Norway-based Opera has released the newest version of its Web browser today, promising faster speeds, a streamlined and lightweight user interface and several new extensions.
Opera has reconfigured its "Speed Dial" extension. Instead of static thumbnails of frequently-visited sites, now, when you open a new tab, you can embed websites that will update automatically, such as for weather or stock quotes. Opera has also partnered with several startup applications that give the browser a unique flavor in comparison to the competition.
Just three months after the hugely successful release of Firefox 4, Mozilla has released the newest version of its browser, Firefox 5. There's little fanfare today, unlike with the previous releases of Mozilla's browser. That's because much like the rapid release cycle of Google's Chrome browser, Mozilla has moved to a faster development cycle for Firefox.
This latest version boasts over one thousand improvements to the browser's security and performance, but the changes - at least to most users - probably won't be that noticeable. It also includes a number of updates to make it easier for developers to build Firefox add-ons and Web apps.
Mozilla is working on technology that will allow PDF documents to be rendered within the browser, rather than utilizing a browser plug-in or an external app to open them. On his blog, Mozilla researcher Andreas Gal has described the project to build a PDF reader in HTML5 and JavaScript.
Typically, PDFs are rendered in a browser with a plugin - either with Adobe's own PDF reader or with another provider's renderer. These plugins often cannot take full advantage of PDF features. Furthermore, as Gal points out, there is quite a large trusted code base, something that's forced the Google Chrome browser to have sandbox the PDF renderer in order to avoid code injection attacks. An HTML5 version would be make this more secure, as would the open source nature of the project.
Mozilla is always experimenting with how content is searched and discovered in Firefox. Mozilla Labs has released a new experimental feature today in its Prospector series. Called Predictive NewTab it supplements the fixed list of top sites presented to users when they open a new browser tab in Firefox.
The idea is to use the semantic data of browser history and tagged bookmarks to give users recommendations of places to visit on the Web when they open a new tab. It should make the "speed dial" list of sites users frequently visit faster and more relevant.
RockMelt, the "social Web browser" built on top of Chromium, the open source version of Google's Chrome browser, has now partnered with Facebook on a new version, RockMelt Beta 3, out today. The updated software includes over 30 new features, including improved Facebook Chat and notifications, and a smart feature that knows when you're on Facebook.com. When Facebook.com is detected, RockMelt will deliver a more streamlined appearance where certain Facebook features are removed from the website and displayed within the Web browser itself.
Google released a new version of its Web browser Google Chrome to its stable channel today, the main channel favored by many, if not most, of Chrome's 160 million users. The updated version offers improvements in security and stability, says Google, most of which will function behind-the-scenes for a better browsing experience.
However, improvements to the browser's graphics capabilities will be more noticeable to users. With added support for hardware-accelerated 3D CSS, Web applications using 3D effects will be "snazzier," Google says. So, what does that mean?
Starting August 1, Google Apps will only support functionality for the newest versions of the major Web browsers.
Google says that such as desktop Gmail notifications and drag-and-drop file upload in Google Docs "require advanced browsers that support HTML5." The move fits within Google's plan to bring all computer-based functionality to the Web, with its Chrome browser and operating system the tip of the spear.
Firefox 4 is gaining in the global browser wars. It has eclipsed version 3.6 for the first time and now is the third most-used browser in the world, behind Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome 11, according to StatCounter Global.
If you put add all versions of all the browsers together, IE is still the global leader with 43.9%, of which 4.6% is IE 9. Firefox is second with 29.3%. Chrome has experienced the most growth, going from 8.6% in 2010 to 19.4% in 2011. Yet, given the different stats you see from different sources, the precise numbers in the browser market are hard to determine. See the charts below.
I doubt that Google has plans to bring its Chrome browser to the iPad anytime soon, but for fans of Chrome, there's a new app you might want to consider: iChromy.
The app has some of the look and feel of the Chrome browser. There are tabs at the top of the screen and an omnibox that'll let you perform searches as well as type URLs. There's also a little star on the side of the omnibox, just like Chrome, that lets you bookmark pages.
Over a year after its launch on the iPhone, Norway-based browser maker Opera Software has at last ported its Opera Mini mobile browser to the larger form factor of the Apple iPad. The new universal iOS application, Opera Mini 6, brings a full-featured Web browser to both tablet and phone, offering a customized start page, tabbed browsing, password saving, social sharing and more.
