Android users got first crack at Opera Software's Opera Mini 6.5 browser, which was released last week. It was the most successful Android Opera Mini release in history with millions of downloads to date, and now Opera Mini 6.5 arrives on iOS, Symbian, J2ME, and BlackBerry. The big new feature here is the ability to audit your data usage to help make sure you don't inadvertently bust out of your wireless carrier's data cap.
With few exceptions, Microsoft's share of the browser market has been steadily declining since at least November 2009, which is how far back Net Marketshare lets us look. Back then, Microsoft's Internet Explorer was the dominant browser on desktops with a 64.46 percent share. And today? It's still dominant with a 52.63 percent share of the market, but the gap is quickly narrowing.
Soon after Mozilla was done with the release of Firefox 4, it launched an effort to develop an in-browser PDF viewer built entirely in HTML5 and JavaScript. While the ultimate aim of the project was, and still is, to make PDF.js an integral part of Firefox, the team working on the project has released the reader as a restart-free extension.
For a long time, Mozilla and Google were a match made in heaven. Both of them were spunky open-source aficionado and that common goal sent them into each other’s arms; even now, the vast majority of Mozilla’s funding comes from a search deal between the two organizations. Then, with the launch of Chrome, things got complicated. Google wasn’t quite the same search engine Firefox fell in love with. And now, Mozilla is officially Keeping Its Options Open with the unveiling of the new “Firefox with Bing” Browser.
In some ways, Opera is the Rodney Dangerfield of browsers. Both have their rabid followers, and both struggle to gain respect from the mainstream audience. That's where the similarities end, and where Opera really distinguishes itself is in being relevant still today (apologies for the gut punch, Dangerfield fans). Opera Software's next big browser release -- Opera 12 -- is now available as an alpha build, and with it another major development.
Mozilla may have moved to a rapid release cycle, but there are a lot of Firefox users who are still using version 3.6 from the pre-rapid-release-cycle era. The browser vendor on Monday announced that it planned to offer an “advertised update” to Firefox 3.6 users on Thursday, requesting them to update to the latest version of the popular browser. However, there was no sign of such an advertised update on the designated day.
Among a host of other things, Google is a mighty successful browser vendor, what with both its desktop and mobile browsers occupying the third spot in their respective markets and constantly conquering fresh ground. However, a lot of people are wondering why Google continues to have two separate browsers for the desktop and mobile markets. But soon enough these people will have better things to do, for an effort to port Chrome over to Android now seems to be underway.
Time and browser updates wait for no one. Even though Firefox 7’s reign as the latest stable release of the browser is just two days old, the countdown to version 8 has already begun. Firefox 8 is now available in the beta channel for testing on Windows, Mac, Linux and Android.
For years, the browser race was a one-horse affair: it was Internet Explorer’s way or the highway. Then Firefox crawled out of the Netscape wreckage and established itself as a viable, free alternative to Microsoft’s bundled software. Google’s Chrome may be the feisty new kid on the block, but a new report says it very well may unseat Firefox by the end of the year for the worldwide number two slot in the cut-throat browser wars.
While still news, the release of a new browser version of Firefox - or even Chrome for that matter - is not the kind of earth-shattering event it used to be before Mozilla adopted a rapid release schedule. But the latest stable release of the Firefox is noteworthy as it is said to address an issue that has rankled users for many years now. Yes, we are talking about the notorious memory leak problem.
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