Browser Wars: Firefox Overtakes Internet Explorer in Europe
Internet Explorer loses crown in major market for first time
Firefox overtook Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) to become the number one browser in Europe in December 2010 according to StatCounter, the free website analytics company. The firm’s research arm StatCounter Global Stats reports that in December, Firefox took 38.11% of European market share, compared to IE’s 37.52%.
“This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory”
“This is the first time that IE has been dethroned from the number one spot in a major territory,” commented Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. “This appears to be happening because Google’s Chrome is stealing share from Internet Explorer while Firefox is mainly maintaining its existing share.”
Google Chrome in third place is gaining market share in Europe and has grown to 14.58% compared to 5.06% in December last year. “We are probably seeing the impact of the agreement between European Commission competition authorities and Microsoft, to offer EU users a choice and menu of browsers from March last,” added Aodhan Cullen.
In North America IE still retains a clear lead in the browser market with 48.92% followed by Firefox (26.7%), Chrome (12.82%) and Safari (10.16%).
StatCounter Global Stats is based on aggregate data collected by StatCounter on a sample exceeding 15 billion page views per month (4.9 billion from North America) collected from across the StatCounter network of more than 3 million websites.
Internet Explorer 9 Beta Release
Beta version of Internet Explorer 9 available worldwide today is accompanied by new experiences from some of the world’s top sites reaching over two-thirds of active Internet users.
Microsoft Corp. announced the worldwide beta availability of its new Web browser, accompanied by over 70 top websites and global brands that created new experiences to show off the capabilities of Windows Internet Explorer 9, at the Beauty of the Web event in San Francisco. The new browser delivers a fast, clean, trusted and interoperable online experience that takes full advantage of Windows 7, putting the focus on the sites and applications people care about. Developers and designers from partners around the world are showcasing how they have used the capabilities of Internet Explorer 9 to tap into the power of the PC hardware, Windows 7, a new user experience, and support for modern standards such as HTML5 to create immersive sites that feel increasingly like native PC applications. Together these partners reach more than 800 million visitors, or about two-thirds of the active people on the Web. Users can download the new Internet Explorer 9 Beta and experience many of these new sites at http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/.
“Internet Explorer 9 uses the power of Windows and the whole PC to bring you a better Web,” said Steven Sinofsky, president of the Windows and Windows Live Division at Microsoft. “We’re proud to join our partners in releasing the beta of Internet Explorer 9, delivering a more beautiful Web to Windows customers across the globe.” Read more
Apple Updates Safari 5
Apple released Safari 5.0.1, turning on Safari Extensions and introducing the Safari Extensions Gallery. Apple introduced extensions support in Safari 5 in June so developers could begin creating extensions with HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript web standards. With Safari Extensions Gallery, users can quickly find extensions that add powerful new features to Safari, from toolbars that display live web feeds to sophisticated programs that filter web content. Safari 5.0.1 allows users to download and install extensions either from the Safari Extensions Gallery or directly from a developer’s site.
“Safari 5 has been a big hit, and user response to the innovative new Safari Reader has been fantastic,” said Brian Croll, Apple’s vice president of OS X Product Marketing. “We’re thrilled to see so many leading developers creating great extensions and think our users are going to love being able to customize Safari.”
“Millions of our customers already use Amazon Wish Lists to store items they want to buy for themselves or receive as gifts,” said Gianna Puerini, vice president of Worldwide Design and Community at Amazon.com. “With Safari 5, we were able to quickly build the Add to Amazon Wish List extension that lets customers add items from any website to their Amazon Wish List with the click of a button.”
“We’re excited to continue working closely with Apple to bring visually compelling Bing experiences to Safari,” said Jeff Henshaw, general manager of Bing User Experience. “The Bing Extension for Safari brings Bing search intelligence to everyday browsing with Safari. When a user selects text in Safari, Bing instantly recognizes what they might need and pops up helpful, informative tips, from real time maps and driving directions to real time translations to direct web search results.” Read more
Apple Safari 5: Runs Faster, Kills Ads
Apple today released Safari 5, the latest version of the world’s fastest and most innovative web browser, featuring the new Safari Reader for reading articles on the web without distraction, a 30 percent performance increase over Safari 4,* and the ability to choose Google, Yahoo! or Bing as the search service powering Safari’s search field. Available for both Mac and Windows, Safari 5 includes improved developer tools and supports more than a dozen new HTML5 technologies that allow web developers to create rich, dynamic websites. With Safari 5, developers can now create secure Safari Extensions to customize and enhance the browsing experience.
“Safari continues to lead the pack in performance, innovation and standards support,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Safari now runs on over 200 million devices worldwide and its open source WebKit engine runs on over 500 million devices.”
Safari Reader makes it easy to read single and multipage articles on the web by presenting them in a new, scrollable view without any additional content or clutter. When Safari 5 detects an article, users can click on the Reader icon in the Smart Address Field to display the entire article for clear, uninterrupted reading with options to enlarge, print or send via email. Read more
Maxthon releases Alpha Version of Max-3, soon to be the world’s first automatic hybrid browser
Maxthon today released alpha version 4 of its new browser, Max-3, for public download and testing.
The alpha is available at http://dl.maxthon.cn/mx3/msetup3.0.0.139.exe . When the complete version of the browser is released, early next year, Max-3 will be the Internet’s first browser to use automatic-detection hybrid technology to power its display of Web pages.
Max-3 will contain two rendering engines. One is the Trident engine already in the current version of Maxthon, as well as being used by Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
The second rendering engine, Webkit, is newer than Trident, and used by Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari. Both of those browsers have won praise in reviews for their rendering speed. Early benchmark tests of Chrome found it to be 42 times faster than Internet Explorer 7, and nine times faster than Firefox 3. Max-3 is expected to have similar speed advantages.
A rendering engine is a collection of code that translates the text-based HTML and Javascript instructions into signals used to correctly display a Web page that could include photos, graphic decorations, video, and text.
Trident is relatively little changed since it was introduced several years ago. Since then, design trends have introduced such innovations as CSS with different functions, the W3C standard, and different aesthetics. The result is that a page rendered by Webkit may look fine. When Trident tackles the same page, it doesn’t understand the newer instructions and botches the display.
Webkit, however, may not properly construct one of the millions of older Web pages originally designed to display on systems running only Internet Explorer.
Max-3 is designed to provide the best of both rendering engines.
Shifting Gears
In Maxthon’s hybrid rendering engines, running display commands through Webkit is called Ultra Mode in recognition of its extreme high speed and its ability to work with the latest Web design fashions. Ultra Mode significantly improves JavaScript execution and page loading speed. It has also much better support for the W3C standards, as evidenced by Max-3′s passing the W3C’s Acid2 and Acid3 tests.
Most of the time, Max-3 will operate in Ultra Mode. Max-3 may encounter pages, such as certain online banking sites, that Webkit cannot display. When that happens, Max-3 automatically suspends Ultra Mode and engages the Trident engine to put the browser into Retro Mode. As the name suggests, Retro Mode will function to display correctly Web pages that have used the same design commands that originated some 20 years ago. The switch from Ultra to Retro is seamless and ordinarily goes unnoticed by the user.
If the browsing mode is not switched automatically, the user can make the switch manually by clicking the Browsing Mode button next to the address bar. Maxthon makes a data entry about the mode selected by the user, and automatically activates that mode during return visits to the page.
The hybrid engines are available for testing in the new alpha. Other major updates to the alpha code include:
- Auto-Update Module, allowing Max-3 to be updated online.
- Address Bar Optimization. The bar now supports smart sorting of its drop-down list and shortcuts for completing URLs. For example, users may type the first part of a URL and complete it with Ctrl+Enter for .com, Shift+Enter for .net, and Alt+Enter for .org.
- Added Favicons for display in the Address Bar, Tab Bar, Favorites Bar, and Favorite List.
- Smooth Scrolling Support. Web pages will move smoothly when scrolling the mouse wheel.
- Enhanced Javascript performance by about 10 percent.
Source: Maxthon