Tag: browser

Google to Advertise Chrome on TV

May 9th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Video, World No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

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Following a successful 30-second internet advert in Japan, Google has decided to advertise its web browser, Google Chrome, on television.

Google Japan produced an advert promoting Google Chrome that attracted quite a lot of attention and praise quite a while ago. Google decided to ride this wave of enthusiasm and hype and created a Youtube channel titled Chrome Shorts last week. Chrome Shorts is basically a collection of short videos promoting Google’s entry into the web browser market, Chrome.

Needless to say, this turned out to be quite popular as well. Since then, Google has decided to take the next big step and has decided to showcase the ad produced by Google Japan to the world. And what better way to communicate with the masses than with TV?

Thus a Google TV Ad campaign was born:

We designed a Google TV Ads campaign which we hope will raise awareness of our browser, and also help us better understand how television can supplement our other online media campaigns.

Was written on Google’s official blog, which contains details regarding the advert.

Not too long ago, Google started doing research regarding the relevancy of TV ads. That research is being used to  target the right audience.

The advert (which is embedded below) will begin airing this weekend on various TV networks.

[via The Official Google Blog]

Opera Browser Celebrates 15th Birthday

April 29th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Software No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

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Opera browser  turned 15 years old yesterday and celebrated with a cartoon and a list of reasons to switch to Opera, which now occupies over 40 million computers worldwide.

Way, way back in April 1994, two computer scientists were searching for a better way of browsing the internet than what was currently on offer. Finding no perfect solution, they decided to code the browser themselves. Opera was born.

The browser has grown in popularity over the years, and whilst it hasn’t got the sheer numbers of Firefox or Internet Explorer, it’s got a dedicated browser and engineers who demand innovation.

Yesterday, the browser turned 15 years old, and Opera decided to mark the occasion with a little bit of celebration. They’ve compiled a list of 15 reasons to switch to Opera (all 15 being good reasons), a list of Opera’s top innovations which details how far ahead of their time they were (they invented the use of tabs in browsing way back in 2000), as well as releasing a cartoon describing Opera’s creation seen above.

The Opera browser is currently in its 9th version, and nearing it’s 10th release (The post you are currently reading was typed with Opera 10 Alpha). The browser runs on multiple platforms, such as Mac, Windows and Linux. Opera has also successfully made the jump to mobile devices with Opera Mini, where it sits firmly in the number 1 spot.

Happy Birthday!

Internet Explorer 8 Released Today

March 19th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Software No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

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Microsoft has announced that Internet Explorer 8 is finished and will be released to the masses at noon EST today.

IE8 has been in testing for around a year now, and rather than focus on appearance, Microsoft has gone exclusively under-the-hood to improve performance and to make the browser be more web-standards friendly (improving the task of Webmasters worldwide). Microsoft has even added in a “compatibility-mode” that allows users to render web pages the same way older version of Internet Explorer do, ensuring a pleasurable browsing experience no matter which website you visit.

Although the pre-conceived idea that Internet Explorer is weak security-wise still remains for some users, IE8 is indeed a lot safer than previous versions, and more or less on par with Firefox.

The release of IE8 couldn’t come at a better time, as Firefox is starting to gain on Internet Explorer at a rapid pace, constantly eating away at it’s market share. This release might just put the browser back into the game.

You should be able to get Internet Explorer 8 when it’s released.

Google Chrome Back Into Beta, Adds Speed Boost and Extensions

March 18th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Software No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

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Recently, Google Chrome got a brand new beta version [2.o] for everyone to play around with.

Among a touted 25% V8 Javascript performance improvement, multiple other features such as auto-filling of forms, page zooming, and tab-dragging features that allow you to view tabs side-by-side, as shown in the video below:

but crucially, Google’s Chrome now supports extensions, albeit unofficially. It takes a quick hack to be able to use extensions with the beta version.

I think the inclusion of extensions is addressing the one biggest flaw of Chrome – It’s nowhere near as customizable and as personalized as Firefox can be. If the Chrome developers can get extensions support and somehow coax the community to create the same wealth of quality add-ons Firefox has, we may have a very serious contender in the browser market. Threaded tabs, quick start-up times and efficient browsing… AND add-ons. What more could you want?

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 Released

March 13th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Software One comment - Tags: , , , ,

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Codenamed: Shiretoko.

You can download the Firefox3.1 Beta here.

Noteworthy changes are quoted from the Release Notes below:

Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9.1 rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 9 months. Firefox 3.1 is an incremental release on the previous version with significant changes to improve web compatibility, performance, and ease of use:

  • This beta is now available in 64 languages – get your local version.
  • Improved the new Private Browsing Mode.
  • Improvements to web worker thread support.
  • Improved performance and stability with the new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine.
  • New native JSON support.
  • Improvements to the Gecko layout engine, including speculative parsing for faster content rendering.
  • Support for new web technologies such as the <video> and <audio> elements, the W3C Geolocation API, JavaScript query selectors, CSS 2.1 and 3 properties, SVG transforms and offline applications.

The web worker thread improvements speeds up the viewing of web pages (as it enhances the Gecko rendering platform), but what’s particularly good to see is more stability and performance improvements to Mozilla’s TraceMonkey javascript engine.

Many users suspect this Beta will transform into Firefox 3.5.

All I can say is that it seems rather stable, as I’m making this post with it right now!

Mozilla to Ditch Google?

March 12th, 2009 · Michael Struwig · Featured, Internet No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

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After Google launched Chrome last year, Mozilla has decided to have a serious think about whether to continue relying on Google for revenue. Business Week has the full report.

Mozilla Chairman Mitchell Baker notes, “We are physically surrounded by Google,” and it is rather clear why. Mozilla makes a huge sum of money each year (88% exactly, totalling over $75 million) thanks to placing a Google search bar (as per mutual agreement) next to the address bar on their popular browser, Firefox.

Mozilla’s Firefox’s popularity has been growing rapidly over the last two years, firmly holding the #2 spot as the most popular internet browser, behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The more popular Firefox becomes, the more exposure Google gets and therefore the wealthier Mozilla becomes.

This was all perfect, until Google released their very own internet browser, Google Chrome. This started raising doubts over whether Google would re-new their contract with Mozilla when it expires in 2011, instead opting to gain market share and keep all the ad revenue for itself. This leaves Mozilla considering alternative search providers:

There are probably other search engines that would pay us more money

John Battelle also, and crucially, points out that users might be alienated with any change,

It’s possible that Firefox’s adoption rate could decline if Firefox users felt they were getting Microsoft or Yahoo shoved down their throat.

Baker is confident in finding alternative revenue streams however

“There have been more opportunities for money than people think.”

The future is going to be an interesting one.