A recent build of Chromium, the open source Web browser which serves as the testing ground for Google Chrome, has been updated with a new feature: Google Chrome Labs. This internally accessed page is available by typing in about:labs in the browser's address bar. Currently, there are only two "labs" (that is, experimental features) available for testing - an option to use side tabs for Windows users and an option to see an expose-like tab overview for Mac users.
So how can you access this new Labs section, which is still off-limits to users of the standard Chrome browser? We've got the details in our latest "weekend project."
With the official launch of Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 only a few weeks away, we already know about some of its impressive capabilities but there is still one thing we're still left wondering: What does it look like? Will Microsoft continue on with its often clunky and cluttered design or will it join the likes of the sleek and slim Google Chrome?
According to ZDNet, a sneak preview of the next-gen browser seems to indicate that Microsoft is finally ready to join the future.
Your choice in Web browser is about to get more interesting as all three of the top browsers on the market today - Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome - prepare and launch updated beta versions, each offering compelling, and in some cases unique, new features.
Although IE's beta launch is still weeks away, the company has detailed its plans for the improved browser, which include additions like hardware acceleration, HTML5 support and a faster JavaScript engine. Firefox, meanwhile, has added multi-touch support for Windows 7, among other things. And Chrome's latest has added form autofill, plus extension and autofill synchronization.
For early adopters and the technologically curious, waiting for the next version of a product can be trying. For those of you running Google's open-source browser Chrome, there has been the Dev channel, where new in-development releases of the browser are offered with bug fixes and new features on a nearly weekly basis. Users who use Dev channel releases get to see the newest features first, but also get to help developers by testing and reporting bugs.
Now, Google has said that "sometimes [...] even a week is too long to wait to get feedback from the field on a change" and it will begin offering an even more on-the-edge build to its users - the "Canary Build".
Opera, the Oslo-based browser company, has released its latest monthly State of the Mobile Web Report. The company is calling this month's report the "World Cup Edition," as it takes a closer look at the continued explosion of the mobile Web in Africa and declares Chile as the winner of its own "Mobile Web World Cup."
According to the report, the mobile Web in Africa continued to see triple digit growth, with page views increasing by 182% over last year, unique users by 124% and data transferred by 160%.
Apple announced today the release of its latest version of Web browser Safari. Version 5.0.1 introduces Safari extensions as well as an extensions gallery, bringing the browser into sync with other leading browsers such as Firefox and Chrome.
Extensions were initially added with the June release of Safari 5, but were primarily for developer testing. This latest release brings extensions to the forefront with the introduction of the the extensions gallery.
The latest release of the Firefox 4 beta has arrived, and among the handful of new features introduced this round is the addition of App Tabs. These favicon-sized tabs let you pin your most frequently used programs to the top-left side of your tab bar. In an introductory video, Mozilla suggests tabs for email, calendar, IM and streaming music - you know, Web applications.
But this new feature isn't a copycat of competing browser Google Chrome's forthcoming Web app support and accompanying Chrome Web Store, sadly. It's a copycat of Chrome's simple "pin tab" option instead.
Mozilla, the organization behind the popular Firefox browser, just announced a major refresh of its security bounty program. When Mozilla instituted this program in 2004, the organization paid security researchers $500 for discovering eligible security bugs. For new bugs, Mozilla will now pay $3,000. The organization cites the fact that "the security environment has changed tremendously" as the main reason for the increase. In addition, Mozilla also clarified that the bounty program includes Firefox, as well as the Thunderbird email client and Mozilla's mobile products like the newly released Firefox Home tool for the iPhone.
At this year's Google I/O developer conference, the Internet search giant made a surprising announcement: not only was the company releasing a Web-connected "cloud" operating system called "Chrome OS," it would also include an app store called the "Chrome Web Store" which would help users discover, purchase and install Web applications from a central location.
However, you don't have to wait until Chrome OS debuts to install Chrome Web apps - you can test a few of them now by using a Chrome developer build or Chromium, the open-source browser behind Google Chrome.
IBM's Bob Sutor, vice president of open source and Linux, announced this morning that Big Blue is "moving to Firefox as its default browser" because the open-source browser is "stunningly standards compliant", "not beholden to one commercial entity" and "extensible" among other reasons.
The decision puts IBM's nearly 400,000 employees solidly in Mozilla's court, adding yet another vote of confidence for the worlds number two browser.
