Category Archives: Browser

What do people type in the address bar?

Earlier this year, I added a feature to URL Fixer (a browser add-on that fixes errors in URLs that you type in the address bar) that collects anonymous usage stats from users who opt in in order to help improve the ways that URL Fixer corrects typos; the collected data includes domains that are typed in the URL bar as well as the locale (language/country) of the user who typed them. I now have six months of data, and I’ve run some statistical analysis on it in order to share some interesting stats with you. (If I were more creative, I would make an infographic out of this information.)Note that this data does not include bookmarked links or links that users click on in websites. It is strictly domains … Continue reading →

Internet explorer users have lower IQ says study

A story which suggested that users of Internet Explorer have a lower IQ than people who chose other browsers appears to have been an elaborate hoax. A number of media organisations, including the BBC, reported on the research, put out by Canadian firm ApTiquant. It later emerged that the company’s website was only recently set up and staff images were copied from a legitimate business in Paris. Read more By BBC News: Technology, 03 August 2011.  

Google+ to introduce social game platform

Google, whose recently launched social network Google+ has amassed 20 million users in three weeks, is planning to launch a platform for social games that would compete with the offerings on Facebook. The search company has approached a number of developers to put their games on Google+, according to people knowledgable with Google’s plans and who did not want to be identified because of confidentiality agreements. The plans, reported on Friday by AllThingsD, could come as early as August, they said. A Google spokesperson declined to confirm, saying only that the company plans “to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time.” Read more For Los Angeles Times: Business, 22 July 2011.

Mozilla designed a system that makes passwords obsolete

In between updating Firefox every few weeks, the Mozilla team managed to find time to put together BrowserID, a system that might make passwords a thing of the past. It’s a straightforward premise — log in to the BrowserID service, and you’re automatically granted access to all your password-protected websites. We think this could be big, especially with a major player like Mozilla behind it. The only roadblock is adoption — how long until Netflix, Amazon, and others adopt the protocol? Read more By Dylan Love for Business Insider, 19 July 2011.

There will be a business version of google+ later this year

Google is working on a version of its Google+ social networking service for businesses and will roll it out later this year, according to a manager on the Google+ team. Christian Oestlien posted a YouTube video (embedded below) urging businesses NOT to set up pages on Google+ today — the current service is designed for consumers. But Oestlien promised that Google+ has a team of engineers working on a “similarly optimized business experience” for businesses that will include “rich analytics and the ability to connect that identity to other parts of Google that businesses might use on a daily basis, like AdWords.” Read more By Matt Rosoff for Business Insider, 08 July 2011.

WordPress.com drops support for IE6

As the Internet Explorer 6 Deathwatch continues, another web service — WordPress.com — has announced that it is ending support of the nearly decade-old web browser. Citing “increasingly complex code trickery to make the WordPress dashboard work,” the company announced an end to IE6 support. The dashboard will still load for IE6 users, it just won’t function very well. IE6 users will be alerted that their browser is outdated and given direct links to browser updates or to download an alternative browser via theBrowse Happy website. Read more By Christina Warren for Mashable, 20 May 2011.  

Mozilla jumps into the app store game, but can it compete with google?

With the launch of Google’s Chrome Web Store looming, the creators of Firefox have unveiled what it calls a “prototype of an Open Web App Ecosystem.” Can Mozilla get developers and other tech companies on board with its proposed system, though? Mozilla calls the proposed ecosystem “Open Web Apps” and has laid out both technical documentation and key design principles for apps to qualify as Open Web Apps. Read More By Ben Parr for Mashable, 19 Oct 2010.

wysiwyg editors in web content management

I am slowly making up a set of blog posts about the components of content management systems, starting with the earlier one on content repositories. Coming up next will probably be templating systems. In the beginning the web was editable in the browser. Tim Berners Lee made it so. But this did not last for long. Eventually Microsoft restored this, to some extent, with the contentEditable properties and related Javascript interfaces. Now these have a lot of foibles, and the current HTML5 standardization has not done a huge amount of work here yet, certainly not adding new features or changing the basic interface substantially, so a lot of behaviour is currently underdefined, which makes cross browser compatibility more difficult. While the main desktop browsers all implement the interface, … Continue reading →

Google gives us the inside track for 2011

The Google Manchester event last month was a great day all in all: super speakers, interesting insights and excellent food.  Here are some interesting stats and an overview of the day. The day started with coffee, pastries and networking before we took our seats in the main room for the first presentation from Mark Howe, Country Sales Director. Mark Howe shared some very interesting statistics that showed just how much search is changing and how quickly it is evolving. These were as follows:- The UK is now the largest per capita ecommerce market in the world. The UK’s Internet economy is worth over £100bn. Read More By Bev Freeman for Epiphany Solutions blog, 08 Dec 2010.