Sounding Off On Browsers

Today, I just wanted to use the virtual scratchpad to talk about some of the things I don't like about modern browsers. And I'm not singling out any one browser. In my day-to-day activities of researching, working with common application tools, communicating and doing my stuff in the industry, I find that it's not uncommon for me to switch to different browsers for different needs. This is odd because browsers are supposed to do basically the same things.

When I am in the biggest hurry and I don't think I will need to print anything or be dealing with Flash content, then I open Google Chrome. I love its big thumbnails of commonly used sites, multiple tabs and quick start-up and browsing. But the second I go to print something, I am hamstrung because Chrome has no print preview feature. I am usually running from one thing to another, so now I have to jump to another browser to get this basic feature which I am learning is evidently not so basic to program. (I believe other browsers will be launched without this feature the for the first few generations). And if I come across a site with Flash content, Chrome screeches to a halt... it seems that getting the Flash player is difficult or impossible for Chrome. I don't know if this is the fault of Google or Adobe, but I suspect it's a bit of both. I was routed out to get the player for Firefox, which didn't work on the first install attempt. Bad.

On the other hand, on most of my machines, I like Firefox's multiple tabbing system, and its print preview and Flash player installs work just fine... But I find that it is the slowest of all my browsers, which is annoying. And some fairly mainstream web applications (like my banking website) simply choke and die when I run them on this browser. Switching over to Internet Explorer seems to get around this... Again, this may be a problem with how the bank coded their application, not including enough cross-browser support -- but in my workaday tasks, I am governed but what's out there, not by what "they should have done".

And then, finally, although Internet Explorer can be a good happy medium (on my machines, it's medium speed; it has print preview and Flash player compatibility), it has its problems as well. I remained on IE 5.5 or 6, I can't remember which, for the longest time to avoid the complete IE makeover that removed all my menu bars that let me get to common settings and features easily. (A complete makeover that in my opinion was completely unnecessary and counterproductive.) On top of that, IE settings began to become positively fascist with their blocking of common and harmless JavaScript, Flash, and other "active content". Every time I'd turn around, it would be blocking something. And I know I could go back into the security settings and "fix things" but this is also a hassle and a bigger pain when you, like me, use a lot of different computers in your work.

My final analysis -- although the new browser wars are producing some cool new features that the competitors rush to imitate, I for one am still far from ready to declare any one of them the "winner" for all situations.

On the Road,
Eric J. Reid

Internet Explorer 8 Now Available

IE 8 is available for download.

Per ZDNet, "Microsoft says that the new Internet Explorer 8 browser... is faster, more secure, and easier to use. It also adds a new private browsing feature."

Some of the more interesting features IE8 promises are compiled below.

For Users:

• Web slicing that lets you easily track a frequently-used site for updates.
• Compatibility view to help "adjust" the layouts designed for "older browsers" -- it disappears as an option if the page has been "updated for IE8". Of course, for me, this begs the question -- just how differently will IE8 "render" various CSS, that it will need this tool to compensate for hacks often used to accommodate previous versions of IE or maybe other browsers?
• Accelerators, to reduce the additional pages and typing you tend to use to perform standard functions on data, like mapping directions to an address, translating a foreign word, finding a product on eBay, or getting a definition. A nice subfeature here is that it's even updatable to use vendors other than Microsoft and its partners.

For Developers:

• CSS table layout support -- which should allow you to get table-style layouts without using HTML tables.
• Support for the :focus pseudo class
• Various tools for developers
  

Also, for developers, Microsoft has already published some tips on taking advantage of changes in IE8, as well as short-term and long-term approaches to making your pages more IE8-compliant.

I'm curious to see how this notably different version of Internet Explorer changes the way we surf and develop. The browser wars continue -- but instead of coming out with products that result in more variation in the rendering, and more problems for developers and users, the new competition seems to focus more on features to beat the other guy. And that looks promising for the rest of us.

On the Road,
Eric J. Reid

And Behind Curtain Number 4: Google's Chrome Browser

So, the lion's share of Internet browsing (excluding mobile devices like phones, etc) has been done on various versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari in the past couple of years. Well, recently, Google has given some hype to its own new browser.

Reading about it, I've found it interesting to see also how the browser will incorporate cookies and ad integration to protect its very business model. It is, after all, a strange situation to know that over 70% of the access to your core web services is taking place on a rival's browser (Microsoft's Internet Explorer).

I am intrigued. And as a web developer, I know that this means yet one more browser we're going to need to test to see how it renders our pages and handles our web applications. I'm looking forward to seeing if the new features that Google brings to the browser world make it worth all that.

So here's the link they just posted if you'd like to download the beta and check it out, too.

On the Road,
Eric J. Reid

9/3/08 Addendum: Here's another recent review on CNN that gets into the debate regarding "what slows down and/or crashes your browser when you have multiple tabs open".