Posts Tagged ‘Firefox 4’

As the browser strategy of Microsoft, Mozilla and Google unfolds, we are noticing a seismic shift in the browser landscape. Google is claiming a bigger slice of the market every month, which gives the company greater control of web trends. A near perfect browser update model is supporting Chrome’s success, while Microsoft and Mozilla are struggling with a fragmented platform that could turn into a  nightmare to support. Especially Mozilla needs to figure out how to deal with requests for a stable platform model.

Interview - We had a chance to chat with Johnathan Nightingale Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Engineering about Firefox’ current challenges, its opportunities, its rivals, trends and its future.

Samsung and Nokia are offering first WebCL implementations for Webkit and Firefox. The technology showcases the horsepower of complex web apps that not only render graphics on the GPU via WebGL, but open the door to fast image and video processing as well as advanced web games that feature realistic physics effects as well.

Mozilla said that it has no interest in attracting corporate users as they do not represent a significant portion of the browser market.

Firefox 4 recently passed 200 million downloads about 2 months after launch.

Let’s face it. Whether we like it or not, there is a lot of buzz surrounding a minimalistic browser interface that aims to maximize contents pace. The result is what we commonly would describe as a “full screen browser”. Mozilla Labs posted a prototype, but we wonder whether such a browser actually makes sense.

Mozilla may have to surrender its position as second most popular browser this month, at least as far as its backend is concerned. The Webkit browsers Chrome and Safari are less than 0.3 points behind today and are breathing down Mozilla’s neck.

Google Chrome TV commercials have resulted in strong market share gains in May. Firefox may lose its #2 browser rank by the end of the year.

There is really no reason to display more than 60 frames per second on your computer display, especially not in your browser – unless you want to compare browser speeds. Google now allows users to unlock the full FPS capability in Chrome.

Mozilla is providing more detailed add-on compatibility information about add-ons in Firefox 5. More than 200 different add-ons may not work with the latest version of the browser.

Analysis - Being able to type the address of a website is one of the most essential features we expect from web browsers today. Yet it is the URL bar and its purpose that is now being reconsidered by both Google as well as Mozilla for Chrome and Firefox. The next major revision of web browsers will include options to hide the URL bar. Further down the road, it is inevitable that the URL bar will become what it is supposed to be: A tool – not more and not less.

The Gameboy Color may never have been better: You can now play Gameboy games in your web browser and on some smartphones. You can run Linux as well.