Google co-founder Sergey Brin must be a happy man today; after several months of waiting, his company finally released yesterday Chrome for the Mac.
But so far, my experience with Google’s Internet browser is a mixed bag. Overall, I prefer its user interface from Safari (clicking on the address bar highlights it, opening new Web apps in new tabs really works, the address bar *is* the search box, feels faster…), despite using Apple’s browser for years.
Chrome for Mac lacks proper bookmarks management, Mac OS integration, email page function and extensions
However, Google Chrome for Mac doesn’t offer the same level of integration than Safari, especially with iPhoto: I’m so used to copy a photo from a Web page right into iPhoto with a click of a mouse. I just can’t do that anymore with Chrome.
Most frustrating with Chrome is its poor bookmarks management, or the lack thereof. For example, you can’t delete a bookmark inside a bookmark folder, or get rid of the “Other Bookmarks” folder. Also, it’s not possible to email a Web page. This function is also a no-show on Chrome’s Windows version.
Google also said that “extensions” for Chrome’s Mac version are coming soon. It’s still very early for me to know what these extensions will bring to my overall experience, but despite some missing features, Chrome is now my default browser on all my Macs and Windows machines, and my Android phone of course! Now, if Google could synchronise all of them – like Opera can with the version 10 of its browser – that’ll be bliss!
Despite gaining momentum, Google Chrome adoption is still far behind Firefox's 330 million users!
At the Googleplex this morning, Google vice-president of product management Sundar Pichai started the Google Chrome OS press conference with an update on the search engine Web browser:
Since launch, 14 months ago, 40 million people are now using Google Chrome as their main Web browser. Although this sounds like a big number, it’s not. To put it in perspective, Firefox added 30 million users in 8 weeks last month!
Google Chrome has been updated more than 20 times through seamless auto updates;
Javascript is 38 times faster than Internet Explorer. An important benchmark for Web 2.0 applications that make heavily use of AJAX;
HTML 5 support.
Pichai also mentioned about 3 more announcements that Google will be making by the end of this year regarding Chrome:
Release of the Mac version
and the Linux version;
Release of Extensions, which are similar to plug-ins.
Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft is not yet worried about the recent security breaches in IE8
After his keynote at the MIX09 conference, I chat with Dean Hachamovitch, the general manager of the Internet Explorer team at Microsoft about the future of Internet Explorer.
First off, Hachamovitch quickly brushed off the idea of adopting the WebKit engine – used in Apple Safari and Google Chrome – to replace the homegrown Trident engine.
The Microsoft executive also touched on the company’s Research Lab Gazelle engine “that is not a replacement for Internet Explorer’s engine but is actually using it.”
Second, despite pushing for smaller “add-ons” for its Accelerator, Web Slices or Visual Search suggestions, Microsoft is not abandoning ActiveX. “ActiveX is still going to be used for super rich applications,” confirms Hachamovitch.
On the latest security issue affecting IE8, Microsoft is still evaluating how the hackers breached the browser’s security and if the hackers made any “assumptions” for their brute force attacks. “I also want to remind you that all the browsers were taken down. It was not just IE8. But also Safari and Firefox,” adds Hachamovitch.
Chief development officer, Christen Krogh, overseas Opera's long term strategy
Despite the economic turmoil, Norwegian Internet browser company, Opera Software, still expects to grow 35% to 50% this year again.
“Don’t be surprise, this is the similar kind of growth, both in terms of users and revenues, that we experienced since we started the company in 1995,” explains Opera chief development officer, Christen Krogh in an exclusive interview with TechPulse 360.
Krogh is in Silicon Valley this week from Oslo, Norway, and will attend the much awaited Churchill Club debate on Internet browsers tomorrow.
In his chief development officer role, Krogh is looking for technologies to supplement Opera’s Internet browser functionalities; but also hiring engineers to do customisation and support of the Opera browser for customers like phone carriers, Internet service providers, hardware manufacturers, etc. “The market is exploding. The Internet population is growing fast, as well as the devices connected to the Internet,” adds Krogh.
The Opera browser is available for desktops, smartphones (Opera mobile), standard phones (Opera mini) but also set top boxes, Nintendo Wii and more recently the Nintendo DSi, currently only sold in Japan.
Despite loosing market share, Microsoft Internet Explorer is by far the dominant window to the Net
For the first time in about 10 years, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser market share fell below 70 per cent, ending 2008 with 68 per cent compare to almost 80 per cent 2-years ago.
At the same time, Firefox’s market share rapidly rose from 13.7 per cent to 21.3 per cent while Apple’s Safari browser jumped to almost 8 per cent from 4.7 per cent, according to data collected by Net Applications.
Although Internet Explorer 7 is the current version of Microsoft’s net browser – and IE8 is expected to come out this year – IE6 is still the dominant browser in business environments.
Google said Thursday it has taken the beta test label off its Chrome browser, which now has 10 million active users around the world.
Google's Chrome browser claims 10 million users
In just 100 days, 14 updates to the browser were released improving the product’s stability and performance, Google said in a blog entry. “With today’s fifteenth release, we are taking off the ‘beta’ label,” said Vice President Sundar Pichai.
The announcement is likely to turn up the heat on this latest skirmish in the long running browser wars that first broke out a decade ago between Microsoft and Netscape.
While Google Chrome’s has attracted attention, it has a long way to go. In a recent market survey, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer retained 71 percent share and up-and-coming Mozilla Firefox claimed 20 percent.
Safari had climbed to nearly 7 percent with Opera and Netscape holding onto less that 1 percent. Chrome’s share was 0.7%.
Still, on the technical front, Google claimed progress. Video and audio glitches common in early version of Chrome has been ironed out, and the browser’s speed continues to increase.
Users also can now import bookmarks from other browsers and key RSS and autofill features are on the way.
Sun Microsystems released its competitor to Adobe System’s popular Flash and Microsoft’s Silverlight on Thursday, trying to edge its way into already heavily contested market.
Sun stresses JavaFX's ability to run on multiple screens
The computer maker began shipping JavaFX, a software technology began talking about 18 months ago and which came out in a preview version in July.
JavaFX runs on top of Java and is intended to let developers build applications using multimedia and graphical content in Java. This new functionality would have required Flash or another software in the past.
With the commercial release, Java users will have to upgrade their runtime with a download.
Sun says a version for mobile devices will ship in 2009 – probably earlier in the year than later. Future development will bring JavaFX to the television.
JavaFX will come up against some powerful competitors in Adobe’s ubiquitous Flash, Microsoft’s budding Silverlight and the Web technologies in Google’s new Chrome browser.
Sun says JavaFX and the Java environment has a leg up over Flash. First, they can more readily be used to link an application to the business applications, or “business logic,” and data sources running behind a corporate Web site. They also are more tailored to run with mobile screens, televisions, routers and desktop application independent of a browser.
Flash has begun an ambitious initiative to better run on mobile phones.
“We’ve solved the hard problem first,” says Jeet Kaul, senior vice president of Java engineering at Sun, referring to the ability to run on screens and devices beyond the PC. “We have solved the embedded story really well.”
Opera's small Silicon Valley office accommodates a pinball and a sofa (IKEA?). But no ping-pong yet!
Here are some bright news for the folks here in Silicon Valley who have just been laid off from Yahoo, Google, Palm and others.
The small Norwegian company, whose Internet browser competes with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Firefox and Safari – on the desktop and the mobile market – is expanding its U.S. headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
Opera Software’s local chief, Rod Hamlin is looking for new offices in the Bay Area to accommodate the new hires; he expects to nearly double the size of the Silicon Valley office to about 40 people.
“We’re looking to hire talented engineers and/or to acquire technology companies to help us work on a sleuth of projects we have,” said Hamlin in a conversation late last week.
Time to brush up those résumés. Anyone else hiring?
The Opera Mini Internet browser supports all Java enabled phones
In spite fierce competition from Google, Firefox and Microsoft, Opera software is not giving up on the Internet browser market.
The Norwegian company is releasing tomorrow the final version of its Opera Mini 4.2 browser for all Java-enabled phones, including Blackberry and Windows Mobile devices.
However, the version for Google’s G1 Android phone is still in beta and no versions – native or Java – are yet planned for Apple’s iPhone.
“Special porting to Android was required as it uses a proprietary implementation of Java,” explains Opera spokesperson, Falguni Bhuta.
The beta of the Opera Mini 4.2 browser was announced two weeks ago in conjunction of a new datacenter improving browsing speeds for U.S. users. The new mobile browser adds colourful “skins”, improved support for YouTube and other mobile video services and better synchronisation between mobile phones and Mac/Windows PCs.
The new version can be downloaded here directly from your phone, starting tomorrow morning at 10 AM (EDT).
Last year, the non-profit revenues hit $75 million, of which $66 million or 88% came from its Google partnership. In 2006, the Foundation pulled in $67 million, and Google dollars accounted for 85 per cent of that or close to $60 millions.
The Mozilla deal with Google ends in November 2011. So Mozilla has 3 years to find another sugar daddy or risks to fall in oblivion like its predecessor, Netscape.
After frustration over Firefox slow improvements, Google launched its own Internet browser, Chrome. And if it gets it off the ground, then the Mountain View, Calif., will less incentive to strike another favourable deal with Mozilla.
In other Mozilla news, Firefox and other Mozilla products hit a major milestone today with the one billionth download of add-on software for the browser; after just 3.5 years!
Can anyone @IBM fix the WiFi network at #IOD11 ? It's been terrible for the past 2 days and everybody I talked just can't stand it anymore 7 months ago
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