Firefox 7 and Browser Memory Consumption

Firefox 7 is out with an emphasis on improved memory consumption. Mozilla developer Nicholas Nethercote: Firefox 7 uses less memory than Firefox 6 (and 5 and 4): often 20% to 30% less, and sometimes as much as 50% less. In particular, Firefox 7?s memory usage will stay steady if you leave it running overnight, and [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for October 14, 2008

Let’s call this an “in case you missed it” edition of Browser Bits and Bobs, since I’ve been disgustingly busy and haven’t posted anything in far too long. But for those who have been preoccupied by events outside the tech sector (MLB postseason, impending financial armageddon, talking chihuahuas, etc.): this is for you. Chrome uptake [...]

Glubble for Families Launches

With all the hype generated by the launch of Google Chrome, one couldn’t help but wonder whether the world truly needs a new web browser. Two perfectly serviceable products are bundled with the leading operating systems (IE and Safari on Windows and OS X, respectively), and two open source competitors (Firefox and Webkit) provide excellent [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for Septembers 16, 2008

I didn’t see a compelling reason to switch to Opera when I tried it, so in the interest of fair and balanced coverage, here are 10 reasons why you should use the Opera browser, according to one commentator. Interview with Aza Raskin (Mozilla’s head of user experience) about the future of Ubiquity. Intriguing commentary on [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for May 20, 2008

My ex-colleague Jan Odvarko writes about his fancy replacement for Firebug’s system console. Atul Varma on why Firefox 3 is awesome (really awesome). A newsletter for Firefox extension developers called about:addons. The first public release of Moonlight, a Silverlight port for Linux. Ours is not the place to question why. And if you feel like [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for May 15, 2008

Opera Mini 4.1, with a number of bug fixes and tweaks, has been released. TechCrunch with an article on Mozilla’s “stealth data project”, which aims to collect statistics on web usage from Firefox’s 170 million strong user base. Mozilla CEO John Lilly provides some clarification. Mozilla joins the LiMo Foundation, which develops a Linux-based mobile [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for May 12, 2008

WebKit announces a new mailing list for reporting security vulnerabilities. Deb Richardson elucidates the new Firefox site identification button. Besides the practical merit of this feature, it is a fascinating study in communicating potentially confusing information to end users. Dion Almaer with a hack to duplicate the way Firefox lets you jump to a tab [...]

Browser Bits and Bobs for May 7, 2008

Microsoft ships XP Service Pack 3 with continued support for Internet Explorer 6. Firefox wins favorite browser in the LinuxJournal Readers’ Choice Awards with 86% of votes cast. John Resig implements a complete HTML parser entirely in JavaScript. Multiple interfaces are provided including SAX and a DOM builder. Amazing. Flock wins a Webby award in [...]

Google Announces Gears 0.2

It’s a big day for product announcements, apparently. Hot on the heels of the new Flock beta, Google has announced that a new version of its Gears browser plugin is available. (Well actually it looks like the Gears team blogged their release first, but in my RSS reader breaking news occurs in alphabetical order.) I’m [...]

Flock 1.1 Now in Public Beta

I’m keen to put Flock 1.1 through its paces, now that the beta is publicly available. It looks like this will be the next Browser of the Week, perhaps as soon as next week. Naturally I’ll keep in mind that it’s still a beta product.