Browser wars continue

Jonathan Bowers, January 10th 2007, 11:33AM

Browser usage statistics for 2006, provided by Net Applications show that Mozilla has once again decreased the margin between IE and Firefox. Two years ago Microsoft was providing the web interface for 90 per cent of Internet users. Now more and more people are moving over to the world's second favourite browser with Firefox enjoying an increase in users of 50% this year giving it 14 per cent worldwide.

And Mozilla's Asa Dotzler has started the New Year by taking a tough line on browser's communications with customers as it is revealled that Opera has potentially put customers at risk by not disclosing security vulnerabilities. Dotzler even goes as far as saying that arch rival IE would be more forthcoming with information than Opera has been.

The impact of IE7 has yet to be determined but I suspect that 2007 will be another good year for Firefox, which in my mind remains the market leader when it comes to innovation and company transparency.

Tags: browsing, communication
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Opera's new browser worth a look

Jonathan Bowers, June 21st 2006, 10:46AM

Many Internet users and even some web developers are still choosing to ignore the fact that there are more browsers available than just Internet Explorer.

The Opera team has quietly built a name for itself and the new browser Opera 9 is now available to download. Savvy Internet users have given Firefox a go and the majority of those that start using it tend to carry on. Very few of us in contrast are downloading Opera.

Ross Shannon offers a review of the big browsers on HTMLSource. It is heavily weighted against IE, but gives some insight into the strengths of Firefox and Opera.

What’s interesting about Opera is its focus on a niche market that has the potential to grow into the mainstream. I refer to its collaboration with BitTorrent. And as we all know, the future of the web is content and many of the web's pioneers are discussing the best ways to share that content, whether it be text, audio, image or video. So Opera looks set to grow in line with some of the web's most exciting trends.

Tags: browsing, opera
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Welcome to Userville

Chris Norton, May 16th 2006, 5:45PM

Working in IT is only marginally less stressful than working at CTU, a recent poll suggests. Well colour me surprised - bet if you did a similar poll of carribean beach-bar barmen they'd be moaning about the hazards of falling coconuts, and you'd probably find toy testers losing sleep over the incorrect rendering of Barbie's eyebrows.

A good deal of this terrible stress is brought upon us IT types by the dreaded Users. As someone said in the poll - 'I spend most of my day fielding calls from people who don't even have a basic knowledge of computers and printers. It is amazing the amount of time I spend teaching people where the on-off button is.' Well whenever I hear this kind of thing, I'm on the user's side, because computers are the most ridiculously designed things in the world (aside from that new rendering of Barbie's eyebrows, of course).

I used to work in a public library and had to help people who'd never used PCs get on the internet. Why do you have to double click those icons to start 'the internet', then only single click everything else? What recycled products does the recycle bin churn out? Why can't I turn it on and off as I please, instead of waiting for all sorts of odd stuff to happen? Who is that paperclip and what does he want from me?

Us lot have been using these interfaces that are completely unrelated to real life for years, but most normal people haven't, and are not interested in tinkering and learning about them like we are. We shouldn't moan about them, we should moan about the design of these systems in the first place. I should be able to talk to this thing as if I was Captain Picard by now, instead of tapping away like someone in a typing pool in the thirties.

Computer, end blog!

Tags: browsing, control, pcs, users
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Selectitis

Chris Norton, April 28th 2006, 9:57AM

When people watch me browsing they think I'm weird - even when I'm not on hatsofmeat.com - because my name is Chris and I am a selecting-things-on-the-screen addict.

When I'm reading something on the web I compulsively select and deselect text with the mouse. I'll click and drag to highlight from the bottom of a paragraph, all the way up to the top. Then I'll click elsewhere to clear the selection, click and drag from the top of the paragraph to the bottom, lather, rinse, and repeat about fifty times.

The select-itis does not stop there. Give me a windows desktop and a slightly distracted mind and I'll easily spend ten minutes clicking and dragging to bring up that little lasso, making the little icons go all blue and then back to normal. My poor iconic fools, behold the selectifying power of my mighty mouse and weep!

I can't stop. I've been doing it whilst writing this. Is it ny hands trying to keep themselves occupied when they're not flying over the keys? Is it some deep psychological need to make everything... turn... blue? Is it something that always annoys Daz when he's looking at my screen? (yes to that last one). I don't know if anyone else has select-itis, or any similar afflictions, but whilst I'm waiting to find out I'm off back to my PHP code for a bit more click, drag, click... click, drag, click...

Tags: browsing, habits, pcs
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