The fastest browser on Earth.
That's what the Opera homepage has said since Tuesday. And although you might have missed it due to iPad hysteria, both Mozilla and Google recently released new versions of their browsers as well. Opera isn't the only one making bold statements on performance, either. Let us not forget that Cupertino also offers a Web browser. In fact, Apple claims Safari is "the world's fastest Web browser." Sounds strangely familiar, doesn't it? Even Internet Explorer, which hasn't had a release since last year, is in the headlines lately. We decided that somebody needed to look at these browsers. So, we put all five major Web browsers through a gauntlet of benchmarks and time trials. We did this to conclusively answer the question: which is the fastest browser on Earth (at least until one of these companies launches another major update)?
Internet Explorer 8 vs. the competition
Lately, there's been a lot of talk about Internet Explorer's speed, security, and adaptability. But many of the claims are comparing older versions of Internet Explorer to competitors' newest releases. Here's how the latest version of Internet Explorer 8 really compares to the current competition.
IE7 Vs. Everyone Else
Internetweek, just ran a very good article called: IE7 vs. Everyone Else. Four tech experts battle over which is the best browser -- Internet Explorer 7, Firefox, Opera, or Maxthon. One of the experts, Ron White from Networking Computing wrote this superbt piece in support of Maxthon, as the best alternative. The first rule of Maxthon is, "Don't talk about Maxthon." If Firefox and Opera are underground favorites among Web surfers, then Maxthon must be the double-dog double-secret browser. Over the last four years, Maxthon has quietly developed a base of devoted -- and tight-lipped -- users who make the Illuminati seem like exhibitionists. How obscure is Maxthon? It's so obscure that, despite more than 46 million downloads, even Google barely knows about it. When I did a search for Firefox, Google yielded some 412 million hits, while a search for Maxthon returned a scant 4 million. Usually such obscurity is well deserved. But in the case of Maxthon, it's as though Jack Nicholson never made it out of B horror flicks. Maxthon is simply the most powerful, and yet the simplest, browser to be used anywhere, anytime, by anyone.
!important Fixed in Later IE7 Releases
It was brought to my attention today that the IE7 Beta 2 Preview wasn't honoring the role of the !important declaration and as such was causing alternative box model hacks to fail. !important is important for several important reasons. First is the very reason !important exists, which is to provide a balance between author and user styles. It has been part of CSS since CSS 1.0, although implemented differently back then. The other important reason !important is so important in current practices is because it plays a role in 2 of the 3 Alternate Box Model Hacks outlined by Edwardson Tan. The hacks in question work when the browser interprets CSS properly, and filters correct information to certain browsers that do not. Ingo Chao has documented why this now fails in the current IE7 Beta 2 Preview. The good news today is that the IE team has in fact fixed the way IE handles !important in all future builds beyond the IE7 Beta 2 Preview. So worry not, my important friends, we'll soon have an IE that understands just how important !important is. Note: I apologize if any "importants" were inadvertently left out of this message. I assure you that I didn't mean to suggest they were not (!) important.
The Bad Old Days Linger On
Most professional web developers understand why browser sniffing sucks, and have long since moved on to more robust techniques like object or property testing to make their sites degrade gracefully in less-capable user agents. But apparently Yahoo! Music didn't get the memo: their site still sniffs browsers, urging Firefox users on Windows to 'upgrade' to Netscape 7.1 or higher (actually a downgrade, since Netscape 7.1 uses an older version of the Gecko rendering engine than does Firefox 1.x) when one tries to watch a video. Visit Yahoo! music on a Mac, and the situation is even grimmer: Yahoo! music requires Netscape Communicator 4.7 for Mac viewing.
Upgraded your browser (or OS — Communicator 4.x only runs on the long-deprecated OS 9) recently? No video for you!
New: yvonhuegli.ch
.ozdesign Visual Media developed a new site for Yvon Hügli Immobilien. Check it out here.
Official launch: mistelzweig.com
.ozdesign Visual Media is pleased to announce the official launch of the mistelzweig.com website redesign that incorporates full implementation of a content management system and the use of user-select font-size. Visit mistelzweig.com and have a look!
Donation to seelenfenster
.ozdesign Visual Media donates a complete redesign to seelenfenster . Pick up the new pictures and the colourful css-design. Itīs another nice release from .ozdesign.
Another nice release
.ozdesign Visual Media brings MFB Service GmbH to the Forefront with an unobtrusive new look. Check out the tableless css-design. Thatīs .ozdesign.
The cutting edge moves quicker
The new Site of IG Wyrwoll has finally been released. Wyrwoll (formerly known as IGW) is an engineer's office with new
economic software products and a fowarding set of know-how. ozdesign
Visual Media Services is responsible for the whole prompting and documentation
of the software Finanzplanung and the complete Webdesign and Administration.
The central design element is cutting edges... accounting for the fast
forward thinking of the company.
Microsoft wins with his Internet Explorer about Netscape completely
Microsoft displaced the former competitor and undisputed market leader Netscape with its Browser program Internet Explorer almost completely from the market. Today nearly each German-speaking Internet user uses the Microsoft product, communicated Marktforschungsinstitut Fittkau & Maass as result of regular Internet collections on Thursday in Hamburg with 90,8 %. The Browser of Netscape use against it only from 7,7 % of the users for navigation in the Internet.
Still before six years the two Browser came on exactly turned around market shares. In the year 1996 Netscape was, in the meantime an AOL subsidiary company, with 88,1 % of undisputed market leaders. By industry connoisseurs first only few chances in the market were granted to the Microsoft Browser, which came at that time on a portion of only 3.3 %. Three years later the world largest software company however the competitor already with approximately 60 % market share had over-rounded.
One in the eye for IE
It's official, it's standards-compliant and it doesn't work properly in Internet Explorer on Windows - welcome to the new Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) section at the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The message of WaSP since it started has always been 'code to standards, build browsers to standards and everyone will be happy'. However, most high profile web sites are still wary of shutting anyone out in any small way, so it's very brave for the W3C to use a CSS property that fails in Win/IE - surely the browser that most of its visitors will use when visiting that page.
In standards-compliant browsers, the navigation remains fixed (like a framed navigation area), while for Win/IE it disappears off the page as you scroll down. But wait for the irony. If you are using a standards-compliant browser and you are using a window size of 800x600 or less, you might never be able to get to links at the bottom. Personally, though, I can't think of any Mozilla/Netscape 7 users who would be running that kind of screen resolution ...
Pushing the Edge
Netscape DevEdge revamps their design and front-end structure. In the process, the site itself becomes another beacon demonstrating the possibilities and advantages to be had when web standards and compliant browsers get pushed to their limits. Tableless layout, major accessibility enhancements, CSS dropdown menus (with a minor assist from JavaScript), customizeable style and font-size preferences, and advanced printing features.
The DevEdge team's moves and strategy are documented in a detailed article on the redesign. Additional pieces provide extra insight on their use of CSS and JavaScript.
Gettin' Stylish
The House of Style, .ozdesign Visual Media Services has now a new playground to promoting the positives of CSS and call into the wide world: we are fast forward!
