Creative SEO News UK, Search Engine Optimisation & Search Marketing News » Browsers

Google sign deal with Sony to include Chrome Browser on new computers.

Creative SEO — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 11:28:58 +0000

Sony and Google have signed an important deal to incorporate Google’s Chrome internet browser into new Sony Laptop and Desktop computers.

Google Chrome currently only holds a very small part of the browser market place; this is partly a result of Microsoft only including their own browser, Internet Explorer, with their Windows Operating Systems. Microsoft has been challenged on multiple occasions about the lack of choice available to the new system user and is reported to be considering adding further browsers in the near future. Chrome currently lags well behind the market leader and Mozilla’s extremely popular and reliable Firefox browser.

Internet explorer is currently being used by nearly two thirds of all internet users, while chrome is used by less than 3% according to Net Applications.

“User response to Google Chrome has been outstanding, and we’re continuing to explore ways to make Chrome accessible to even more people,” Google said.

Google is planning to sign further deals with other manufacturers, keen to promote the use of its browser further Google has a big mountain to climb

Article by Creative SEO UK

Google Launch Beta Update of Chrome Browser

Creative SEO — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:20:20 +0000

Google have launched a new beta update of their internet Browser Chrome. The new version boasts a facelift and faster loading times. The New tab page is now fully customizable and an improved Omnibox and a selection of new themes allows users to customise the browsers with colours, patterns and images. Network connectivity has been improved along with HTML5 support capabilities. Although it’s only a beta version, it does seem fairly stable. To download a copy click here, we would love to hear your thoughts on the new Beta.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Firefox set to break one billion downloads in the next few hours!

Creative SEO — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:26:30 +0000

Firefox the open source browser and web developers’ friend is expected to break the one billion download barrier in the next 24 hours.

Firefox currently is used by nearly one third of the worldwide online population, that’s an amazing 31%. Internet Explorer still rules the marketplace at over 60% while, both Safari, Chrome and Opera together hold around 5% of the market.

The European competition regulators ruled in January that on new computer systems, Microsoft only adding internet explorer to its windows operating system and did not give users a choice of different browsers. This is felt was damaging its competition. After negotiations, Microsoft have acknowledges that they will include a selection of download links on the up and coming Windows 7. This decision should really open the playing field.

Article by Creative SEO

Are Microsoft Worried as Google Launch a new Operating System called Chrome OS?

Creative SEO — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:54:46 +0000

Google launch a brand new open source operating system called Google Chrome OS which is set to shake the OS marketplace, but does Microsoft have anything to fear?

Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that has been initially targeted at netbooks and laptops. Due to be launched later this year Chrome OS will be a much debated platform. Google believe in collaborative development and Chrome OS will be no different to any of their other software products, featuring a Developers Community. Google will be opening the product up to the community to allow product testing and fast growth of compatible applications. As always it has to be said that this is indeed a very cleaver move by Google, allowing 1000’s of developers to participate in the growth and development of the product will ensure a robust and feature rich platform. Google has also announced that Chrome OS will be available to consumers by 2010.

“Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.” Taken from the official Google blog.

Chrome will be lightweight, fast and secure with a boot time of only a few seconds. The user interface will be minimal and Chrome will be designed to work in an online environment. The underlying security architecture of the OS has been completely redesigned so users will not have to deal with viruses and malware. The Chrome OS will run on both x86 and ARM chips, Google are currently working with a number of OEM’s to bring the product to market preinstalled on laptops and netbooks. It’s also interesting to note that the software architecture is very simple and will run within a new windowing system which will be on top of a Linux Kernel.

Google seems to be going all out with the development of new ideas and new products, Chrome OS offers an exciting and simple challenger to Microsoft’s Windows OS but in this early stage, Microsoft have nothing to worry about.

Article by Creative SEO UK

Finally Mozilla Firefox 3.5 released, A must download!

Creative SEO — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 16:46:52 +0000

After a whole year of development Firefox 3.5 has finally been released.

The open source browser, Firefox 3.5 now features the new “TraceMonkey” JavaScript engine which has been designed to improve the browsers performance by up to 3 times. Html 5 support for video and offline storage, a new and improved Tab Browsing system and increased security are just a few of the new features you will find in this much anticipated release.

With over 270 million users, Firefox seriously packs a punch, this influential browser directly affects the internet and web technologies, how sites are designed and built and how users browse and view websites.

“We’re not just considering this to be an upgrade for users,” Mozilla’s Director of Firefox Mike Beltzner told InternetNews.com. “We’ve also stuffed Firefox 3.5 full of free open source technology that will upgrade the Web.”

One of the most instantly recognisable upgrades is support of CSS web fonts. Developers will be able to utilise this technology and improve website design and user ability.

“When you think about it, Web designers have had to play with the same ten fonts that they could reliably ensure were on everyone’s computer,” Beltzner said.

“You can just say ‘use my handwriting font, here’s the font and it’s a 20kb file,’” Beltzner said. “So when the browser hits the page, we pull down the file and render the page in that font. When you leave the page, we dispose of the font.”

Download Firefox 3.5.

Article by Creative SEO

Firefox on Android, Google allows third party software to run native on the Android platform.

Creative SEO — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:37:59 +0000

In very popular move, Google have announced the launch of the Google Android Native Development Kit which will allow software developers to build applications that will run directly on the Native Android platform. Up until recently Android applications were written in Java and ran on the Google Dalvik Java virtual Machine. The native developer’s kit lets software run on Linux although Google sees this as a way of running component based Android applications and not fully fledged programs.

Android applications run in the Dalvik virtual machine. The NDK allows developers to implement parts of these applications using native-code languages such as C and C++,” said Google’s David Turner in a Native Developer Kit blog post.

This move has caused Mozilla to start an investigation into building a new version of Firefox which will run exclusively on the Android platform. The Mobile version of Firefox is known as Fennec but insiders believe the Firefox will continue to use its existing brand.

“Developers are taking a look at the NDK to see if it provides the capabilities we need to bring Fennec to Android. If it’s possible, I think our community would be interested in doing it, because Android will be appearing on more smartphones with the capabilities to provide a good browsing experience,” said Jay Sullivan, Mozilla’s vice president of mobile.

Article by Creative SEO

Internet Explorer 8 is publicly released and Google Chrome shows its Strength with Chrome Experiments.

Creative SEO — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:53:55 +0000

Finally after a long period of Beta testing Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) has finally been released, this hot browser is publicly available and can now be downloaded from the Microsoft website. On the same day, in a cunning publicity move, Google Chrome has launched Chrome Experiments, a unique site which has been designed to showcase the power of Google Chrome and its unique JavaScript capabilities. Will you be rushing to download the new IE8? Click here to visit the IE8 website.

So how has IE8 improved and will the upgrades convince dedicated Firefox and Chrome Users to move away from their existing reliable browser platforms? IE8 is definitely a lot faster it boots up quickly and tab sessions are treated as individual processes, as in Chrome. This means that if a webpage now decides to crash, is slow loading or has errors, it will not affect the entire browsing session, just the specific tab. This will come as great relief to existing IE7 users. Microsoft have also looked at the tab processes and improved the usability. If you open a new tab, IE8 will group the tads by domain, placing the new tab to the right of an existing webpage tab. This great improvement will mean that pages from the same website will be grouped in the tab navigation rather than sending it to the end of the line, allowing browser sessions to be easily recognised. Another handy feature is the ability to drag tabs into tab clusters allowing them to become part of the browser session. IE8 uniquely colour codes the tab to mark it as part of the group and if any one of the tabs in a session is lost then IE8 will reload the tab and the page into its original position so nothing is lost.

Two other great features are Accelerator and Web Slices. Accelerator is a user experience enhancement designed by Microsoft to make the browser experience flow more fluidly. By right clicking on a webpage you will access the Accelerator context menu which will give you access to unique features like Live Search Maps, Email content to a friend and Post to a Blog or Facebook. This facility is still in its early stages of development but the more website developers that get on board with the technology the better the functionality will be in the future. Web Slices allows you to add and monitor web pages and web content from your tool bar. You could configure it to keep track of your emails or update you about an Ebay auction you’re following. The service uses a form of RSS technology but unfortunately the toolbar restricts the amount of content you can add. IE8 also includes Private Browsing (know by developers as “Porn Mode”) which allows the user to anonymously browse websites without leaving tracks or personal information.

The new IE8 is a massive improvement on IE7 but the jury is still out as to whether Google has done enough to temp Firefox users to betray their beloved browser.

Google Chrome has taken the opportunity to directly challenge the release of IE8 by launching Chrome Experiments, a website which has been designed to showcase the power of the Chrome browser and its outstanding JavaScript performance. There are 19 amazing animated games to play with and it’s well worth a visit. One of the experiments called Google Gravity, allows you to collapse the Google homepage into a pile on the base of the browser but still allows you to use the Google search facility and view results. Browser ball is a fun game that allows you to throw a beach ball from one browser window to another. The site is well worth checking out and offers a glimpse of the power of the Google Chrome platform. Click here to visit Google Chrome Experiments