gHacks technology news » web browser

Opera Halloween Edition

Martin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:41:46 +0000

Halloween, which is celebrated on October 31, has roots in the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain and the Christian All Saints Day. Much of its symbolism comes from the past including wearing costumes and masks, bonfires or lanterns. If you want to top it up a notch you might want to download the Halloween edition of the Opera web browser which has been just designed for Halloween. Users who are not using Opera currently may download the Halloween edition right away while regular Opera users need to backup some system settings before they can install the custom Halloween edition of the web browser:

If you already have Opera, you need to backup 3 files and rename them in order to get the Halloween experience:

1. Open menu “Help” » “About Opera”.
2. Find the path to the catalog with user data (”Path” » “Preferences”) and copy the address
3. Close Opera
4. Open the catalog with user data found above (for Windows: “Start” » “Run” » paste the address you copied before)
5. Remove or rename the following files:
* bookmarks.adr
* speeddial.ini
* operaprefs.ini
6. Install the customized version (without removing the previous one)

The download basically consists of the latest official version of the Opera web browser (which is Opera 10.01) and the custom Halloween theme which consists of a Halloween themed speed dial background image.

Even better than that single speed dial background that gets shipped with the Opera Halloween edition are additional speed dial backgrounds for Halloween that are available on the Opera website. If you do not like the standard one you simply can download and use another of the speed dial backgrounds. You can download the Opera Halloween edition from the Opera blog post where it was announced in.

Tags: opera, opera 10, opera 10.01, opera halloween, web browser

Seamonkey 2.0 Release Candidate 1 Available

Martin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:43:25 +0000

Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. Those are the five most popular web browsers on the Internet. If you would ask users to mention two more most would probably have difficulties answering the questions while others might mention Flock and Seamonkey (and probably Netscape). Seamonkey is a Mozilla project. It combines not only a web browser but also other Internet related apps under its hood including an email client, IRC client, newsgroup (Usenet) reader and HTML editor. That’s an impressive list for one application and it could remind Internet veterans of the Netscape Communicator suite that also combined many of those features under the hood. Most might be surprised that Seamonkey, which is also known as the Mozilla Application Suite, is in fact based on source code used in Netscape Communicator.

The first release candidate of Seamonkey 2.0 has been published on the Mozilla Seamonkey project page. Interested users can download the Internet suite for all supported operating systems (Windows, OSX and Linux) and languages. A page full of changes relative to the latest Seamonkey 1.0 stable release has been posted by the developers. The list is huge. Some of the noteworthy additions include session restore, tabbed mail, switch to the Toolkit backend used by Firefox, improved password manager and download manager, update of the Gecko rendering engine and dropped support for Windows NT 4, Windows 9x, Windows ME and Mac OSX 10.3.

Tags: Email, internet suite, seamonkey, seamonkey 2, web browser

Expect A Faster Firefox 3.6 Beta Next Week

Martin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:36:31 +0000

The Mozilla Firefox developers are planning to release the first beta of the upcoming web browser Firefox 3.6 next week (to be precise on October 14 which is also the release date for the beta of Firefox 3.5.4). Not that many Firefox users will take notice of these two beta version releases but those that do will notice performance improvements in Firefox 3.6 beta. The Mozilla team is not only concentrating on the usual options to increase the web browser’s performance (that is JavaScript mainly) but also performance of the web browser in general which would include loading times and responsiveness.

The guys at Betanews have tested the latest alpha release version of Firefox 3.6 and came to the conclusion that the new version increases performance by 22.8% compared to the latest official release version Firefox 3.5.3. This performance does not come near the performance of Webkit based browsers yet but it shows dedication to close the gap between the browsers.

It remains to be seen on the other hand if most users will notice the 22.8% performance increase in Firefox 3.6 Beta or if it is just more a figure without real values to everyday users. Performance is definitely not everything. The fastest web browser in the test, Google Chrome 3, does not pass the Acid 3 test which Opera 10 for example does.

Tags: firefox, firefox 3, firefox 3.6, google chrome, opera, web browser, web browser test

Web Browser Backup Software FavBackup Updated

Martin — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 19:32:10 +0000

FavBackup allowed Windows users to backup web browser specific settings. The program was easy to use and supported most major web browsers. Some things were not perfect like missing support for custom or multiple user profiles, portable browser support or the disk and computer memory usage during backup jobs. The developer of FavBackup has recently upgraded the backup software to version 2 which addresses most of the issues that users had with the software.

The jump to version 2 of the web browser backup software brings support for Opera 10 and Flock 2.5 (next to the already existing support for Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 2.9 to Firefox 3.6, Google Chrome 1 to Google Chrome 4, Safari 3 and 4, Opera 9 and Flock 3). This should cover the most used web browsers in the Windows operating system.

One of the great additions in FavBackup 2 is support for portable web browsers. It is now possible to select a custom location for the user profile for Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, Safari and Flock. It is furthermore possible to select any of the identified profiles of the supported web browsers directly.

Other changes in this release are the new ribbon interface, a progress bar, different themes for the backup program, 40% less computer memory usage and minor bug fixes. The new additions make FavBackup 2 a recommended program for web browser backups, especially if multiple different web browsers are installed and used in a computing environment.

Tags: backup software, explorer++, favbackup, firefox backup, google chrome backup, internet, Internet Explorer Backup, opera backup, portable software, web browser, web browser backup, windows software

Google Starts Educating The Masses About Web Browsers

Martin — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:04:47 +0000

You might remember the survey that Google conducted in New York a while back asking random people passing by what a web browser is. It was not that surprising, at least for tech savvy users who have to carefully word their explanations whenever they to tech support, that most who were asked did not know what a web browser was. Most who were able to answer the question defined a web browser as a website or search engine.

Google decided that it was time to educate the masses about web browsers. The first step was the production of a one minute video that explains in plain English what a web browser is and is not. Most tech savvy users would probably call the video web browsers for dummies or something like that.

The video begins with the statement that the web browser is the most important software on computer systems. That’s definitely a bold statement and in most cases not likely to be true. Take a look at the rest of the video to see how they explain web browsers.

Google has also created the website What Browser which contains textual information about web browsers. Not only about Google Chrome but also Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer. Some pages of the website contain tips that might be useful for users who came there not knowing what a web browser is while the graphs, charts and web benchmark section is probably not suited at all for a website like this. The website does offer direct links to the homepages of the five web browser developers which is probably the most useful part of it right now.

Tags: Google, web browser, what browser, what is a browser

Want To Impress Your Friends? Run Chrome OS

Martin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:21:50 +0000

We have all read the news that Google is planning to enter the operating system market with their soon to be released Google Chrome OS which is initially targeting the netbook market. Google Chrome OS is based on Google’s web browser Google Chrome and a Linux kernel. Little information are know as of yet. The ones that are available state that Google Chrome OS will be released as Open Source, that it will use a minimalistic design and that it will likely be released in the second half of 2010.

Fake videos showcasing the new Google Chrome OS have been making their rounds on the Internet in the last months. There have not been on the other hand lots of attempts to turn an existing Linux distribution into something that resembles the Google Chrome OS.

Chrome OS is one of the first attempts. It is offered as a Live CD and virtual image currently. Chrome OS uses a GNOME 2.24 desktop environment with the Google Chrome 4.0.207 web browser integrated. Several other programs like Open Office or Flash Player have also been integrated into the distribution.

To be 100% clear here. This is a custom Linux distribution and not the official Google Chrome OS. It still resembles the operating system and can be used as a Live CD to run the Google Chrome web browser on Linux. Interested users can download the Live CD or the virtual image from the Chrome OS Linux website.

Tags: chrome os, google chrome, google chrome os, Linux, operating system, web browser

PageZipper Makes Browsing Multiple Pages More Comfortable

Martin — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 12:24:54 +0000

Ever been to a website that likes to divide articles into multiple pages to artificially increase their pageviews and thus advertisement revenue? I remember websites that would display every item of a top 50 or top 100 list on individual pages with each page consisting of a few sentences and a screenshot.

The Firefox add-on and bookmarklet PageZipper provides a solution to Internet users who are fed up with those websites. It’s most basic function is to append the next page to the existing one once the PageZipper button has been pressed once while the tab of the website is active in the web browser. The next page will then be automatically appended from then on until the tab is closed or the user navigates away from the starting url (e.g. by clicking on a link).

PageZipper displays an icon in the upper right corner of the screen that can be used to navigate the different pages that have been loaded. A more comfortable solution is to use the Ctrl [down or up] Arrow key to navigate the pages. The same keyboard shortcut can also be used to quickly navigate between images on a website again with the added benefit that the next page is automatically added to the end of the current one. This makes it much easier to navigate in image galleries. PageZipper can also automatically resize images so that they fit the browser window.

The bookmarklet works basically the same way as the Firefox add-on. This actually means that it does not make lots of sense to use the Firefox add-on as it does not offer any kind of benefit over the bookmarklet. Missing options that would make the Firefox add-on worth the install would be keyboard shortcuts to turn on and off the Pagezipper function on a page and a whitelist to automatically turn it on when visiting specific pages.These features are currently missing and it would be nice to see them added in a future update.

The Firefox add-on is available at the Mozilla website while the bookmarklet can be dragged and dropped in a web browser toolbar from the developer’s website.

Tags: bookmarklet, firefox, firefox-add on, pagezipper, web browser

New Firefox 3.7 Design Suggestions Posted

Martin — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 07:58:20 +0000

The Mozilla Firefox development team seems to be dead serious to change the look and feel of the popular web browser. The next big installment is up for an interface change. To stay true to their philosophy the development team has posted the second revision of Firefox 3.7 mockup themes on their website inviting Firefox users to join the discussion. These new revisions have been changed in several key areas. Currently only designs for the Microsoft Windows platform have been posted.

The most obvious difference between version 1 and 2 of the design mockups is the loading bar that has been placed above each tab in the Internet browser. That’s actually a clever way of indicating the page loading status to the user. The current release version of Firefox displays a loading icon but no progress bar.

The bookmarks toolbar has also be added again to the Firefox interface. If you remember it was not included in the first design mockups that have been posted a few months ago. The menu bar has been replaced with a single page button that leads to the menus. That’s a big change for users who do not use add-ons like Tiny Menu which offer this functionality more or less in current versions of Firefox.

You can check out the new Firefox 3.7 design mockups for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows XP at the Mozilla Wiki.

Tags: firefox, firefox 3.7, firefox design, firefox design mockups, web browser

Who The Hell Needs Google Chrome Frame?

Martin — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:37:46 +0000

Innovation is good. Niche software is good as well as there are usually at least some users who might need a program that the majority of users does not even bother thinking about. Google Chrome Frame is a niche product. The niche might however be that small that it lacks the core ingredient: users.

Google Chrome Frame is basically an Internet Explorer plugin that allows Internet Explorer users to use the Google Chrome engine instead of the Internet Explorer engine. So far so good. The major problem here is that the Google Chrome engine only kicks in if it is detected by a website that is supporting it. The other limitation is that users need to be able to install plugins to use it. Home environments usually do not impose web browser limitations to the user which leaves corporate environments as the most likely targets.

These however usually secure Internet Explorer to a point where users cannot do fancy things like installing plugins or changing core settings. There might be businesses with lower security standards but the majority is probably dead serious about security.

Which leaves two types of users who might be a target.

Users who work exclusively with Internet Explorer and like to use Google Chrome Frame on some websites to experience better performance and technology support.
Users who are forced to work with Internet Explorer, like Google Chrome better and are allowed to install plugins.

The plugin has a size of about 500 Kilobytes and will download Google Chrome during the installation process. Check out the plugin’s homepage for additional information and downloads. It is compatible with Internet Explorer 8, 7 and 6. If you give it a try let us know how you feel about it. Google is a bit shy about test pages not listing a single one on the project page yet. Users do have the option to force the Google Chrome Frame plugin to take over by adding cf: in front of any url.

Tags: google browser, google chrome, google chrome frame, internet-explorer, web browser

Firefox Cache Viewer Gui Frontend

Martin — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:42:21 +0000

There are two ways to access the Firefox web browser cache. The cache can either be accessed from within the web browser by entering about:cache into the Firefox address bar or by opening the cache directory located in the Firefox user profile on the hard drive. The in-browser solution displays a bare-bone file browser with little comfort while the solution to browse the cache on the hard drive requires to locate the Firefox profile folder to access it. Data is still not presented in a comfortable way.

The Firefox add-on Cache Viewer offers a third option. It is basically a gui frontend for the browser cache viewer. Its advantage over the two original solutions to view the cache are numerous. This includes a visual preview of the cached item which is extremely helpful to identify images that have been placed in the cache.

It is possible to sort by url, size, mime type, cache location or date. Another handy option is the ability to use the search form to locate specific files or file types.

Additional information about a selected cache item are displayed next to the visual preview area including the expiration date and connection headers. A right-click on one or multiple images will open a context menu with options to save the selected items to the local hard drive, to delete them or to open them in the web browser.

Cache Viewer is available for Firefox 3 and can be downloaded from the Mozilla website.

Tags: cache viewer, firefox, firefox cache, firefox-add on, mozilla-firefox, web browser

Internet Explorer Application Compatibility VPC Image

Martin — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:24:34 +0000

Web designers and webmasters need to check their designs and websites not only in web browsers from various web browser developers but also in different versions of a web browser. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for example has a distribution rate that is still divided among the versions 6, 7 and 8 of Internet Explorer making it a necessity to test the website in all three of these versions (unless you are a huge site and have decided to cut off Internet Explorer 6 completely).

There are various options to test a website in different versions of Internet Explorer. Some, like IETester, make it possible to install multiple versions of Internet Explorer on the same computer system. Others, like Browsershots, are online tools that can test a website in various web browsers as well.

A third possibility is now offered by Microsoft directly in the form of virtual PC images. Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7 and Internet Explorer 8 are provided as virtual PC images. It is possible to download a virtual PC image for each web browser running under Windows XP or Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8 images running under Windows Vista.

The Windows XP images have a size of around 600 Megabytes each while the Windows Vista images triple that size. The only limitation is an expiration date for the virtual PC images. The Windows XP images will expire in January 2010 while the Vista images will expire 120 days after their first execution. These expiration dates make the virtual PC images a less than favorable solution but its probably better than not testing the various editions of Internet Explorer at all.

Users who are interested in the virtual PC images can download them directly from the Microsoft website.

Tags: internet explorer 6, internet explorer 7, internet explorer 8, internet-explorer, virtual pc, web browser, webmaster

Opera Mini 5 beta

Martin — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:03:45 +0000

Opera has just released a beta version of their acclaimed mobile web browser Opera Mini 5. The beta version, which is available publicly can be downloaded to a mobile phone directly or to the computer system first. Versions for Blackberrys and Java compatible cell phones are provided on the download page. Opera 5 Mini comes with several new features that make the mobile browsing experience more pleasant. Some of them are:

Sleek design — Opera Mini 5 features a new, intuitive and advanced look and feel.
Tabbed browsing — This desktop favorite is now available for Opera Mini. Tabs allow users to browser several sites simultaneously. This helps users easily jump from one page to another with the click of a tab.
Touchscreen or keypad browsing — Opera Mini caters to the needs of your phone, offering optimal browsing for both touchscreen and keypad-based phones.
Password manager — Opera Mini is a virtual memory bank, securely saving all passwords for e-mail, social-networking sites, online banking and more.
Speed Dial — This is our take on a table of contents for your Web adventure. Opera’s Speed Dial will greet you with your pre-selected Internet favorites upon loading the browser.

The Opera developers have released a video that demonstrates the functionality of Opera Mini 5.

Mobile users who are interested in testing the new Opera 5 Mini web browser can point their mobile devices to m.opera.com/next to download it directly from the device or to the download page at the Opera website to download it to their PC.

Tags: blackberry, cell-phone, java, mobile browser, mobile phone, opera, opera mini, opera mini 5, web browser

Web Browser Have Impact On Battery Life

Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:52:49 +0000

A recent Anandtech study suggests that the web browser has an impact on a mobile PCs battery usage. The test, which analyzed battery performance under various popular web browsers and three websites, can probably not be seen as representative but it could indicate which web browser uses less battery power to operate. A test with more websites would certainly help to get a global result. Still, test results were somewhat surprisingly as the difference between the best and worst performing web browser were greater than two hours.

The web browsers of the test were: Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3.5.2 with and without adblock add-on, Google Chrome 2, Opera 9.64, 10.0b3 and Safari 4. Three laptops were used in the test. Two entry level Gateway laptops with AMD and Intel cpus and the ASUS Eee PC 1005HA netbook.

Gateway NV52

Gateway NV58

Asus EEE PC 1005HA

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 8 is the web browser that drains the least amount of battery on the two entry level laptops. Most other web browsers with the exception of Safari come close to that results, especially Firefox with the adblock add-on. The benefit of the adblock add-on suggests that web advertisement does have an impact on battery usage. Safari 4 is the only web browser in the test that performed worst in all three tests.

Google Chrome 2 was first in the netbook test with all other web browsers close by except for Safari which completely drained the battery of the netbook more than two hours earlier than the other web browsers.

Even if the test needs to be replicated with a larger website sample size it seems to indicate that laptop users are better off without the Safari web browser. Internet Explorer 8, Mozilla Firefox with adblock and Google Chrome were the best performing web browsers in the test.

Tags: battery, battery drain, firefox, google chrome, internet-explorer, laptop, netbook, opera, safari, web browser

Google Releases Google Chrome 3

Martin — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 18:52:33 +0000

Version chaos; That’s what many web users called Google’s fast paced versioning of their Google Chrome web browser. The stable release was Google Chrome 2 for some time, the stable developer build Google Chrome 3 and the latest build Google Chrome 4. Google Chrome 2 was the version that was offered at the Google Chrome website until now. Tech savvy users were able to download the dev builds of the Google browser which cam with all kind of improvements that made it a better browser.

Today Google finally released Google Chrome 3 to the public. Users who are currently using Google Chrome 2 will see an update prompt soon to update to the new release. Everyone else can simply go to the Google Chrome website and download the latest official public release of the browser right there.

The official Google blog has published some benchmarks and other information that shall help convince users to switch to version 3 of the Google browser. The benchmarks show the performance of different releases of Google Chrome with Google Chrome 3 being the fastest and most powerful yet.

Users who have only used Google Chrome in the past will be able to access several new features besides the performance, compatibility and stability gains: This includes a new tab page which is shown when the user opens a blank new tab in the web browser. Other changes include HTML5 capabilities, additions to the Omnibox (the address bar of the browser) and theme support.

Best of all; The confusion is reduced as there are only two versions of the web browser out there currently. The stable Google Chrome 3 which is offered publicly and the developer version that has already reached version 4 and is therefor called Google Chrome 4. It is likely that the confusion will grow again once Google decides to release developer versions of Google Chrome 5.

Tags: google browser, google chrome, google chrome 3, google chrome 4, web browser

Midori Lightweight Web Browser Alternative

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:11:40 +0000

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari. Those are the usual web browser names that make the news these days on the Internet. This are also the web browsers that the majority of web users use actively. Other web browsers face this tough competition. Last to feel the competition was the Google browser which – despite Google’s marketing power and efforts – remains at the lower end of web browser distribution.

Other web browsers on the other hand do usually not have the backing of a multi-billion Dollar corporation. That’s why they need to come up with other means to grab web browser market shares.

Midori’s approach is the lightweight but still comfortable web browser. The portable web browser is based on WebKit which is also used by Google Chrome and Safari. This guarantees great page rendering speeds. One of the greatest benefits of the web browser is its low resource usage. The browser uses about 10 Megabytes of computer memory with one open tab which is not much when compared to the resource usage of other web browsers that use a multiple of that.

The speed and low resource usage does not affect the functionality of the web browser. It offers many of the features that web users demand including tabbed browsing, session management, bookmark management or extension, userscript, userstyles and theme support. Not everything is yet fully support though. Userscripts for example are supported as long as they do not use advanced metadata. This means most are supported while some are not.

Midori is an interesting web browser, especially for users who prefer bare bone systems that are resource friendly and therefor faster than comparable products. The web browser is available for Linux and Windows and can be downloaded from the developer’s website.

Tags: browser, lightwheight browser, linux software, midori, web browser, windows software

Firefox 4 Mockup Theme For Firefox 3

Martin — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 09:29:56 +0000

The designers and developers of the Firefox web browser have shown several design mockups of future Firefox versions in July. These mockups have since then been the source of inspiration for Firefox theme developers who tried to create a theme that would look like one of the possible future designs of the web browser.

The Strata 40 theme for Firefox is probably the most complete theme yet as it combines not only a Firefox theme but also add-ons and userscripts that need to be installed to look like the Firefox 4 design mockup. Several versions of the theme are possible depending on the add-ons and scripts that are installed next to it. This somewhat reflects the various designs that have been posted by the Firefox designers (e.g. tabs on top or normal position for tabs).

Links to all add-ons and userscripts that are needed to make the theme look similar to Firefox 4 designs are posted on the theme’s page at the Mozilla website. Here is the list for your convenience:

Download and install the Strata 40 theme.
Install Strata Glass add-on for glass effects in Windows Vista and Windows 7. [optional]
Install Personal Menu add-on for Bookmarks and Tools buttons in the toolbar. [optional]
Install Fisson add-on for progress line features. [optional]
Install the Stylish add-on and the Tabs on Top userstyle to move the tabs to the top of the web browser. [optional]
Install the Omnibar add-on to add search functionality to the address bar. [optional]

The result is a elegant theme for the Firefox 3 web browser.

Tags: firefox, firefox 3, firefox 4, firefox theme, strata 40, web browser

Finally: Google Chrome Extensions Turned On By Default In Dev Releases

Martin — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:32:52 +0000

Not many users understood why the Google Chrome development team decided to operate with lots of switches to manage some functionality of the web browser. Users who wanted to turn on the extension engine had to launch the web browser with a parameter, the same is true for userscript support, bookmark syncing and dozens of other switches that are available as launch parameters. The reason for this method of testing is not clear to most users who think that Google could also add options to enable or disable these features in the web browser’s settings which would make it more comfortable.

There are some launch parameters that are used more often than others. The parameter to enable extensions is definitely in the top list especially with the recent increase in extensions that get released for the Google browser.

Google finally made the decision to turn on extensions by default in all Google Chrome dev releases that are released in the future (Google Chrome 4.x). Users of the latest stable release of the web browser (Google Chrome 2.x) and those of the development builds of Google Chrome 3.x are still stuck with either no extension support at all or the need to enable it by launching Google Chrome with the command line parameter.

It is also not clear if the developers will enable extension support by default when they release Google Chrome 3 final.

Tags: google browser, google chrome, google chrome extensions, google chrome plugins, web browser

Firefox 3.5.3

Martin — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:08:37 +0000

The Mozilla Firefox have already started spreading the latest Firefox version with the version number of 3.5.3 to the official mirror servers. This usually means that the next Firefox update is imminent which would go along well with the official schedule which suggests a release tomorrow.

The beta release notes which are currently publicly available mention several security and stability fixes making the update a recommended update for every Firefox user currently working with the 3.5x branch. The bug list lists 43 bugs that have been fixed in this version of Firefox with nine bugs being rated as critical.

Firefox users who do not want to wait for the official release announcement can download the Us version of Firefox 3.5.3. from a file host where we have uploaded the installers to. Firefox 3.5.3 installers for all supported operating systems – that is Microsoft Windows, Linux and Apple Macintosh – have been added to the file host.

Interested users can check the bug list that was fixed in Firefox 3.5.3. Most software portals will soon host this version of Firefox as well on their pages. Cautious users might want to wait until the official release announcement has been made.

A reboot was required after the installation on a Windows system, cannot remember that this ever happened before.

Tags: firefox, firefox 3.5.3, firefox security, firefox-update, mozilla-firefox, web browser

Prioritize Tabs In Firefox

Martin — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 07:28:56 +0000

It is possible to load several websites in different tabs or windows at once in Firefox. This can happen after a session restore for example where all websites that had been open before are loaded again, while opening a bookmark folder with all its bookmarks, using add-ons like Snap Links to open multiple websites at once or by loading multiple links manually in new tabs or windows.

Firefox by default will not prioritize any of the links. The Firefox developer’s now thought that it might make sense to prioritize certain tabs in Firefox. Why would that make sense? The active tab for example is the tab that the user is currently looking at. Should not that active tab load faster than tabs that are not in the focus of the user?

That’s basically what the experimental Firefox add-on mozNetworkPrioritizer tries to accomplish. It prioritizes tabs based on their status based on the following order:

Selected Tab in a Focused Window
Background Tab in a Focused Window & Selected Tab in a Background Window
Background Tab in a Background Window
Any Tab in a Minimized Window

The add-on will speed up the loading of websites from top to bottom. The developer of the extension shared his experience at his website.

Initial results showed some improvement when loading large groups of tabs. It was most noticeable when loading many tabs from the same site (e.g. the default BBC livemarks). It was somewhat noticeable during a typical (for me) session restore. There was no difference during normal browsing

The Firefox add-on is available at the Mozilla website if you want to give it a try.

Tags: firefox, firefox add-ons, firefox priority, firefox tips, mozilla-firefox, web browser

Opera 10 Portable

Martin — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 20:15:15 +0000

Recent coverage and news of the Opera 10 web browser might have sparked interest in some users to give this web browser a try. The Opera web browser is still an underdog compared to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or Mozilla’s Firefox but was able to stand its ground in the last years. You can read up on the Opera 10 final release in our review of that version. The portable version of Opera 10 is basically the same version but without the need to install the web browser before it is ready for use.

A few additional benefits are offered by the portable version of Opera 10. The most important aspects are that the portable version will not have unwanted effects on other installed web browsers including other versions of the Opera web browser.

Other benefits include that the portable version can be run from a portable device like an USB stick leaving no data traces on the local computer system. Opera 10 portable is provided by a third party developer who is not associated with the Opera company. Portable versions are available as English and German language versions but only for the Windows operating systems. Downloads are provided by the third party developer at the website Opera USB.

Tags: opera, opera 10, opera 10 portable, opera portable, portable software, web browser, windows software

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