Pixel Labs has posted a rather amusing yet statistical poster of the browser wars. The cartoon depicts web browser and their market share over time.
Strangely absent from this cartoon is Google’s Chrome, which has a greater share than Opera.
Click on the cartoon to see the full version.
With 2009 fast approaching, details for IE Mobile 6 have started to appear. The latest mobile Internet browser from Microsoft should bring a positive change to the web browser market.
Currently, there are still no screenshots available, as Microsoft has made all beta testers and OEM’s sign NDA’s, but details on the new browser are starting to emerge. Here are some of the key features for IE Mobile 6.
With these unique, and some innovative features, IE Mobile 6 may make up some ground in the mobile browser market, but is it enough to entice Opera Mobile or even iPhone Safari users?
It has been a good month for the ‘underdogs’ in the browser wars this month, with Firefox, Safari and Chrome all gaining ground.
Firefox has hit a fantastic milestone, now with over 20% of the web browser market, up 4% from last month. Apple’s Safari has climbed to just over 7%, up 8.5% from last month.
Even Google’s Chrome has crawled back some ground, after a steady drop off rate from the browsers first month. Chrome gained around 12% during the month, taking it’s total share to just under 1%.
The losers this month were both Opera and Internet Explorer. Opera lost 5% of it’s market, and is now 5th in the race, behind Google Chrome. November also saw Internet Explorer’s market share plummet below 70% for the first time since 1999.
You can view the full report at the Market Share website. Historical data can be sourced from Wikipedia. The browser wars are really firing up.
EMG Technology is suing Apple over an alleged patent infringement in its mobile version of Safari.
EMG is seeking an unspecified amount in damages, claiming the “simplified interface of reformatted mobile content to provide optimum viewing and navigation with single touches on a small screen” as a reason for the suit.
Patent 7,441,196 was issued in October this year, after being filled back in November 1999. The patent covers the resizing of content and data on mobile screens, along with navigation and scrolling methods.
EMG has not offered Apple the chance to licence the technology and currently has no plans to go after other smartphone makers.
Apple will not comment on the matter.
Over the weekend Apple has pushed out the latest version of it’s web browser Safari. Now at version 3.2 the latest version fixes security flaws and increases protection against known phishing sites.
A full list of security updates can be found via the Apple support website.
The update should automatically be pushed out to current Safari users via Apple’s software update tool, or it can be downloaded for individual systems using the links below:
Download Safari 3.2 for Leopard
Download Safari 3.2 for Tiger
Download Safari 3.2 for Windows
With all the news that Google Chrome’s market share has droped since it’s release, I thought it was only fitting to add some more statistics to the fire.
On another technology site that I run, browser stats were as follows for the month of September:
Browser Market Share for September
Through the month of September, Chrome’s usage has dropped around 30% from its release. Usage seems to have stabalised since then.
Of interesting note, is that Google Chrome has still gained a larger market share than Opera. It should also be noted that Chrome is still only available on Windows. Perhaps it’s market share will again increase when offical Mac and Linux versions are released.
Perhaps Google Chrome hasn’t shaken up the market as much as everyone predicted. Did you try Google Chrome and are you still using it?
WebKit passing Acid3
The WebKit development team has just passed another huge milestone. The WebKit browser engine used in Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome now fully passes the Acid3 test.
The Acid3 test checks how well browsers comply with the latest standards, in particular JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM).
Maciej Stachowiak of the WebKit team attributes this feat to “recent speedups in JavaScript, DOM and rendering.”
Unfortunately, it will be a few months before we see this in Safari and Chrome, but while you wait you can download a nightly build of WebKit and test this for yourself.
Google has just released a new version of their Gears project which now has support for OS X and Safari.
Google Gears “is an open source project that enables more powerful web applications, by adding new features to your web browser“.
With Gears, web applications can naturally interact with your desktop, JavaScript performance is increased, and you can store data locally in a fully search-able database.
Gears-enabled websites include Google Docs, WordPress an YouTube Video Uploader.
A full run down on new features can be found in the Google Gears Blog, and you can download a copy of Google Gears from http://gears.google.com/.
With the release of Google Chrome, John Resig has performed JavaScript benchmark tests on a wide variety of browsers on both Windows Vista and XP. These browsers include:
Testing, using three benchmarking tools; SunSpider, V8 Benchmark, and Dromaeo, has produced some interesting results. Results show that Google Chrome is ahead in all but one benchmark test – very impressive for a browser that is still in its early beta stages. It shows the performance of the new V8 JavaScript engine and the power of the WebKit rendering engine found in both Chrome and Safari.
You can read the full JavaScript Performance Rundown article to see the other (not-so)surprissing results.