HitChrome

After the recent updates from Firefox and Opera in the form of Firefox 3.1 Beta and Opera 9.6, its Chrome’s turn to go under the knife. Most users might have noticed how Mozilla has concentrated on speed with the latest Firefox update. Opera, on the other hand, now has even more features under its belt, retaining its position as one of the most feature packed browsers available now - off the shelf. And yes, support for three Indian languages in Opera too has been a welcome addition.

Chrome, in the meantime, whose market share dipped to 0.78 percent after reaching a peak of 1.7 just after its launch, seems to be concentrating on security and the occasional performance tweaks. The latest version of Chrome is 03.154.9, a beta release that claims to fix many security holes and offers zippier performance. The update will be automatically applied - however you can choose to “force” update to this version by selecting the update option from the “About” dialog. Note that not all users will see this option as Google seems to be releasing the update in patches. Patience, as they say, is a virtue!

As for the changes, here are some examples. On the security front, the security vulnerability that allowed malicious websites to spoof the addresses in pop-ups has been patched. The download manager has been “enhanced” to be more secure. Read the rest of this entry »

Battling hard for market share with Google’s Chrome, Opera Software is promising users a faster surfing experience, an improved email client, and better browser-synchronisation capabilities, with the latest version of its browser which they launched.

The Opera developer says that Opera 9.6 contains an expanded Link. This means that users can more easily use their personal browsing identities on any computer. Essentially, it synchronizes a user’s browser history, bookmarks and personal bar.

In addition Opera has also tweaked its built-in email client, Opera Mail, with a feature designed for users stuck with a slow broadband connection. The email client’s “low-bandwidth mode” allows users to retrieve mails faster when bandwidth is limited. Another feature is that Opera mail that will help users swamped with email overload, as the email client now has two new ways to prioritize emails, so that users can easily (with a single click apparently), track important threads, and ignore less important ones.

Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, said in a statement “Our improved email client is now the ideal communication tool, Opera Link gives you more flexibility to take your personal browsing identity with you to any computer.”

Opera is also claiming increased speed for the new browser, with “improved responsiveness and page loading” compared to Opera 9.5. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve managed to crash Google’s new supposedly super-stable browser, Chrome.

That in itself isn’t terribly noteworthy, but I did appreciate the humorous message Chrome gave me (while trying to preview an upcoming review), so I screengrabbed it for your viewing pleasure.

Your turn to talk, come on lets talk………..

Eric Schmidt the chief executive of Google said the new Web browser “represents some of the best Google can do,” and encouraged everyone to try it. But now not many people are. Shortly after Google, unveiled Chrome, it was a big hit initially. Chrome shot up to 1 percent of the market but then dipped to 0.8 percent.

Chrome gained a percentage of the market share within the first 24 hours of its release Sept. 2, but since then, it has given back much of those small gains to the leaders, Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

Apple Inc.’s Safari was not affected, because Google has yet to release a version to run on the Mac operating system. Chrome is currently ducking it out with Opera for fourth place. Net Applications tracks the browsers of unique visitors to 2 million Web sites.

Chrome started off pretty fast and furious, within 24 hours, they surpassed 1 percent of usage market share, which was shocking and impressive. Since then, they have been slowly fading.”

Microsoft declined to comment, other than to pump up its latest version of Internet Explorer as “faster, easier, more safe and reliable than ever before.”

John Lilly from Mozilla said it was premature to draw any conclusions. “It’s only been three weeks,” he said. “We don’t know anything about anything yet.” But he added that Firefox was “seeing lots and lots of users come back.” Read the rest of this entry »

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I don’t blame them to feel that way, what do you think folks? Your turn to talk., come on let’s talk…

Great news - we decided to give Google Chrome comic books to the top two bidders (with their permission) in our auction for charity. Those bids, for $1,600 and $1,575, respectively, will be donated to Donors Choose, an innovative not-for-profit corporation that raises money for schools.

And that’s not all. Google arranged to have both comic books autographed by creator Scott McCloud and many members of the Google Chrome team as a thank you for the donations. A picture of one of them is above.

Thank you to David Hauser from GotVMail and Lincoln Patz from Success Wallpapers for their generous bids. Donors Choose does a lot with a little, and this money will help fund at least a few different much needed school projects. Read the rest of this entry »