Opera 10 has just been released. Sure, other browsers have released new versions lately as well, but which of them also produced a trailer?
Many of the features introduced are not novel, although welcome nonetheless, adding to the browserscape as a whole. More about the new release can be found in their press release.
Image is Opera's branding for number 10. Much more appealing than its serif "O".
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
The good folks behind Mozilla's Firefox made its highly anticipated Firefox 3.5 available today.
As we've discussed before, One of the most interesting advancements to come out of Firefox 3.5 (and IE8) is mainstream cross-domain XHR. Due to the same origin policy concept that all major browsers adhere to, web applications are only allowed to make AJAX-style requests from the browser to their own server Cross-domain XHR provides mainstream support for mashups, but without security underlying it, most enterprises will not adopt them.
The latest startup from the Institute for Cyber Security to go live, SafeMashups, Inc., provides such a authentication and authorization framework in its free web toolkit and SafeMashups Community Service.
Along with enhanced JavaScript
enhancements in both mainstream browsers (and Safari 4's recent release), the language's prominence and status has grown. It'll be worthwhile to see what improvements come down the pipes in the next few years.
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
As with Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5 (in beta), Safari comes with cross-domain XHR. Unlike its competition, however, Safari already had it, so its implmenetation is more mature. Cross-domain XHR provides mainstream support for mashups, but without security underlying it, most enterprises will not adopt them. The latest startup from the Institute for Cyber Security to go live, SafeMashups, Inc., provides such a authentication and authorization framework in its free web toolkit and SafeMashups Community Service.
Along with its enhanced JavaScript
enhancements spurred on by Google Chrome, the capabilities of a browser broadened their invention nearly fifteen years ago. These next few years should be more interesting, still!
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
Microsoft announced the release of Internet Explorer 8 RC1. Although still in beta, IE8 is now considered feature complete enough for public use. One of the most interesting advancements to come out of IE8 (and Firefox 3.1, also in beta and due this quarter) is mainstream cross-domain XHR. Due to the same origin policy concept that all major browsers adhere to, web applications are only allowed to make AJAX-style requests from the browser to their own server. With IE8 and Firefox 3.1, the marketshare of browsers that can make use of cross-domain AJAX requests will shoot from less than one percent to greater than ninety. Along with enhanced JavaScript enhancements, this should prove to be the most interesting improvements to be seen in the browserscape since tabs.
Image is of IE's market share since its inception to December 31, 2008.
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
Earlier today, Google released its new browser, Chrome, from beta to its official release version. Opera 10 went into alpha stage last week, and Apple's Safari 4 is in development preview. Mozilla aims to have version 3.1 of its Firefox browser released early next year, as Microsoft plans to have Internet Explorer 8.
Since 2003, Internet Explorer has begun to wane from a 95% market share to less than 70% today, decreasing at a increasing rate. At its current pace, Internet Explorer will be under 50% browser saturation in less than three years, something it hasn't seen since 1998, when it began to win the first browser war (Eric Sink has an informative "war memoir" worth reading).
In recent months, we have seen large companies weighed down from their own hubris, too large to deftly maneuver toward a changing demographic (it may be too salient to suggest IE is the GM of browsers). At the Institute for Cyber Security, we test against multiple browsers, including those aforementioned, but what it means to be a browser today?
Google's Chrome has begun to abstract the physical medium of where an application runs, blurring the distinction between a symbolic link (shortcut) and a hyperlink, the desktop from the web cloud. Firefox made browser extension writing a breeze. Both have correctly focused on their JavaScript engines as it is no longer just for validating input. Opera and Firefox have made standards compliance a priority, from CSS and XHTMlL to SVG and other W3C standards.
IE8 will not have SVG support, and its CSS compliance will still be the weakest of its esteemed competition. It introduces new non-standard functionality such as web slices and XDR, instead of capitalizing on existing standards that provide the same functionality. Today, a Microsoft evangelist intimated that there is a hidden advantage to Internet Explorer: "It's harder to write apps for IE--so it's a harder market for competitors to get into". That might be a terrific PR spin on a truly hazardous weakness, but such pride belies a fundamental misunderstanding of the browser world and IE's place in it.
If the first browser war led to a superpower, then the second one may well lead to a balkanization, where no browser dominates so thoroughly. In this state of affairs, will continuing its status quo even during rapid user turnover and referring to its barrier to entry as a plus rather than a minus leave IE as a first among equals, or an also-ran?
Erhan J. Kartaltepe,
erhan.kartaltepe-at-utsa.edu
