Archive for: browser
Have you ever downloaded a less than scrupulous piece of software only to discover the next day that you default browser has been changed and your homepage is some rubbish search engine based in North Korea? I have. So have thousands of others who were attracted by freeware never stopping to think of the scheming companies that lurked behind them. Such as Microsoft.
At the present, when users download IE8, the newest edition of Internet Explorer they will quite obviously have to install it. Now when you’re installing any piece of software you’re given a choice.
a) Quick Install
b) Custom install
In most cases the ‘Quick Install’ is already selected for you and most of us will go right on ahead and press ’Next’. Microsoft copped onto that so that when you install IE by choosing the quick install method your default browser and homepage are changed to please Bill Gates.
Microsoft recently came under fire about these practices you would expect from a smaller more desperate company. They responded by saying on their blog that they were making an update and that by August IE8 will ask your permission to become the default browser first.
“IE will never install, or become the default browser without your explicit consent. However, we heard a lot of feedback from a lot of different people and groups and decided to make the user choice of the default browser even more explicit,” Microsoft said.
IE8 has already been in the spotlight when they released the OMGIGP advertisement which Crenk covered here.
When
Flock was launched last fall, it was the browser geared towards the social network savvy surfer. It was a new way to integrate all the most popular social sites and keep them at your finger tips while doing your standard day to day browsing online. No longer were you forced to open tab after tab, window after window for each network you wanted to connect with. Now, with some minor prep time by inputting accounts and passwords, Flock will keep everything on file and load all of your chosen networks as soon as you start your browser.
Flock has just released the latest version of its broswer software, and already it’s looking like the browser to beat. When Google release Chrome, it was a mad dash by early adopters to test out this mysterious new entry into the browser wars. The excitement lost steam pretty quickly as users were left wondering exactly what the purpose of Chrome was because the bells and whistles were just not there. The browser that was meant to be used not seen seemed to be the mantra. Flock flies directly in the face of such philosophy by making sure every aspect of the user interface is useful and interactive.
The new release integrates Media RSS which can now keep the most watch media on the front page of your start window for immediate viewing; pics, movies, podcasts, all accessible with a click of a button. New to the social network offerings is
MySpace, which has finally been brought into the fold, allowing users to chat with their friends directly from the sidebar without having to visit the actual site.
Since it’s founding 3 years ago, and with the first release this past fall, Flock has attracted 6 million downloads. A true testament in its efforts to get attention from users. Having been built on Firefox’s code, similarities are welcoming with a taste and flavor all its own.
As Mashable has reported this morning, Joost has now moved to a web based version. If you don’t know what Joost is, it is basically a television streaming service but without the ads. There are hundred of channels to choose from and you are able to watch programs straight in your browser.
Joost has channels in a variety of sectors, old television programs, sports, news, music videos and more. It is totally free to watch and can be viewed from any country in the world, unlike Hulu.
When you head over to the site all you need to do is register and then download the plugin that launches the application within your browser, and thats it.
Last week I gave a first 5-minute impression of Google Chrome, the new browser that is supposed to be faster and better than anything else out there. A week later and what seems to be a hundred thousand reviews in the blogsphere later, everyone seems to like it, and no one seems to be using it. Less than 1% of Crenk readers are using it, more people are using Opera belive it or not.
What’s so great about it? Well it’s new and shiny, has a minimalist look and feel to it and consumes about 75% less memory than Firefox does, at least for me on my Windows XP box. Google really seems to have done their homework with regards to chewing up your CPU cycles and there appears to never be a memory leak. Additionally, you just need to type something in what used to be known as the address bar, as it now functions as a search bar and many other things. It’s also fast, but how fast? My seat dyno says slightly faster than Firefox, but to a normal user, it might only feel faster because it’s new.
What’s not so great about it? Well first and foremost, Windows only. As a Mac user, I once again feel like someone put me out in the cold. Lack of any add-ons that I’ve come to love with Firefox is also missing, but if you were coming from Internet Explorer you wouldn’t know what I’m talking about anyway. Dedicated search box is something I miss. Why you ask, since Google answers all questions on it’s own? Because it simply doesn’t. I’ve been using a Firefox add-on called OpenSearchFox for more than a year now; it allows you to add a drop down in Firefox to search any site that has search enabled on it. That means, rather than going to say Netflix and then searching, I can select Netflix from my drop down menu in the search bar and type in my query there. My other gripe is the lack of a status bar. I understand how important screen real estate is, but I like it, I’ve been using the status bar for more than 10 years in browsers, I’m used to it. Lastly, Chrome doesn’t work with all websites yet. One site that I order digital photos from requires a Java plugin, to upload the photos. I have the plugin installed in Windows but the browser doesn’t pick it up. I’m sure small kinks like this will iron themselves out but it’s still an inconvenience.
One of the most interesting Easter eggs is kind of a joke in Chrome. In the address bar type about:internets – then sit back and chuckle, at least someone around the Google camp has a sense of humor. Chrome is interesting, but it’s not a killer app for me yet, nor do I plan on switching. For now, I will use it to beta test website design and other various things on the Internet but Firefox will continue to be my primary browser.
Yesterday Google’s new browser, Chrome was announced so today I downloaded and installed it onto my work Windows XP box to see what all the fuss is about and check for cross compatibility on sites we work on. I spent about 5 minutes poking around, if I can’t figure out how to use a browser in 5 minutes, it’s too complicated for anyone but the most 733t 1337.
Download was very small; it then opens an applet and downloads the rest of the software. Installation requires Firefox to be shut down so Chrome can import all your bookmarks, favorites, history and passwords; this goes quickly and rather painlessly. Next you get a TOS about reporting options for crashes, I denied their request and the install was complete.
Upon launching Chrome for the first time an unusual question is asked, “Do you wish to keep Google as your default search engine?” It’s unusual in that, it’s a Google product and the first thing about this new killer app is to strip out Search, the one thing Google does very, very well. I selected to keep it.
All my bookmarks and history imported, what didn’t was my homepage. I’m a long time iGoogle user and rely on the RSS feeds to get me caught up quickly at a glance to what is going on with the sites I follow. Not there. Instead six white boxes stare at me. A little note tells you that these are your most visited sites. Nice idea, but not for me. I easily look at 50+ sites in six different tabs of iGoogle. There is no apparent way to set a traditional “homepage” only what Google wants you to see.
The other thing lacking is an option to show the status bar. I rely on the status bar while at work and home to see where any link will take my, by hovering over it. There are also several add-ons for Firefox that sit in my status bar that I’ve come to love, from what I can tell in Chrome, there is no status bar option.
On the plus side, it is fast. How fast? I don’t have scientific numbers or pretty pie charts, but it really feels fast. One site that I know uses a fairly common Java plugin to run an app wouldn’t work and there was no option to install it but everything else on the dozen or so sites I quickly browsed seem to work.
Is Chrome the next killer app? Hard to say now, Firefox has such a loyal, loving fan base to it, but I think this could compliment it very well.
