All Browsers Feeds

Time to clean up Facebook

Gareth Beavis — 1210930500

The makers of Californian site Facebook have decided to cut the clutter on its pages, and will instead return to the spick and span look that brought it such popularity.

The amount of applications now available for each user to use on their profile has grown rapidly, causing annoyance for many. (Does anyone really want to be asked to become a zombie/pirate/werewolf/ninja every single day? Hint - no)

Ditch the mess

The first ‘major’ social networking phenomenon - MySpace - has been criticised for allowing its users to modify nearly all aspects of its aesthetic, leading to a sites becoming visually difficult to decipher in some cases.

The Facebook designers will attempt to avert their site going down the same route by likely dividing the content into distinct areas - possible by tabs or a side list, allowing users to view their messages, comments and applications separately.

The site’s visage will not change dramatically - indeed, the Facebook layout and colours have already become entrenched within the brand - instead users will hopefully gain more control over the way their profile is organised, allowing their friends to network with them easier.

The designers have been currying opinion on a possible redesign through the company’s developer blog and wiki, and have also enabled a group within the site to gain user feedback.

A quick check - over 10 Facebook groups have been created to express pleasure/distaste for the new redesign. To these people have nothing better to do? (Hint - yes, we're avoiding it.)

Firefox 3.0 edges closer

Patrick Goss — 1210607580

Mozilla’s popular browser Firefox version 3 release candidate 1 will be available to the general public by the end of May, if no bugs are found in the final phase of testing.

Firefox 3.0 has been in beta for some time, but RC1 has now been released to QA and the end of May has been slated in for public release.

A post on the Mozilla blog said: “Thanks to all the hard work of the Mozilla community as of 9:15 AM PDT today we are code complete for Firefox 3 Release Candidate 1 (RC1)…”

Late May

“QA will start their extensive RC1 test pass on Monday [May 12]. If all goes well we should have the Release Candidate publicly available in late May.

“RC1 is intended for wider scale public testing. Our 1.2M+ active beta users will automatically get updated to RC1 when it is released. If no new showstopper issues are found in RC1 it will become Firefox 3 final.

“ If we find any critical issues we will continue to release new Release Candidates until we are ready for final ship.

Head to head: Top 8 alternative web browsers

TechRadar staff — 1210157092

Most internet users never try a new web browser, instead relying on the default software that came with their OS. But by using different browsers in different situations you’ll be able to get more done in less time and experience the web in a new way.

For example, some browsers excel in areas such as standards compliance, which is ideal if you’re developing a site. Or if you’re into social networking, there are browsers built around that.

Some are more specific – there’s a browser for anonymous web access and one that specialises in data manipulation. When you’re clued up about the pros and cons of different browsers, picking which to use in a given situation becomes a necessary skill.

Flock

Built around the same Gecko engine as Firefox, the web browser Flock is as extensible and speedy as its open source cousin.

Despite familiar foundations, Flock looks quite different from Firefox. In addition to the usual browser navigation icons, there’s a series of sidebar buttons.

That’s the first clue to Flock’s unique selling point – it integrates with popular sites such as YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, LiveJournal and many others to give you access to all their features without having to visit them directly.

Want to check out which of your friends are online at Facebook? Logging in to the ‘People’ bar will help you keep track of them. Need to post an entry on LiveJournal?

Open the built-in blog editor and post an update from the browser. You can even upload photos directly to many of your selected sites. In that respect, Flock is designed with social web users in mind.

Best for: bloggers & users of social networking sites

K-Meleon

K-Meleon is also based on the Gecko engine, but is lighter and more tightly integrated with Windows than other Gecko-based apps.

Its interface is built on the Windows API rather than Firefox’s bespoke system, so its resemblance to early iterations of IE is understandable. It may not be the best-looking browser, but it is one of the fastest.

In contrast to Flock, K-Meleon does browsing and nothing else. There are no additional features to slow down your browsing experience, though essentials such as tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking and themes are included.

For people who want to get things done fast, K-Meleon’s best feature is macro support. Create your own common command sequences to speed up browsing or download them from the browser’s site.

Best for: Windows users who want to get things done fast

Maxthon

Maxthon is all about usability.

Built around IE’s rendering engine, it boasts a customisable interface and a host of bolt-on features. It’s an ideal substitute client for IE fans who want Firefox-style extensibility.

Fully skinnable, with pop-up blocking features that even remove banners and floating ads, one of Maxthon’s best features is web service integration.

You can add your own, but the package comes with Whois services and a list of anonymous web proxies for stealth browsing as default.

There’s also one of our favourite features from Safari – the ability to group pages together and give them a single bookmark.

Best for: IE users who want a Firefox-type toolkit

Kirix Strata

The browsers we’ve looked at so far are all good for general use, but there are some that are more specific in their applications.

Kirix Strata, still in beta, is a Gecko-based browser with good standards support. Alongside the usual features you’ll find tools that help you access and manipulate website data, including web tables, RSS feeds and server-side databases.

With these features you can grab web content and save it in formats you can access on your desktop. You can create custom reports from the information you’ve retrieved, analyse and process web logs – even edit the data you’ve pulled from the tables on a page.

It’s the kind of functionality we’d like to see in other web browsers as standard.

Best for: people who work online

xB Browser

While Kirix Strata is aimed at people who want to dig deeper, xB Browser is targeted at users who don’t want to be seen.

It comes in a ‘fast’ subscription-based version and a ‘slow’ version that uses peer-to-peer networking technology to disguise web requests. This gives you anonymous browsing and email functionality.

Strictly speaking, xB isn’t a standalone browser; rather it’s a comprehensive extension for Firefox.

However, it installs as a separate client even if you already have Firefox. xB is ideal if you have concerns about your data getting into the wrong hands, or you want to access sites that block users from your IP range.

Best for: people concerned about privacy

SpaceTime

If you’re a Vista user, you’ll have seen the Flip 3D feature that enables you to cycle through open applications in a 3D space.

Web browser SpaceTime does the same thing with web pages, content and search results. Pages are displayed in 3D stacks that you can navigate using your mouse, zooming into pages, around them, organising and arranging them.

What first looks like a neat but rather pointless trick reveals its true usefulness when tackling search results.

The browser has built-in tools to search Google, eBay, YouTube, Flickr and other services, returning the results as 3D thumbnails that you can flip through rather than a list of links.

It’s an ideal browser for visual work (photo and video searches) if not for everyday use.

Best for: avid (re)searchers lacking desktop space

Safari

Safari, the browser Apple bundle with Mac OS X, has defected to the other side with a version now available for Windows.

The Windows version doesn’t mess with the Mac layout, but it does improve on bookmark organisation, with a look and feel imported from iTunes to make newcomers comfortable with creating folders for favourite links.

It has most of the features you’d expect, including tabs and RSS handling. It’s standards compliant too, and the lightweight build makes it one of the fastest browsers. Safari on Windows may be of most interest to web developers.

It’s the most popular browser on the Mac, and this version has the same rendering engine.

Best for: Windows-based Apple fans

Netscape

Want to go old-school? Netscape Navigator is still clinging on.

It was once the undisputed leader in the browser wars, but IE 4’s operating system integration put paid to that. AOL bought out the brand in late 1998 – and still doesn’t seem to know what to do with it.

The last version to be offi cially released, Netscape Navigator 9, went gold in October 2007, but poor downloads soon led AOL to announce that it was pulling the plug on development – it stopped active support in March.

Still, it’s a great-looking browser built on the same stable base as Firefox. Extra features include FTP integration, a built-in Digg tracker and a ‘Quick Link’ pad that lets you add links you want to visit in a single session.

Support for Firefox extensions makes it a great second browser, though you may prefer to simply download the new Netscape ‘Netstripe’ theme for Firefox.

Best for: nostalgia freaks

Apple Safari triples users

Gareth Beavis — 1209740576

Since March 18^th 2008 Apple has seen its share of the browser market triple through use of its Safari 3.1 web viewer.

The rise is thanks largely to the Apple Software Update System, which has been popping the Safari browser onto Windows users’ desktops.

Previous Safari iterations never garnered much market share as the standard Microsoft / Apple boundaries were clearly laid.

But since installing Safari 3.1 as part of an update to iTunes, the company has managed to smuggle the browser across the virtual border, and the results have been highly impressive.

Install first, questions later

However, some users have expressed unhappiness at the manner of the install, and competitors were also less than delighted at Apple’s tactics, seeing the move as gaining an unfair advantage in the battle for browser market share.

This is perhaps a little over the top, as although the programme might be available, it still requires a decision from the user to make it their default browser.

Christopher Phin, deputy editor of MacFormat Magazine, makes the case for Apple's decision: "Apple can perhaps be forgiven for being so aggressive with its rollout of its browser on Windows; since Safari is what powers the browsing experience on the iPhone as well as the Mac, it's in Apple's interests to drive user adoption and so put pressure on developers and service providers to ensure compatibility with the Safari platform."

The company has now released a new version of its Software Updater for Windows allowing the user to choose between regular updates and new releases, and another option to switch off the updater altogether, something that should apease the more disgruntled punters.

Report: Safari riddled with security holes

Don Reisinger — 1209008000

Apple’s Safari browser may not be nearly as secure as it should be and according to a new study, it’s putting its users at unnecessary risk.

Researcher Juan Pablo Lopez Yacubian spent some time with Safari 3.1.1 for Windows recently and found that the browser suffers from a number of vulnerabilities that could create problems for its users. And although he didn’t test out Mac versions of the software, he did say that any Safari installation might also be affected.

Three major problems

According to the researcher, Safari suffers from three major vulnerabilities that make it subject to malicious code. These are: "a denial-of-service (crash) vulnerability caused by a write-access violation, a denial-of-service (crash) vulnerability caused by a read-access violation, and a third vulnerability that allows attackers to spoof the content contained in the address bar."

Unfortunately, Yacubian is unaware of any workarounds and said that the only fix is to abandon the use of Safari until Apple patches it. Versions of Firefox 2 and Opera were highly recommended.

Researcher: Wii and iPhone browsers are scary

Don Reisinger — 1208753579

Researchers from the University of California at Davis warned attendees at the Usability, Psychology and Security Conference 2008 on Friday that browsers found in the Wii and iPhone have more security issues than their desktop counterparts [PDF link].

According to the researchers, both the Wii's Opera browser and the iPhone's Safari browser create environments that make users more likely to click on links than input them into the address bar due to their dislike of onscreen keyboards.

Simple Java hack

The researchers also found that vendors are more likely to reduce the number of security measures included in mobile browsers. They said that a simple piece of JavaScript could remove the address bar from the iPhone's Safari screen and put users at risk.

To make matters worse, the researchers were also able to change the domain name in the Wii and Safari browsers to look more legitimate and fool people into believing they were on a safe site when they were not.

Phishing filter please

In order to rectify the situation, the researchers do not believe the companies should update the browsers or even port the full desktop versions to the devices. Instead, they called on both Opera and Apple to run all pages through a proxy to filter out phishing scams before the site reaches the user.

Neither Apple nor Opera has commented on the findings and there is currently no indication that better security measures will be added to either browser. So it's still a case of surfer beware.

PayPal to block Safari and other 'unsafe' browsers

Don Reisinger — 1208753501

As expected, PayPal on Friday announced that it would no longer allow access to its services to users who are using browsers that do not provide validation measures, citing its need to protect its customers from online fraud.

Paypal's chief information security officer, Michael Barrett outlined the company's new plan to fight phishing attacks and other scams that have become troublesome for both users and the company alike [PDF link].

Cut out phishing

Barrett argued that any user visiting a financial site like PayPal should be assured that their browser will block phishing scams and properly identify a legitimate site. If both precautions are not present, Barrett believes PayPal and its customers will suffer.

And although he did not mention Apple's Safari browser by name, it lacks the two components PayPal expects from such software. Paypal's new policy of blocking any browser that does not support validation and other important security measures means that Safari users may not be able to access the company's services.

Apple did not comment on the PayPal white paper. However, given that FireFox 3 and Internet Explorer 7 both support the security measures mentioned by Barrett, don't find it surprising if it moves quickly to add the same features to Safari.

Is Safari 3.1 any good? We get hands on to find out

Dan Grabham — 1205857836

Apple has announced a final build of its version 3 Safari web browser for Mac and PC. But is it worth you even looking at it? The question, of course, is whether it offers anything over and above the well-worn alternatives.

If you use a Mac, you'll likely download it anyway whereas if you're on a PC you probably won't. But put aside your initial thoughts while we pose the real question - whether or not it can outfire Firefox on both the Mac and the PC as well as batter the long-beleaguered Internet Explorer on the PC.

Let's deal with Apple's main claim first: that it's faster than both browsers at rendering web pages. We've always noticed a slight sluggishness to rendering webpages on the Mac but for 3.1 Apple is claiming a 1.9x speed improvement than IE7 and 1.7x over Firefox 2.0. While such figures might seem slightly outlandish, they're actually not in practice.

Pages render noticeably quickly than IE7 especially, which always seems to pause for thought before retrieving a page. Performance is also favourable compared to Firefox 3 beta 4, though since it's still in development we can't really judge it properly. Apple also claims faster JavaScript rendering times than both of the other main contenders.

Bells and whistles

One of the most impressive features of Safari is its integrated RSS engine, which we think performs better than the equivalents on both Firefox 2.0 and IE7. The ability to group bookmarks together on the Bookmarks Bar in drop-down menus is also a Safari boon not replicated in IE nor done so well in Firefox.

In terms of looks, Safari is clean and tidy, but all the dialogue boxes look like they're on a Mac. This is fine if you have to use a PC but prefer a Mac, but if you're a PC-head you definitely won't like it. It's far more in-your-face than even iTunes for this.

Generally Safari is a much more stripped down experience than the feature-cluttered IE and Firefox, but several features in both browsers aren't replicated in Safari, such as web page zooming for accessibility and IE7's easy-print features. However, there are a couple of other features missing from IE, such as form-filling as well as a 'private browsing' feature that leaves no trace of the sites (or should that be sights?) you browse...

SnapBack is also an excellent addition to your browsing experience if you haven't used it before - it means you don't have to keep pressing the Back button, instead taking you straight back to your original search results or a site's homepage.

One of the features we noticed was that you can enable an extra menu in Safari - the Develop menu. This enables you to ask the browser to replicate other browsers on the market as well as different versions of Safari, such as the iPhone's browser (though we still couldn't get it to download BBC iPlayer files, sorry) as well as disable different elements of a rendered page.

Standards, standards

Speaking of development, Apple says that Safari 3.1 is the first browser to support the changed video and audio tags in HTML 5 and the first to support CSS Animations as well as CSS Web Font support enabling developers to create new fonts for sites and force the browser to download them. Microsoft has already stated that its intention for IE8 is that it will improve RSS, CSS, and Ajax support - which will also be improved in Firefox 3.0.

Compliance is the name of the game in the browser wars these days. Safari is the first browser to pass the Acid2 benchmark from the Web Standards Project but the forthcoming IE8 and Firefox 3.0 browsers are well on the way to getting this compliance. For more on the technical aspects of the browser, check out this PDF.

Apple is also bigging-up its font rendering technology designed to smooth web fonts. However, we don't like it and we're not sure you will either - certainly if you're used to a PC - as it's too soft.

One criticism levelled at Safari when it first arrived in beta version on Windows was that it would provide increased opportunity for hackers. Indeed, there were several security scares. But once again the crooks have shown that they aren't too fussed about the minority of users, and have left Safari alone. Don't necessarily expect this to continue though.

Whether Safari can get a niche in the market depends on whether people swallow the speed advantage. If they do, then some of the smaller players could find themselves superseded in terms of market share.

So should you download Safari 3.1? Mac users certainly should, even if thus far you've been a Firefox convert. As for using it on the PC, we think that if you're an entrenched Internet Explorer or Firefox devotee than you won't find anything much of interest here. Unless you want your web pages to load a darn sight faster.

Safari 3.1 'almost twice as fast as Firefox'

Rob Mead — 1205855611

Apple has finally broken its Safari browser out of beta and is boasting the world's fastest webpage loading experience to boot. Safari 3.1 available for Mac and PC today also adds support for Web 2.0 features such as HTML 5, audio-video tags and CSS animation, among others.

Apple claims that Safari 3.1 can now render web pages 1.7 times faster than Firefox 2 and 1.9 times faster than Internet Explorer 7. Our PC supremo Dan Grabham has put that to the test with a hands-on.

Speedy cross-platform web browser

It is, of course, in Apple's interest to develop a speedy cross-platform web browser. The company's keen to build developer support for the iPhone and iPod touch, both of which use Safari for web browsing, as well as for delivering web-based applications.

You can see the evidence for this in the new 'Show Develop menu in menu bar' option under the Advanced tab. This enables web developers to ensure that their sites render correctly with Safari. It also enables the browser to pose as one of its rivals - handy for when a website has only been configured to run on limited types of browser.

New Firefox is faster, smoother, better than IE7?

James Rivington — 1205840690

Firefox 3 is less system-heavy than its predecessor and any other PC web browser. That’s according to commentators who’ve been testing the public beta versions of Mozilla’s new Firefox software.

Reports are that Firefox 3 uses about half the amount of system memory as version two. And that means it’s a lot slicker, and smoother to use.

One of the weaknesses of Firefox 2 is that it is more intensive to run on a PC than it should be, making it unsuitable for use on phones and mobile devices. But despite that, market share for Mozilla’s browser has steadily been growing ever since it first launched in 2004.

Firefox ready to soar?

Internet Explorer 7 is also regularly accused of being clunky, and Microsoft too is working on making IE8 a lot smoother. However, as has been the trend over the last few years, Mozilla is far closer to releasing its new browser than Microsoft is.

Mozilla says that the smaller memory footprint of the new browser paves the way for it to be used on mobile devices.

Firefox 3 beta 4 is available to download from the Mozilla website. We've also taken a first look at the release.