If's there's one thing we hate, it's Brussels sprouts. If there's two things we hate, it's Brussels sprouts and sneaky programs that automatically install add-ons into our Internet browsers. Turns out we're not the only ones. Those pesky unapproved add-ons have been a thorn in the side of Mozilla, who shoulders the blame when the invaders cause crashes and browser lagging. When Firefox 8 rolls around, unauthorized add-ons will be a thing of the past: the browser won't allow installations without the express permission of users.
While you're busy grilling cow parts and getting ahead on back-to-school shopping this weekend, Mozilla will spend the next few days spit shining Firefox 6, the next major browser release slated to ship on Tuesday. And though Mozilla is known for pushing back release dates, there doesn't seem to be any cause for concern that Firefox 6 isn't ready for prime time.
Telling you that Mozilla's latest Firefox mockup is Chrome's "Single White Female" requires a little context. "Single White Female" is a suspense thriller from the early 1990s in which Bridget Fonda plays a newly single software engineer in need of a roommate. Enter Jennifer Jason Leigh who fulfills that role but turns out to be a psychotic nutcase obsessed with Fonda. In one scene, Leigh alters her wardrobe and hair style to look just like Fonda and, well, see where we're going with this?
Every month we examine the state of the browser market in terms of market share, and it's usually more of the same. Internet Explorer, while still dominating with over a 50 percent share, slides downward month after month. Firefox, still the biggest threat to IE if looking at the numbers and not the trend, also continues to lose market share, but at a much slower pace. And Chrome, which popularized the concept of a minimalistic browser interface, just keeps gaining ground. While all this has been going on, Apple's Safari browser has been closing in on the big three.
Maintaining privacy as you surf the Web isn't rocket science, it's just a matter of knowing what you're doing and taking the proper steps to make sure sites aren't in hot pursuit. Manually deleting your browser cookies is one way to ensure a bit of privacy, and so is enabling your broswer's "Do Not Track" mechanism. If you're really worried about leaving behind bread crumbs, there's always so-called incognito browsing modes. Unfortunately, none of these work as well as you think.
Firefox is walking an awkward rope with Google. Mozilla receives – and has always received – a lot of funding for Firefox from the Big G, but analysts have expected Google to drop its sugar daddy status ever since the launch of the Chrome browser. So far those analysts have been disappointed, but on Thursday, Google announced it would no longer include support for new versions of Firefox with its Google Toolbar. Was it the first volley fired in a new browser war?
Several months ago you could have criticized Mozilla for dragging its feet with new Firefox releases while one of its main rivals -- Google Chrome -- was kicking out new builds nearly as fast as you could download them. Mozilla responded by implementing a rapid release schedule of its own, and now that it has, some IT users are concerned things are developing a little too quickly. To put those fears to rest, Mozilla this week unveiled its Enterprise User Working Group.
A belated birthday wish goes out to the Mozilla Foundation, the not-for-profit organization which turned 8 years old on Friday. Mozilla's roots actually date back to early 1998 when Netscape created the Mozilla Organization to oversee the development of the Mozilla Application Suite. On July 15, 2003, AOL (Netscape's parent company) helped launch the Mozilla Foundation, and gave the three-person team a set of wings in the form of hardware, intellectual property, and a $2 million donation before pushing it out of the nest to fly on its own.
Mozilla over the weekend gave its Firefox 6 browser a groom and haircut so that it can pass for a beta release. The next step is to give the 6.0 release a suit, tie, and spiffy pair of shoes so that it's ready to mingle with the public at large. Until then, you can download the beta build and get acquainted with Firefox 6, which offers a handful of changes and improvements over previous builds.
Chrome has brought plenty of amazing new innovations to the table since its introduction less than three years ago, but one feature of Google’s flagship browser caught all the established players off guard, their ability to iterate at an unbelievable pace. Some simply accuse them of being too liberal with version numbers, but either way you look at it in less than 30 months Google has gone from a beta release, all the way to version 12, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
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