Fresh new browser releases from the big leagues (EN)
1. juli 2009 af Matthew Lequick
We last checked in with the browser evolution back in March, and it should come as no surprise to hear it's moving forward. For starters, users are making the switch to Internet Explorer 8. But also to Firefox, which holds a larger market share than Microsoft. The W3 schools have the most recent stats.
Today, let's take a quick look at the major players' most recent releases.
Internet Explorer 8
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx
What's new?
* Web Slices is the biggest new feature users will see. You can subscribe to marked content on a particular page, then get notified when that content updates.
* Proper CSS compliance! Users won't exactly see this running under the hood, but the browsing experience will probably feel improved because stylesheets are more likely to be rendered as designers and developers intended. There is also a compatability view button next to the URL bar that makes some "blank" sites render properly.
As a developer, if IE8 does renders your design non-optimally, you can implement this one line fix. Add that right after the head tag and then get to work supporting IE8. ;)
Firefox 3.5
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html
What's new?
* It's faster. Mozilla says it's twice as fast as 3.0. This is due, at least in part, to a new Javascript engine from TraceMonkey.
* Open video support. This means that video is now a possibility without a plugin, like Quicktime or Flash. Mozilla has worked with Ogg, a video codec from Xiph.org, to make it this happen. At this point, neither IE nor Safari have this support.
This gets interesting, because the implication here is as socio-political as it is technological. Between the lines, Mozilla is saying that video should be open source material -- not dependent on a proprietary plugin. For a more detailed discussion, visit this post on webmonkey.
Safari 4.0
http://www.apple.com/safari/
What's new?
* A start page called Top Sites. Your most visited sites appear as a grid of thumbnails, very similiar to Opera's speeddial feature, but implemented with more elegance.
* Cover Flow support. If you use it in iTunes or Finder, you'll probably like it here. Browse your history or bookmarks.
* Faster. Apple claims Safari outraces IE, Firefox and Chrome. They've also updated ther JavaScript engine.
All three of these browsers include performance updates and security updates, and they are all free downloads, so feel free to try them out. Who knows, maybe you'll make a new browser friend .
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