (more on that below).
3. Firefox gets individual processes like Chrome
This is the beauty of competition (and the open source movement). While Chrome is mirroring a Firefox feature with their extensions, Mozilla is looking to implement separate processes for multiple tabs, plugins, extensions, and more. They’re calling this particular project Electrolysis – which is a fitting name since the goal is to separate these elements so a single unruly tab or extension won’t bring down the entire browser. Apparently, they’re even using the same open source code as Chrome for the project.
Electrolysis would not only make Firefox more stable, it would also help Mozilla tame the browser’s notorious memory management issues. While running many elements as individual processes does have the potential to eat up more RAM (as is true for Chrome), I find that it’s worth it to give up a bit more RAM for overall better memory management.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if individual processes make their way over to Safari, and also Internet Explorer at some point (although perhaps not in 2010).
Full story:http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/12/21/exciting-web-browser-trends-in-2010/
What follows are five trends that we’ll be seeing in these new browser releases, and what they’ll mean to you. Some browsers may not see all of these upgrades, but you can bet that every developer in the browser field is paying close attention to what the competition is doing.
1. HTML 5 makes its mark
Anyone interested in the future of the Web should be paying close attention to the rise of HTML 5. It will to a large extent replace the need for Flash elements, but it’s so much more than that. HTML 5 is the first step toward more desktop-like web applications. It’s also replacing everything Google is doing with Gears, i.e. it will offer offline storage support, drag and drop file capabilities, and much more.
All of the upcoming browsers mentioned above will be paying particular attention to HTML 5 support, even though the specification won’t be finalized for several more years. It’s similar to how wireless router manufacturers began implementing draft versions of the 802.11n wireless spec well before it was finished. The 802.11n spec went through eleven drafts after the first was proposed in 2006, and it was only finalized recently on October 29, 2009. All the while, 802.11n routers were on the market.
2. Chrome rolls out Firefox-like extensions
2010 will also see increased focus on browser extensions. Google already offers extension support for developer Chrome builds, and it will be rolled out to the public with the release of Chrome 4. While it may just seem like Google is aping Firefox’s most unique feature, they’re also innovating by making their extensions much easier to build (they’re basically just web pages), more stable (they run in their own process), and easier to distribute (they’ll be immediately available on the Extensions Gallery after developers submit them).
After using Chrome’s extensions for a few hours, I immediately made it my primary web browser. I held off in the past because I was so dependent on many Firefox extensions – but when I realized that Chrome had pretty much all of the popular Firefox extensions, and that it was also much faster in other respects, the decision was practically made for me.
Firefox still has more extensions, but poorly made extensions also have the uncanny ability to destroy your Firefox experience. Mozilla will surely look into this for 2010 Firefox releases as they also work to catch up to Chrome on the Javascript rendering front (more on that below).
3. Firefox gets individual processes like Chrome
This is the beauty of competition (and the open source movement). While Chrome is mirroring a Firefox feature with their extensions, Mozilla is looking to implement separate processes for multiple tabs, plugins, extensions, and more. They’re calling this particular project Electrolysis – which is a fitting name since the goal is to separate these elements so a single unruly tab or extension won’t bring down the entire browser. Apparently, they’re even using the same open source code as Chrome for the project.
Electrolysis would not only make Firefox more stable, it would also help Mozilla tame the browser’s notorious memory management issues. While running many elements as individual processes does have the potential to eat up more RAM (as is true for Chrome), I find that it’s worth it to give up a bit more RAM for overall better memory management.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if individual processes make their way over to Safari, and also Internet Explorer at some point (although perhaps not in 2010).
Full story:http://royal.pingdom.com/2009/12/21/exciting-web-browser-trends-in-2010/
Labels: Firefox browser, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Web browser
Where should Mozilla go from here?
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Five years into Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation’s plans seem mainly geared to an aggressive release schedule, so that the browser can compete with Google Chrome.
There is irony here, because the bulk of Mozilla’s income comes from Google, in the form of royalties on the Google search box which sits on the upper-right corner of the program’s interface.
Thus we have a browser created to stop the Microsoft monopoly pushing what some say is the next dangerous monopoly, that of Google.
Firefox is not Mozilla’s only project. There is the Thunderbird e-mail client, the Bugzilla bug tracking system, and SeaMonkey, which combines Firefox and Thunderbird with Web development tools and chat.
But Firefox is what Mozilla is known for, and most of its work, and that of its add-on makers, is devoted to Firefox and the technologies that emerged from it.
Firefox has transformed the Web, by creating real competition to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The question to ask today, however, is where does Mozilla go from here?
- Can Mozilla expand its funding sources to become truly independent of Google?
- Can Mozilla create real market share outside the browser?
- Should Mozilla be focused on browser share, or leave that to Google Chrome and concentrate instead on HTML-related technologies?
- What is Mozilla, in the end? What does the Foundation want to be?
Full Story: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=5228
Labels: Firefox browser, Firefox News, Mozilla News
