Representatives of big browser makers Microsoft, Mozilla and Google talk about the future of browsers, as developers decry browser incompatibility and ask what browser makers plan to do about it. The panel of experts talked about HTML 5, Canvas, Silverlight, IE 8, Google Chrome and Firefox at the Web 2.0 Expo.
Those of us who run Linux on our home machines have a harder time testing sites for Internet Explorer compatibility, or accessing sites that require proprietary IE features. IEs4Linux is a script that can help you set up three older versions of IE on any system running Wine. Unfortunately, the program is not as polished as it should be.
Company managers also contrasted IE8 Beta 2’s “Suggested Sites” feature with the “Suggest” feature used by rival Google Inc. in its Chrome browser, saying that Microsoft’s browser requires the user’s explicit permission before it’s used. They did, however, acknowledge a bug that prevents the request from reappearing during reinstalls.
When Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and the codebase at the heart of Firefox were originally conceived, browsing was less complex. Now, however, functions that previously could be performed only on the desktop — email, spreadsheets, database management — are increasingly handled online.
They’re back! Just when you thought the “browser wars” were over, with the two camps – Microsoft and Mozilla.org – settling in for a kind of intransigent détente, along comes Google to stir things up all over again. Clearly, Google is unhappy with the current state of browser geopolitics and feels it needs to roll its own.
In a sense, Chrome is not a browser, it’s an anti-browser. It’s mission is to destroy the concept of the browser, and become a frame for other applications – or, more pointedly, a kind of “chrome” window. In other words, Chrome is the long-awaited Google OS, a way of running Web-based applications like Gmail, Google Docs and the rest. That Chrome’s default function is as a browser is almost a historical accident.
The free browser, called “Chrome,” is supposed to be available for downloading Tuesday in more than 100 countries for computers running on Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Google said it’s still working on versions compatible with Apple’s Mac computer and the Linux operating system.
This week, Microsoft’s promise to “use its most standards compliant mode, IE8 Standards, as the default” was broken. It lasted less than six months. Now that Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 is released, we know that many, if not most, pages viewed in IE8 will not be shown in standards mode by default.
The InPrivate Browsing feature in Microsoft’s latest browser is designed to delete a user’s browsing history and other personal data that is gathered and stored during regular browsing sessions. The feature is commonly referred to as ‘porn mode’ for its ability to hide which websites have been visited from nosy spouses or employers.
With Beta 2, Microsoft is introducing InPrivate Browsing, which ensures users don’t leave any trace of the sites they have been visiting. Some are referring to the feature as “porn mode,” given that it most likely would be used to hide tracks to such sites.