Author Archive: Armin Seuchter
Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.
Firefox 4 Market Share Increases 30% After Upgrade Offer
Firefox 4’s market share went up by 11% after Mozilla initiated the upgrade offer last week. That was only on the first day, however, for the browser managed 30% market share growth in the four days since the offer began. This prompted Mozilla’s community coordinator for Firefox marketing Asa Dotzler to compare the gains of Firefox and Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) as both of the browsers launched in March of this year.
IE9 will never catch up to Firefox. It will be a year or two before Microsoft can move the bulk of their IE7 and IE8 users forward.
RockMelt Now With Quiet Mode, Localized Search & Chromium 11
RockMelt Beta 2 has been updated with Quiet Mode, Chromium 11, supports localized results from the search box, and several performance improvements. Let’s take a look at each new addition.
Quiet Mode
Mozilla Defies the Department of Homeland Security
Mozilla declared that it will not agree to a US Department of Homeland Security request to get rid of a Firefox extension yesterday. The extension in question is MAFIAA Fire.
What this particular extension does is redirect users to working sites set up to replace domains seized by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a division of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is believed that an antipiracy campaign by the DHS has seen reduced effectiveness due to this.
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How To Activate Autocomplete In Firefox 4
Firefox 4 without Autocomplete.
Both Opera and Chrome have autocomplete as standard in the address field so surely a browser as customizable as Firefox 4 would have a feature as simple as autocomplete as well, no? Turns out that it does!
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How To Save And Quit In Firefox 4
Firefox 4 without Save and Quit.
Browsing some forums recently, I discovered that people miss the Firefox 3 feature that allowed you to save a session for next time upon quitting Firefox. Knowing that Mozilla couldn’t have possibly removed it, I had to investigate the matter and found an answer. Save and Quit is still here, but hidden!
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Firefox 4 Tops 100 Million Downloads
It has been a month since the launch of Firefox 4 and Mozilla has decided to disclose that the browser has already managed 100 million downloads. Nevertheless, according to StatCounter, a web analytics company, the introduction of Firefox 4 has not managed to boost Firefox’s overall share in the browser market.
Firefox 4’s average share up until the 24th of April accumulated to 7.3% which is more than double the average Firefox 4 had achieved in March. The Mozilla browser has since exceeded 8%.
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Chrome Called Out By FTC Over Do Not Track
Google was singled out by Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Liebowitz this week due to not yet having detailed any plans for integrating the Do Not Track feature. What this particular privacy feature does is let consumers opt out of online tracking by Web sites and advertisers, Google belonging to both of these categories.
Apple just announced they’re going to put it in their Safari browser. So that gives you Apple, Microsoft and Mozilla. Really the only holdout — the only company that hasn’t evolved as much as we would like on this — is Google.
Microsoft Starts Bug Warnings For Third Parties
Three security advisories were released for rival browsers by Microsoft today, two of which for Chrome and one for Opera. Said bugs were spotted by researchers at Microsoft and brought to the attention of the security teams in charge of Opera and Chrome. Opera patched the bug in October of 2010 while Google fixed the vulnerabilities last September and December.
According to Mike Reavey, the director of the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the change is part of an expansion of the vulnerability disclosure policy launched by Microsoft the previous summer. These advisories were the first to be issued by Microsoft for vulnerabilities found in third party software. Other advisories will follow as necessary.
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Maxthon Theme for Firefox 4
Much in the same spirit as the Google Chrome Theme for Firefox 4 post, I have chosen to present this Maxthon theme for the very same web browser.
MX3 harnesses all the buttons and colors you would normally find in Maxthon itself. The official Maxthon blog took a rather cynical approach to describing it.
The theme is available from here. Enjoy!
Mozilla and Opera Mock Microsoft’s Native HTML5 Claims
It looks like not everyone is digging the native HTML5 marketing claims from the software giant.
With the launch of Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 1, Microsoft had to say the following:
Web sites and HTML5 run best when they run natively, on a browser optimized for the operating system on your device. We built IE9 from the ground up for HTML5 and for Windows to deliver the most native HTML5 experience and the best Web experience on Windows. The only native experience of the Web of HTML5 today is on Windows 7 with IE9.
Mozilla’s former director of Firefox, Mike Beltzner, was quick to respond, ridiculing the term on Bugzilla, the company’s bug tracking database.
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