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Browser Battle: Nine Browsers of Today and Tomorrow Compared

Paul Lilly — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 11:30:00 -0600

Anyone who may have thought the death of Netscape would signal the end of the browser wars, boy were they mistaken. In fact, it could be argued that it was at that point it all began. It didn't take long for Mozilla's Firefox to emerge from Netscape Navigator's ashes, and over time, Firefox would win over enthusiasts with a potent combination of speed, security, and an unprecedented level of customization.

But what started as a two-man battle is quickly growing into all-out warfare. Prepare to be overwhelmed by an onslaught of new browser releases in the coming months as Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple, Opera Software, and Google all vie to provide your vehicle for navigating the web. Each one brings something new to the table, whether it be blazing fast performance or a unique feature-set. Don't worry if you haven't been paying attention - we jump in the trenches with whole lot of them and get to know each one on a personal basis.

(story edit: moved Chrome to non-beta section, and corrected relationship of Apple to webkit)

Stable Releases

Internet Explorer 7
Feeling the pressure from Mozilla's popular Firefox browser, Microsoft ended a five year hiatus after burying Netscape in the ground and finally jumped back into the browser game with a long overdue update. The IE team went back to the drawing board and totally reworked the browser's rendering engine, also adding tabbed browsing and add-ons to the mix, and then finished it off with a facelift.

Firefox 3
Just how popular has Firefox become? Enough so that when Mozilla announced it would be releasing Firefox 3, power users lined up to download the new version, promptly setting a Guinness World Record for most number of software downloads in 24 hours. And rightly so. Better memory management, improved security, an aptly named AwesomeBar, and several other improvements made the best browser on the market even better.

Opera 9.6
Diehard Opera fans might take exception to referring to Opera as an alternative browser, and with the release of 9.6, they have a point. Several speed enhancements made the already fast browser even snappier, but our favorite feature is the new magazine-style RSS feeds.

Safari 3
Apple's DNA is evident in its Safari browser right from the get-go. Hardly surprising given that it began life on the Mac OS X operating system in early 2003. In the summer of 2007, Safari shed its Mac-only shackles and surfed over to Windows with claims of performing up to twice as fast as the competition. Soon to be old news, Apple is gearing up to replace Safari 3 with a significantly faster fourth version.

Chrome 1.0
Google surprised everyone when its Chrome browser showed up on the web unannounced, and while there's clearly much work to be done, it's hard not to get excited over better tab management. Chrome treats each tab as its own process, so if there's a bug in a website's code that causes a crash, you only lose a single tab and not the entire browser. Bodacious!

Upcoming Releases

Firefox 3.1 Beta 2
Initially intended as a 'fast-track' update to Firefox 3.0, lingering bugs in 3.1's new JavaScript engine, called TraceMonkey, likely means IE8 will ship first. And that's okay with Mozilla, who contends that its much more concerned with getting the new browser right than it is with beating Microsoft to the punch.

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2
There's a good chance Microsoft will release IE8 later this month and some wonder whether or not the web will promptly be broken. That's because Microsoft is putting a much greater focus on becoming web standards-compliant. The downside? All those sites specifically coded for IE, including Microsoft.com, fall under IE's incompatibility list. D'oh!

Opera 10 Alpha
The only browser of the bunch to be in a pre-beta state, we include it here because it's one of the first browsers to fully comply with the Acid3 test with a 100 percent pass rate (Safari 4 being the other). If the new build can live up to its promise of a 30 percent performance boost, Opera may finally find its way onto more mainstream machines.

Safari 4 Beta
Apple says its new Safari 4 browser is up to 4 times faster than the previous version, and according to its own testing, it destroys the competition when it comes to JavaScript performance. A redesigned UI and a smorgasbord of added features makes Safari 4 Apple's most ambitious browser to date.

Start Your Rendering Engines

IE7 (Trident V and JScript 5.7)
Microsoft has been using the closed-source Trident framework dating all the way back to IE4 (Trident I). Since that time, Trident has been tweaked for each new version of Internet Explorer, receiving significant changes starting with IE7 (Trident V). A greater focus was put on standards compliance, and at long last, IE finally brought support for transparent PNG images. Trident's main advantage is IE's marketshare, so even though other rendering engines are far more compliant with web standards, the overwhelming majority of users are surfing the net with Trident. Anyone else suddenly craving some gum?

IE8 (Trident 4.0 and JScript 5.8)
Another IE release means another version of Microsoft's core layout engine. Now in version 4.0, the latest Trident iteration finally manages to pass the Acid2 test, but still scores low on the updated Acid3 test. But even more concerning for Microsoft is that this newest version just might 'break the web'. There has been so much tweaking under the hood that thousands of popular websites (2,400 and climbing) that formerly ran fine on IE no longer render correctly with IE8. Even Microsoft.com appears on MS's Compatibility View list, which is a list of websites known to render improperly on IE8 and are automatically rendered in IE7 compatibility mode. But what about the rest? A 'Compatibility View' button promptly 'fixes' borked sites that haven't been identified as such.

JavaScript is still handled by the JScript engine in IE8, now in version 5.8. Performance has been cited as a the number one goal for optimizations made to JScript, one of which includes the introduction of native JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

(Image Credit: Microsoft)

Firefox 3 (Gecko 1.9.0 and SpiderMonkey)
Netscape may have died an untimely death at the hands of Microsoft, but its soul lives on. We're talking about the open-source Gecko rendering engine, which started life at Netscape in 1997 and has been used with every version of Firefox. Gecko's main advantage is that it was built specifically to support open internet standards, but is also adept at rendering most web pages built for IE. The cross-platform engine also boasts support for a wide range of operating systems.

Also starting life at Netscape is Firefox's SpiderMonkey Javascript engine written in C. It's the same engine Yahoo uses for its Widgets, and can also be found in various other applications.

Firefox 3.1 (Gecko 1.9.1 and TraceMonkey)
This latest version of Firefox upgrades the Gecko engine from 1.9.0 to 1.9.1, bringing with it a few key changes that bely the incremental naming scheme. As expected, compliance with web standards is improved, but the update also ushers in support for border images, a private browsing mode, and enhancements to the AwesomeBar.

Garnering a lot of attention on the web is Mozilla's new TraceMonkey JavaScript engine. Mozilla essentially supercharged SpiderMonkey by adding native-code compilation and optimizations called "Trace Trees" (PDF). In TraceMonkey, frequenly executed code is traced and compiled, and the next time that same code is called upon, the compiled version is used. This tracing technique has already shown impressive performance gains and it looks to get even better over time.

Opera 9.6 (Presto 2.1.1 and Futhark)
The second youngest of all the major rendering engines, Opera 9.6 continues to use the closed-source Presto platform first released in November 2002. Because it's not freely distributed, Opera is the only desktop browser to use the Presto engine, although it can also be found on a number of licensed third-party apps and devices, most notably the Nintendo DS and DSi, Wii Internet Channel, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX and above, and Adobe CS2 and above.

Both Opera 9.6 and 10 also use an ECMAScript/JavaScript engine called Futhark. Futhark balances speed with memory usage, which has allowed other next-gen browsers to catch up and leap ahead in terms of raw performance. However, the Opera team is already working on a new JavaScript engine called Carakan (pronounced Tsharakan). Citing internal testing, Opera Software claims the new engine is already two and a half times faster than Futhark, and has the potential to be 50 times as fast.

Opera 10 (Presto 2.2 and Futhark)
The next version of Opera sees an upgrade from Presto 2.1.1 to 2.2, and with it a claimed 30 percent performance boost on the web over the previous version. But it gets even better. Presto has always done exceptionally well with web standards, and the Presto 2.2 engine is one of the first ever to score a perfect 100/100 on the unforgiving Acid3 test (Apple claims it beat Opera to the punch, but we're content to call it a tie).

(Image Credit: Opera)

Chrome 1.0 (WebKit and V8)
The future looks bright for WebKit, the open-source rendering engined used by Google's Chrome browser. The WebKit platform has already found a home on Google's mobille platform Android, Palm webOS, and Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch. There's even been talk of both Microsoft and Mozilla switching to WebKit in future versions of IE and Firefox, respectively. While not as standards compliant as Presto, the WebKit framework is considered fast and highly versatile.

For JavaScript duties, Google developed the open-source V8 engine written in C++. Not only has V8 been tuned for speed, but according to Google, the JavaScript engine handles resource management exceptionally well by reclaiming memory used by objects that are no longer required in a process.

(Image Credit: Google)

Safari 3 (WebKit and JavaScriptCore)
Many PC users never even heard of Safari until 2007, even though the browser had been in existence since 2003. That's because up until just two years ago, Safari was only available on the Mac, and only people with cooties own Macs. A series of security threats and vulnerabilities immediately following Safari's Windows debut meant PC users were at a high risk of getting cooties too.

Safari 4 (WebKit and Nitro)
Apple's newest browser is built aroud the WebKit platform, but to lay claim as the fastest browser on the planet, Apple also developed a new JavaScript engined called Nitro, which is Apple's version of WebKit's Squirrelfish engine. According to Apple, this helps Safari execute JavaScript code up to 30 times faster than IE7 and more than three times as fast as Firefox 3. A new look and a bevy of features has given Safari a new outlook in life.

User Interface

Internet Explorer 8

Unlike the jump from IE6 to IE7, there isn't too much terribly different about IE8's UI compared to the previous version. Microsoft seems content to stick with the browser's redesigned layout, even if end users don't feel the same way. A new Favorites bar finds its way onto IE8, as does a new Safety menu option, and the Read Mail button now shows up on the toolbar by default. The rest of the layout remains virtually unchanged, including Microsoft's decision to move the Home, Refresh, and Stop buttons to the opposite side of the Back and Forward buttons.

It didn't take long for Microsoft to emulate Mozilla's recently introduced AwesomeBar. Microsoft calls it the Smart Location Bar in IE8, and as you type in URLs, IE8 sifts through your bookmarks and recently visited sites to try and guess your destination. But unlike Firefox, IE8 groups your search results, searches through RSS feeds, and lets you delete entries to prevent them from showing up in the future. Advantage: IE8.

Has Maximum PC gone toxic? No! Those green tabs are part of IE8's new tab grouping feature called Groups. Opening new tabs from within an existing one places them all next to each other in a color-coded group. You can then ungroup individual tabs, close out an entire group, or move tabs from one group to another.

Also notice that only newegg.com appears in black in the address bar, while the rest of the URL is grayed out. This is by design and intended to make it easier to identify what domain you're visiting. This also serves to help end users from being fleeced by spoof sites.

Firefox 3.1

Like Microsoft, Mozilla made only subtle changes to its latest browser's layout, none of which are evident at a glance. But after a little digging, we did manage to uncover some differences in the UI. One such change is that when you now drag a tab, a semi-transparent thumbnail appears under the cursor. Should you drop the tab anywhere other than the tab bar, the page will instantaneously appear in a new browser window without having to reload. Pretty groovy, eh?

Firefox's awesome AwesomeBar gets even more, er, awesome in 3.1. The core functionality remains the same, only now you can customize the search results using different tags. If you start a search with ^, Firefox will only look through your history. Other tags include * (bookmarks), + (tagged pages), @ (URLS), and # (page titles only). Awesome!

Chrome 1.0
Given the buzz that surrounds Google, we'd venture to guess you've already played around with Chrome. And if you're like us, you retired the minimalistic browser after the geek factor wore off. When we say 'minimalistic,' we're not referring to Chrome's feature-set, but the sparse UI, even more so than either IE7 or IE8. All the navigation tabs -- Back, Forward, Refresh, and Home -- sit to the left of the Address bar. Almost all other controls lay buried beneath a pair of icons to the right. It's the perfect layout for neat freaks and anyone whose mantra is 'less is more.'

Google still has some work to do with how Chrome handles an over-abundance of tabs. Once the tab bar is filled up, Chrome will squish new tabs to make them fit instead of creating a new row or making the overflow accessible via a pull-down menu. After awhile, tabs become so small that even the favicon is no longer visible, creating a fun game of 'find the hidden tab.'

Andrew Orlowski of The Register referred to Chrome as Google's "Trojan Horse for bundling Google's Gears onto your PC." Regardless of whether or not that was the intention, integrating Gears into Chrome comes in handy even if you decide not to use Chrome as your primary browser. What this does is create application shortcuts for websites that open in standalone windows, and not in a traditional browser window. Creating a Gmail shortcut, for example, gives you quick access to check your mail without opening up a browser.

Opera 10

Opera fans who attended the browser's Ninth Act will feel right at home in Act Ten. That's because the entire layout remains exactly the same, at least at this early stage (remember Opera 10 is still in Alpha). Navigation buttons appear comfortably to the left of the Address bar, with a Tab bar sitting above.

Out of the box, no other browser sports the same level of customization as Opera. Several toolbars and panels are at your disposal, and little nuances like the little camera icon in the lower right-hand corner add to Opera's appeal. By clicking on the camera, you can choose to disable all images, which could come in handy if your internet is on the fritz or you still roll with dial-up (*shudder*).

There's also a fit-to-width button, which squishes an entire page into your browser's frame to eliminate horizontal scrolling. This can come in particularly handy not only on smaller displays, but when some inconsiderate cretin posts an obsecenely long link in a forum thread (you know who you are) breaking the tables. Likewise, Opera's integrated zoom lets you shrink or expand web pages from 30 to 1000 percent the original size.

Safari 4
Put Safari 4 side by side with its predecessor and you'd think the two were completey different browsers. And they really are. Safari 4 sheds its Max OS X digs for a brand new look that appears far less out of place on a Windows desktop. Gone are the bubbly vertical and horizontal scroll bars, now replaced with the clunky looking bars familiar to any longtime Windows user.

Safari 4 also simplifies its navitation layout. The Refresh button has been integrated into the Address bar, and the Menu bar has been completely removed. Those options now appear in a pair of buttons in the upper right corner. The UI is very similar to Google's Chrome browser, just not quite as slimmed down. Tabs extend to the top, just like in Chrome, affording end-users a little more real-estate for those sexy full-page hardware spreads. Safari 4 makes better use of the Bookmarks toolbar, allowing you to not only add individual bookmarks, but category folders as well. A pull-down menu gives you quick access to any of your favorites contained inside.

We really dig the Top Sites feature, which shows the most often visited sites arranged in rows of thumbnails whenever you open the browser. Alternately, a button in the left-hand corner brings them within view if you've changed your homepage or navigated away.

iTunes users will feel right at home navigating through bookmarks and website history via Safari 4's Cover Flow interface. Safari displays a thumbnail preview as you scroll through your favorites and recently visited websites. Whether or not it adds to your browsing experience is up for debate, but it sure looks slick.

Start typing in a URL and Safari will try to guess where it is you're wanting to go based on your bookmarks and previously visited sites. Yes, this is the same as Firefox's AwesomeBar, only here it's called Smart Address and Smart Search. And yes, it's just as snazzy in Safari as it is in Firefox.

Setting the Standard(s Support)

Internet Explorer
Microsoft not only set out to improve standards support with IE8, but because so much of the web has been coded with previous versions of IE in mind, Microsoft also had to focus on backwards compatibility. No easy task, IE8 does finally pass the Acid2 test, which is a test designed by The Web Standards Project (WaSP) to expose any flaws in how a browser renders properly coded webpages, but scores only a 20 out of a possible 100 on the newer, and much more stringent, Acid3 test.

By comparison, IE7's Acid2 results look like a bad acid trip gone even badder (to pass the test, a browser must properly render a smiley face graphic), and scores a miserable 12 out of 100 on the Acid3 exam. In this respect, IE8 signifies a huge improvement over IE7 in standards compliance, but it still lags behind every other major browser on the market.

Putting IE8's struggles with Acid3 aside, Microsoft made enough changes under the hood to essentially 'break the web.' In other words, existing websites developed with legacy IE behavior in mind might have trouble rendering properly on a more standards-compliant browser. To combat this, Microsoft built a Compatibility View feature into IE8. For popular websites Microsoft has already identified as being coded for previous versions of IE (including Microsoft.com), Compatibility View kicks in without any user intervention. For all other sites, the end-user can click the Compatibility View button located on the toolbar to manually force IE8 to emulate IE7. While this may seem like a kludge, the alternative was to let the web fend for itself, a sticky proposition given IE's dominant market share.

Firefox
One of Firefox's claims to fame is that it has always been much more standards compliant than Internet Explorer. HTML, XML, XHTML, SVG 1.1, CSS, ECMAScript, DOM, PNG images with transparency, and several other web standards have been implemented in Firefox, and support has gotten even better in version 3.1. The latest build scores 93/100 on the Acid3 test, putting it far ahead of IE8, but still trailing Opera and now Safari as well.

Perhaps deserving of more buzz than its getting is Firefox 3.1's support for the CSS @font-face rule. With this ability, web developers have the option of specifying web fonts that must be downloaded for their website to appear as they intended. To prevent any delays from occurring, Firefox will first render the web page using available fonts, and then update the display as soon as the missing fonts are downloaded.

Opera

One of the first browsers to support Cascading Style Sheets, the Opera browser has since added a plethora of open and published standards to its repertoire. Opera was also the first Windows browser to pass the Acid2 test, and if that weren't enough, Opera was one of the first to score a perfect 100 on the Acid3 test (a case could be made that Safari 4 beat Opera to the punch, but we're content to call it a draw).

Like Firefox 3.1, Opera 10 adds web font support. The latest version also boasts improved HTML5 support and a host of other developer-friendly additions, which so far appears to be the major focus of Opera 10.

Chrome

In theory, Google's Chrome browser should have an advantage right out of the gate. Google says that within 20-30 minutes of each new browser build, it can be tested on tens of thousands of different web pages because of Google's massive web crawling infrastructure. In reality, Chrome really is a fairly standards compliant browser, scoring a 79/100 on Acid3 test, enough to come out on top of IE7 and Firefox 3.

Safari

Given that Apple ~~gave birth to the WebKit rendering engine~~ forked KTHML (from the Konqueror browser) for Webkit, it would make sense the company knows best how to rev it up. Not only in terms of speed, but also in following the rules of the road. So it shouldn't be too surprising to see Safari 4 surf through the Acid3 test with a perfect 100/100, whereas Google's WebKit-based Chrome trails behind.

Like Firefox 3.1, Safari 4 implements support for HTML 5 media tags. This paves the way for web developers to offer audio and video content right inside the browser without requiring plugins.

Security and Privacy

Internet Explorer
As the most targeted browser on the planet, the onus falls on Microsoft to ensure IE doesn't leave millions of users as sitting ducks. IE7 ushered in a defensive mindset that hadn't been attributed to previous versions, and for the first time, browsing on IE felt secure. Active X controls no longer ran by default, users are protected from an attack called cross-domain scripting, and a new phishing fliter warns users who are about to visit a malicious website attempting to harvest personal information.

In IE8, even more safety guards are put in place. Phishing and malware protection has been revamped with a new SmartScreen Filter. When visiting a known phishing site, not only does the Address bar turn red, but the entire browser window as well. To click through to the questionable site anyway, users must first click on 'More information' before the option to 'Disregard and continue appears.' Even then, the Address bar remains red for as long as you stay on the unsafe site.

In addition to anti-phishing measures, the SmartScreen filter hones in on sites and servers known to distribute malware. Should you attempt to download from one of these locations, a dialog box appears letting you know you may be in for more than you bargained for.

One of the most talked about features in IE8 is the new InPrivate browsing mode, or more candidly referred to on the web as 'porn mode.' InPrivate browsing leaves no traces of your browsing session behind, such as cookies, cached files, browser history, or other incriminating evidence. This isn't just helpful for hiding your tracks when looking up Katie Morgan's latest acting role, but is also useful for gift shopping during the holidays or birthdays. Other possible uses include looking up banking information on a shared computer, researching health issues, and anything else you want kept private.

Firefox
With its continued rise in popularity, Mozilla no longer has the luxury of resting on its laurels when it comes to Firefox's security. Building a secure browser has always been at the forefront of Mozilla's goals anyhow, only now Firefox has grown into a worthwhile target for hackers.

As an incremental upgrade, much of the same core security components in Firefox 3.0 find their way into 3.1. Phishing attempts are still thwarted with a less than subtle warning, and clicking a website's favicon brings up a security report. Clicking the 'More Information' button reveals whether or not the site is storing cookies on your PC, if you've saved any passwords for the site, and how many times you've visited that web page in the past.

Sites like Playboy.com, MacLife.com, and DetroitLions.com should all see an increase in hits once the next generation of browsers roll out, because nearly all of them include some form of privacy browsing to cover your tracks. In Firefox 3.1, you can initiate Private Browsing mode from the Tools menu. Only the files you choose to download and bookmarks you create are saved, everything else vanishes as if the session never took place. Kind of like the Detroit Lions' 2009 season.

Opera
Because of its low market share, Opera doesn't often find itself the center of security attacks. Nevertheless, the Opera team has generally been lightening quick to plug up security holes and vulnerabilities.

There hasn't been a whole lot said about the security in Opera 10, but one change forthcoming is that widgets no longer have network access turned on by default. In theory, this new security model should should help prevent hackers from exploiting errors in widgets.

Neither Opera 9.6 or the new Alpha build offer a true privacy browsing mode, though that could change as development continues on Opera 10. For the time being, users can cover their tracks by clicking on 'Delete Private Data' in the Tools menu. The downside is that all data will be released, not just the cache from the current browsing session, making it an all or nothing affair.

Chrome
Google's Chromium team approached security from the standpoint that no matter what you do, eventually your browser will be compromised. That would normally spell doom for an otherwise healthy system, but in Chrome, running processes in a permissions-based sandbox keeps malware isolated from the OS. In this multi-process architecture, each tab is a treated as a separate process, none of which are given rights to write files to the hard drive or pluck information from sensitive areas. An added benefit to this approach is that if poorly written web code causes a crash, it only affects the individual tab it was loaded in, not the entire browser.

(Image Credit: Google)

The downside to Chrome's sandboxing approach is that it depends on Windows for its security, making it susceptible to vulnerabilities in the OS. In addition, legacy file systems, like FAT32, don't support security descriptors, preventing some USB keys and other devices from being protected by the sandbox.

Maybe you're a Miley Cyrus fan but don't want the whole world to know it, or at the very least, your immediate family. With Chrome's incognito option, you can surf wherever you want on the web in a new browser window that runs in read-only mode. Once you close the window, all traces of your activity are wiped out.

Safari
If Apple added (or plans to add) any underlying security enhancements to Safari 4, it isn't saying what they are. The same security and privacy features present on version 3.2 are also present on version 4, only now they're being more actively marketed (note that none of Safari 4's security features are listed as 'new').

While there doesn't appear to be much new in version 4, Safari already boasts some modern security measures, including phishing protection, pop-up blocking, antivirus integration, and a Private Browsing mode. There's also a 'Reset Safari' option to erase all traces of your browsing with a single mouse click.

Add-Ons and Themes

Internet Explorer
Both IE7 and IE8 support third-party add-ons, a feature Microsoft seems interested in pushing more aggressively in IE8. In the latest beta build, Microsoft includes an ieaddons.com bookmark on the Favorites Bar, while also adding two new IE8-only features called Accelerators and Web Slices.

Accelerators make routine tasks a cinch without having to navigate away from the page you're viewing. Just highlight text from any website and a blue Accelerator icon appears above the selection allowing you to look up driving directions, find items with an Ebay search, translate text, define words, and a handful of other tasks depending on which Accelerators you have installed.

Web Slices offer a similar convenience as Accelerators, but in a different way. If a Web Slice is available on a page -- an Ebay auction, for example -- a green icon appears. Click it to add the Web Slice to the Favorites Bar, and whenever you want to quickly check the status of the auction (or sports scores, stock quotes, Digg updates, and so forth), click the newly added Web Slice to bring up a preview of the site.

Firefox
Simply put, no other browser boasts the same level of versatility and customization options as Firefox. To date there are over 6,000 add-ons available and more than 600 themes to choose from.

Browser updates sometime ruin compatibility with certain add-ons, however the most popular extensions usually see very little, if any, downtime. And as for Firefox 3.1, Mozilla says that of the 906 add-ons that make up 95 percent of add-on usage, 35 percent are currently considered compatible

Opera

Instead of integrating into the browser like Firefox's add-ons do, Opera's catalog of Widgets run outside of the browser as a separate Window. Once installed, Widgets are accessible by clicking on (*drum roll*) 'Widgets' in the Menu bar.

While you can't customize Opera's core functionality, you can change its skin. There are roughly 1,000 skins to choose from, which can be narrowed down based on editor's picks, top rated, new skins, and the most popular (as determined by the number of downloads).

Chrome

What do Chrome add-ons and the Tooth Fairy have in common? Both offer the promise of big rewards, but neither one exists. However, this won't always be the case. In a design document, Mozilla developers outlined plans to add extensions to Chrome sometime in the future, and if Chrome is to compete with Firefox, it will need to follow through with that promise.

Sticking to its minimalistic guns, Chrome doesn't offer any themes or skins either, at least not out of the box. User-created themes are available, but they require replacing a hidden DLL file or using a third-party themes manager like XChrome.

Safari
Here again is another browser without an official extension architecture. And unlike Opera, which boasts several extensible features out of the box, mouse gestures and other features power users have come to rely on aren't built into the browser.

The situation is even worse for Windows users. Sites like PimpMySafari.com offer several user-created plug-ins for Safari on Mac OS X, but no such luck for the rest of us who own and operate a real PC. Not unless you can get excited about Real Player, Adobe Reader, and a small handful of other ho-hum plug-ins.

Performance

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

According to Apple, Safari 4's new Nitro engine lives up to its name by running JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE7 and three times as fast as Firefox 3. We put these claims to the test with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, which benchmarks only the core JavaScript language. When the dust settled, Safari 4 certainly lived up to the hype, but the situation turned much more competitive when throwing Firefox 3.1 and Chrome into the mix.

Celtic Kane JavaScript Benchmark

In addition to JavaScript performance, Celtic Kane's benchmark also sprinkles in a litte bit of DOM and rendering testing. and here again Apple's Safari 4 leads the pack, though the gap it put between itself and IE7 isn't as dramatic this time around. You might wonder why, at least according to this test, Safari 4 performs 50 percent better than Chrome when both are WebKit-based browsers. At least part of the difference can be attributed to using different JavaScript engines (V8=Chrome, Nitro=Safari 4).

V8 Benchmark Suite

Built by the V8 team (as in, Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine), take this one with a pound of salt. The V8 Benchmark Suite purports to test pure JavaScript performance while simulating other web application tasks a browser may have to contend with. We could have called this one from the outset, but Chrome comes out on top, however just barely edging out Safari 4.

Our Real World Impression

Running web benchmarks only tell a part of the story. So many variables are involved that it's impossible to come up with a completely reliable performance yardstick. Will your web browsing experience really be improved threefold (or more) on Safari 4 than IE7?

In our testing, the answer is no. However, we did notice a difference among browsers, just not as pronounced as the benchmarks indicate. Safari 4 and, to our surprise, Internet Explorer 8 felt the snappiest, though neither version of Firefox ever felt slow by comparison.

How They Stack Up

Ask the Doctor: Security Slowdown?

The Maximum PC Staff — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 19:35:41 -0600

After reading the “Powerful Protection” Doctor question in the July issue, I started wondering what kind of performance hit I was taking from the plethora of security programs on my system. I have two Dell machines: an XPS-600 and an older Dimension 8300 (Windows XP Home, SP3 and IE7). They are connected to the net through a Linksys WRT150N router. Both units also have AOL 9.1, McAfee Security Suite, and SpySweeper. I know this is overkill, but I have no idea what to keep or what to disable.

—Loren

First, you should determine if your security programs are actually affecting your day-to-day use. To do this, install a benchmarking program like OpenSourceMark (http://tinyurl.com/566hsg) and run its full official test three times to establish an average score. Then disable or uninstall all of your security software and repeat the benchmarking process. Calculate the percentage difference (if any) between the scores to get an approximation of how much your machine may or may not be affected. If you see a huge performance loss, run this scenario with a single security program active each time to see which one taxes your system the most.

By the way, AOL 9.1 comes bundled with McAfee Internet Security Suite. It’s not clear from your question whether your install of McAfee is the one that AOL offers or an additional install. If you’re running it twice, that’s certainly overkill—uninstall one of the versions.

You should also consider the features each program brings to the table. It makes no sense to double up. McAfee’s product and Webroot’s SpySweeper both contain anti-spyware functionality and are similarly skilled at addressing that problem—simply choose the one you prefer. Eliminating application redundancies is a great way to ensure that your system remains secure and speedy.

SUBMIT YOUR QUESTION Are flames shooting out of the back of your rig? First, grab a fire extinguisher and douse the flames. Once the pyrotechnic display has fizzled, email the doctor at doctor@maximumpc.com for advice on how to solve your technological woes.

Virtual PC Your Way to Mastery of IE6, IE7, and IE8

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:34:10 -0600

Let's face it, web developers. Even if you're the most devoted fan of Firefox, Opera, or Safari, the 800-pound gorilla in the room is still Internet Explorer. Like IE or hate it, your pages had better work properly with it. Unfortunately, you can only have one version of IE running on a test PC at a time...or can you?

Add Virtual PC 2007 SP1 to your Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows Server 2003 or 2008 box, and install your choice of Windows XP SP3+IE6, Windows XP SP3+IE7, Windows XP+IE8 Beta 2, or Windows Vista+IE7 in VHD format. Now, it's easy to find out which pages make a particular flavor of IE gag, and you can switch between IE versions running in different VMs with the click of a mouse. For more Virtual PC downloads, including release notes, click here.

These disk images work until April 2009, so you have plenty of time to work out page glitches. Not developing websites? No problem! Try them anyway.

Gmail Tells IE Users to Switch - For Their Own Good?

Mark Edward Soper — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 11:28:14 -0600

TG Daily reports that Google's Gmail is now recommending that IE6 users switch to Chrome or Firefox 3. IE6 users logging into Gmail see a link that says "Get faster Gmail" that takes them to a "Get faster Google Mail with a faster browser" page that provides links to download IE7, Firefox 3, or Google Chrome.

Interestingly enough, if you use IE7, the page recommends upgrading to Firefox 3 or Google Chrome, as well as offering a link to the IE 8 beta.

So, what's up with Gmail and IE6? And, why is IE7 also on the naughty list? Is it really speed, or is it time to play "follow the money?"

What makes Google's anti-IE6 stance even stranger is that back in September, Google upgraded Gmail to give IE6 users (many of whom are corporate users that must use IE6) comparable features to those available to newer browsers. And, contrary to TG Daily's claim that IE6 is no longer a fully supported browser for Gmail, the "Does Google Mail support my browser" help page still lists IE versions 5.5 and above as fully supported.

The most likely answer for Google's pushing browsers other than IE is simple: its own Chrome web browser. Chrome is noted for its speed, and Google, quite understandably, wants to see Chrome's market share increase. To this end, Google recently replaced Firefox in its Google Pack, and hopes to sign up hardware OEMs to bundle Chrome on new PCs after Chrome emerges from beta early this year.

So, how about it, Gmail users? If you've tried different browsers with Gmail, do you see big improvements in performance when you use Chrome or Firefox versus IE6 or IE7? Is Google really trying to improve your Gmail experience, or just looking for an excuse to get more Chrome users? Hit Comment and tell us what you think.

Good News for Lonely Geeks, Bad News For Vista: How To Impress Girls With Browser Memory Protection Bypasses

Mark Edward Soper — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:59:58 -0500

As we told you last week, Microsoft rolled out two new security programs, Microsoft Active Protections Program and Microsoft Exploitability Index, during the Black Hat USA 2008 Conference. Unfortunately for Microsoft, the same conference saw a presentation by security experts Mark Dowd and Alexander Sotirov that renders these and other protections for Windows Vista, including its much-touted Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR) and Data Execution Protection (DEP) features, effectively null and void.

Dowd and Sotirov's presentation, How To Impress Girls With Browser Memory Protection Bypasses, made their point by beginning their presentation with a live exploit against IE7 on Windows Vista. And, as the photo at the top of this article suggests (from page 40 of the presentation), it does seem to impress the girls!

How did they do it? The full presentation (available here in PDF format) is quite technical, but here's the short version. according to SC Magazine:

In explaining the problem, the researchers said that most memory protection mechanisms are based on two things: detecting corruption and stopping common exploit patterns, and attempts to reinforce these are integral to Vista. But in many cases, some of the built-in protection mechanisms in Vista are not enabled by default for compatibility reasons.

“At the desktop level, compromises had to be made because of compatibility issues. Exploiters have a lot more control over browsers,” Sotirov said.

And in many cases, third-party applications are not compiled to use the Vista memory protections. For example, Java and Flash are not compiled using the critical protection called ASLR.

What can be done? My take: Microsoft needs to rethink the balance of compatibility versus protection, do a better job of informing users of what's protected and what's not, and get third-party application vendors to take advantage of the protection features in Vista. What about ordinary users like us? Watch out for compromised legitimate websites, and, as always, as our own Will Smith says, think before you click.

Image courtesy of Taossa.com.nyud.net.

IE (and You) Vulnerable to iFrame Vulnerability

Mark Edward Soper — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:38:58 -0500

Researchers may have discovered that 637 million users are running outdated browsers, but when it comes to handling iFrame-based attacks, it doesn't matter how up to date your copy of Internet Explorer is: ZDNet's Zero Day security blog reports that exploit code is now available online to demonstrate how to perform malicious attacks against IE7 as well as IE6 and even IE8 beta 1.

The exploit code can take over an inline frame (an iFrame is an HTML element that enables the embedding of one HTML document inside another one) and subsequently capture keystrokes. Imagine the implications for online banking, e-commerce, and other "secure" uses of the Web. Scary!

Digging Deeper

The full US-CERT advisory is available here, and you can try a harmless proof-of-concept from a link here. For more about how iFrame attacks work, see this April 2008 article from UK's Guardian.

What Say You?

Have you been hit by an iFrame exploit? Do you avoid frames in websites? Tell us about it!

Image courtesy of Zero Day.

IE8 Beta 1? Ready for Downloading Now, but Not Yet Ready for Primetime

Mark Soper — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 22:32:54 -0600

Neowin.net is reporting that Microsoft is now offering Beta 1 of Internet Explorer 8. It's being rolled out as part of Microsoft's MIX08 annual conference on the future of the Web.

Getting Your Hands on IE8 Beta 1

If you just can't wait to try IE8, proceed directly to the IE8 download page, where you can find versions for:

Fast Ways to More Information with Activities

I'm glad you asked. New feature number one is "activities," which enables you to right-click selected content on a web page and bring up a list of actions to take, such as:

- Add to Digg
- Blog with Windows Live Spaces
- Define with Dictionary.com
- Lookup news with MSNBC
- Map with Live Maps
- Search with Live Search
- Share on Facebook
- Translate with Windows Live

In many cases, you can choose alternative activity providers. For example, you can use eBay or StumbleUpon for Find, Yahoo! Local Maps for Map, and so on.

More Improvements

IE8 replaces IE7's Links bar with the Favorites Bar for even faster access to your favorite websites. WebSlices offer dynamic content within a web page that you can click through for more information and subscribe to. Automatic Crash Recovery minimizes browser crashes and enables individual browser tabs to be closed and restarted. The Phishing Filter, one of IE7's best features, has now been transformed into the Safety Filter, which also blocks sites with known malware as well as phishing sites. Learn more about these features at the New Features page.

Standards-Based Rendering, at Last!

Previous versions of Internet Explorer have been notorious for ignoring W3C standards. However, by default, IE8 will work in a much more standards-compliant way than previous IE versions. Although Microsoft Watch's Joe Wilcox suspects that Microsoft's recent legal woes in Europe are as much to blame for Microsoft's decision as anything, it's a welcome sign for web designers tired of developing for both standards-based and IE browsers.

So, is it a no-brainer decision to give it a try? Not so fast. Read on.

Think Before You Install

Although lots of people are ready to give IE8 a try, it's a beta - beta 1, to be precise. So, what could go wrong? I'm glad you asked. The Release Notes for Beta 1 (aka KB949787) take eight pages to print using IE7's default Shrink to Fit setting. Clearly, the issues with this release aren't trivial. Some highlights (or lowlights, depending upon your point of view) include:

- You can't install it on prerelease versions of Windows Vista SP1 or on checked (debug) versions of Vista, Vista SP1, or Windows Server 2008
- The help file included with IE8 Beta 1 is actually the IE7 version; an actual IE8 version will be included in a later release
- If you can't open a website, use the Emulate IE7 button (remember IE8 uses a standards-based approach by default)
- To get the Activities feature to work, select text and right-click it to open the shortcut menu
- To use Windows Live Hotmail and Spaces Activities, click the Emulate IE7 button and restart the browser
- You must perform some registry edits to enable Assistive Technology programs to work correctly
- You may need to reload the Vista application compatibility update KB943302 after installing IE8 Beta 1
- Some security zone settings have changed
- High contrast (Accessibility) color scheme doesn't work with IE8 Beta 1
- Some popular programs including DriveLetterAccess, RealPlayer 11, Google Toolbar (including v5 beta), Yahoo Toolbar, HP Smart Web Printing, QuickTime, and that MaximumPC webcast favorite, Skype, aren't compatible with IE8 Beta 1

How to Try IE8 Beta 1 - Safely

As is typical for an early beta (and you can't get any earlier than Beta 1), IE8 has a lot of rough edges. Unfortunately, because IE8, like previous versions of IE, works its way through most every nook and cranny of Windows, you can't install it alongside your current version of IE - it replaces your current version. Sure, when you uninstall IE8 Beta 1, you get your previous version back, but with the limitations of IE8 Beta 1, that might not be enough.

So, how can you take IE8 Beta 1 for a test drive safely? One word: virtualization. If you have a spare Windows XP license (such as a version of Windows XP Home or Professional you're not using anymore), you can download Virtual PC 2007 free from Microsoft, install Windows XP as a virtual machine, and install IE8 Beta 1 into the virtualized operating system. You could also install a trial version of Windows Vista Enterprise (already available as a virtualized download ready to run under Virtual PC 2007) and install IE8 Beta 1 to it. If the virtual machine crashes or hiccups, no problem!

MS07-069 Windows XP Woes Solved (and We Suggested It First!)

Mark Soper — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 11:12:33 -0600

MS07-069's No Joy - But MS Has the Solution

Microsoft's MS07-069 cumulative security update for Internet Explorer hasn't been the most welcome update this holiday season. As our own Paul Lilly reported, lots of Windows XP SP2 users have no longer been able to connect to the Internet with IE after this update (brought to you by the same Windows Update that gave you Windows Desktop Search 3.01!). We suggested a workaround yesterday, but there's now a definitive solution that requires just a little registry magic.

For Browsing Benefits, Dial KB946627

Microsoft Knowledge Base article 946627 provides the details, which involve creating a new registry key and DWORD value in Windows XP SP2's registry. Here's a hint: save yourself some typing (or mistyping) by copying and pasting the the subkey during the registry editing process. The best news: you're back in business immediately, with no reboot required.

Great Minds Think Alike!

As it turns out, Microsoft's solution in KB article 946627 is the same registry fix detailed as part two of the solution in KB article 942367, which we suggested as a solution yesterday. So, if you already performed the steps we suggested, relax - you've already fixed the problem!

Put This In Our Stockings, Steve and Bill, Please!

Here's a wish for every Windows user this Christmastime: Microsoft, please, please, please test these security updates more thoroughly before they go out. It's absurd to make users need to whip out Regedit to fix problems of this type.