I’ve sung praises over the Flash-based multimedia suite Aviary, but what’s more disruptive than an company using Adobe’s own technology to compete with them? Perhaps something that erases Flash from the equation altogether, which is what you get with Sketchpad. If enough effort is poured into this project down the road, taking desktop tools to the web browser may no longer need plugins like Flash and Air.
That still seems like a far away future, though. Even this ReadWriteWeb report, where HTML5 has been found to be sometimes more CPU-intensive than Flash, indicates it doesn’t even have that advantage in the bag.
Then there are others who can’t see how HTML5 and Flash can even be comparable, but here’s a compelling point for that argument: where are the tools for creating in HTML5? John Nack from Adobe has a few answers. Though as an Adobe guy, he advocates for Flash too.
Finally, there’s browser adoption as the biggest and most obvious issue of all. And sadly, that one might not even be resolved.
All of these beg the question: “Is it irresponsible to advocate using HTML5 before it is ready?” But when, pray tell, will it be ready?
Remember my complaint about all the CSS3 syntaxes differing from one browser to another? It’s now addressed with CSS3 Please, a jQuery-based, in-browser editor that replaces multiple attribute values of the more complicated CSS3 syntaxes (from border-radius to rgba to @font-face) all at the same time, so you don’t have to.
In addition to syncing and normalizing changes across the necessary properties, it also sneaks in IE support for a few features via IE filters. Right now it helps you write the rules for: border-radius, box-shadow, linear-gradients, rotation and @font-face. A few more transforms like skew and scale are on their way, stay tuned.
You can preview your code on the box at the right side by toggling it on and off. When you’re done, click on the clipboard icon to copy the code.
This is a smart solution to a growing problem. However, even though I’m thoroughly grateful for this tool, I still want to axe the real problem, which is the inconsistent browser syntax. It’s unreasonable for a programming language to have redundant code, and while CSS isn’t really one, it’s still code. We’re still supposed to pride ourselves with efficiency, conciseness, and standards with any kind of code. We like to kick IE for constantly breaking standards; should we tolerate the same thing for other browsers just because they’re implementing cutting edge features?
It’s been a couple of years since the height of the “kill IE6″ web campaigns, and it took that long to hold a funeral that finally seals its fate.
Of course, the IE6 Funeral is an arbitrary event held by the Aten Design Group last March 4, and this doesn’t really eradicate the browser on computers that can’t upgrade.
Over at TechCrunch, commenter Jeff Carlson jokes: “So if someone uses IE6 to browse the web tomorrow, will their web browser be a Zomb-ie6 browser?” You could say that. After all, IE6 is way past its expiration date, sucking the brains out of web designers and developers with its buggy, unstable, insecure features from an ugly past.
Even Microsoft acknowledges it’s time for IE6 to go, as it actually sent over flowers and this note:
Thanks for the good times IE6, see you all @ MIX when we show a little piece of IE Heaven. The Internet Explorer Team @ Microsoft
On March 13, Google will end IE6 support on YouTube, following the March 1 pull-out for Google Docs and Google Sites. Gmail and Google Calendar are next on the list, slated by the end of the year.
Combined with the European government security warnings to upgrade browsers, could Google’s systematic phase-out be the final nail in the IE6 coffin, or is this slow death going to take at least another year?
I really hope this is it.
It’s a disappointing day when you find a single serving site that generates the comprehensive syntax for the border-radius property, aptly named border-radius.com. Because not all browsers (and browser versions) support the latest and greatest things CSS3 can do, one has to resort to browser targeting yet again. Only this time, one browser’s syntax is different from another browser’s, and becomes a chore to write CSS for each.
There’s a pretty obvious explanation for the existence of browser-specific properties from SitePoint:
Vendors—browser makers—are free to implement extensions to the CSS specifications that, in most cases, are proprietary to their browser. They may do this for a number of reasons, such as adding new features for users, or for experiments and debugging. Most often, though, the extensions are used to release and test browser features that have been developed in the preparation of W3C drafts that have not yet reached Candidate Recommendation status—the extensions allow these new properties to be widely tested before they become available as standard CSS properties.
So for starters, the browser-specific CSS has prefixes like:
-moz: Gecko-based browsers like Firefox-webkit: WebKit-based browsers like Safari and Chrome-ms: Internet Explorer-o: Opera-khtml: Konqueror
(The complete table is listed at the W3C.) That’s fine, but what I don’t get is why the syntax following the prefix isn’t always the same as the standard CSS syntax. The border-radius property is just one example, which is peanuts compared to the gradients syntax. Compare:
-webkit-gradient(
linear,
left bottom,
left top,
color-stop(0, rgb(0,10,148)),
color-stop(1, rgb(45,58,246))
)
-moz-linear-gradient(
center bottom,
rgb(0,10,148) 0%,
rgb(45,58,246) 100%
)
Sure, we can turn to generators like WestCiv’s and Damien Galarza’s—and we’ll probably be increasingly dependent on them in the future as CSS capabilities and their corresponding syntaxes grow more complex. But why must browser vendors insist on that when it only multiplies the code and maintenance necessary? Does it have to do with the way their engines parse the code, or something less significant?
A year or so after Google Chrome was first released, it’s now my default browser. While I still use other browsers on a regular basis, Chrome’s speed and minimalism has taken over. Take the omnibox, which merges the address bar and search bar into one. It searches your bookmarks, your recently visited pages, and even detects if the URL you’re typing has its own site search.
Most of these features are available in Firefox, whether by default or as an add-on, but the reason I’m focused on Chrome is that it’s a Google product, and this company can push both its browser and search forward by turbocharging the omnibox the way they’re continually adding new features to Google search.
The Chrome extension Google Quick Scroll, which highlights and jumps to portions of a page where one’s Google search query can be found, is a perfect example of Google search and the Chrome browser working side by side to improve the search—and more importantly, find—experience.
Google’s autocomplete search box is getting more powerful each day, so why not integrate it into Chrome? It probably won’t matter to those who can’t tell the difference between a web browser and a search engine, and use Google as a jump-off point to browsing other sites, but Google can significantly alter the whole searching-browsing experience if it so desires.
One downside would be eliminating the need to visit Google.com itself and contribute to the ad impressions, but that should only happen for quicker, smarter searches such as weather forecasts, currency exchange rates, stock quotes, etc. The fewer clicks, the better.
Web standardistas lament the outdated HTML and CSS support by IE6, but the biggest reason you should drop the browser stat is security, security, security. And if the following evidence from Google, the governments of Germany and France, and Microsoft itself do not convince you, I’m not sure there’s much else that will:
- The Chinese cyber attacks on Google (and at least 20 other large companies) got through because the exploited code worked only in IE6, on Windows 2000 and XP.
- The German and French governments have both asked its citizens to upgrade their IE6 browsers to prevent attacks happening to them.
- Microsoft released a security advisory warning against attacks specifically against Internet Explorer 6.
Mashable includes the three items above in its list, but the last one is the most compelling:
This will not be the last massive IE6 security breach: This flaw was unknown before Google’s groundbreaking China announcement. And it’s not the first flaw ever found with the browser — there are at least 142 vulnerabilities in IE6, 22 of which are not yet patched. Would you use armor that had 142 weak spots?
Internet Explorer 6 is a run-down browser with very little support for exploits. It’s more costly for businesses to leave it lying around like a ticking time bomb than exert effort to upgrade their systems.
The good news is, we’re getting bigger institutions stepping up against IE6. Let’s hope their spheres of influence really are that effective. You can’t get much bigger than European governments, Microsoft, or Google.
And by jQuery-esque I mean easy! The premise of Jetpack, Mozilla Labs’s latest creation, is that anybody who knows HTML, CSS and JavaScript can create Firefox add-ons.
It takes 80 lines of code to block ads on websites as shown in the demo above, and 14 lines to edit images from within Firefox. Granted, it just sends the data to Pixlr which does all the hard work, but lowering the obstacles to develop some fairly nifty scripts is a commendable effort, just as what jQuery did with JavaScript, Sass with CSS, and HAML with HTML. It’s made even more compelling with Bespin, Mozilla’s HTML5-powered web-based code editor.
Perhaps I’m still in a “standardize everything” mood, or envy this new doodad since I’m now using Chrome as my default browser, but don’t you sometimes wish all browsers could do this? Do the same set of things? We’re getting to a point where the level of HTML and CSS support is the same across every browser, so it makes me wonder what’s the next step for the idea of cross-browser compatibility.
It will probably depend on what the web browser means to its various makers. Google has unveiled the Chrome OS, which will run on a specialized version of Chrome. Opera is focused on its “web servers for everyone” feature in Opera Unite. (And Internet Explorer is playing catch-up, mostly.) Browsers are basically the gateways to the whole Internet, but they’ve become more ambitious than that and their vendors will attend to those ventures first before convening to create new cross-platform goodness.
Google sfida Microsoft con Chrome by Federico Fieni
Guess whose turn it is to bring Internet Exploder into the 21st century. Google has been dipping its fingers and toes everywhere, including the browser market. But it wasn’t content with creating its own; it just had to meddle with everyone’s favorite browser, IE. And based on the name, Google Chrome Frame quite literally puts Google Chrome into Internet Explorer (versions 6, 7, 8). That is, Chrome’s support for HTML5 and its JavaScript engine.
For ordinary users, it means having to download a plugin for IE so it works just as well as any other modern, standards-compliant browser does. For developers, it means adding a meta tag so their websites actually work work better.
Mozilla has done something similar.
A few months back, Mozilla released a <canvas> element plugin. It’s really not a new concept; clearly folks at Mozilla and Google are taking drastic measures so they can slap sense into IE.
Isn’t this Microsoft’s job?
And look how well they’re doing with that.
Let’s turn the tables on this one: would Microsoft even think of creating extensions for competing browsers? Would we even find this acceptable? Of course things are different; Firefox and Chrome work worlds better than Internet Explorer ever has. You don’t see Kill Firefox or Kill Chrome campaigns, do you?
This is not a cure-all
If you don’t have enough privileges to install plugins on your workstation, the plugin and meta tag combo is useless. It doesn’t solve the biggest roadblock to dropping IE6. And if you can install programs on your computer, why not just get Chrome anyway?
Though it’s a valiant effort to bring the IE6 user stats down by a few notches, web designers and developers would still have to test for browsers without Chrome Frame.
Can you say passive-aggressive?
But is it really a charitable deal with a hint of “desperate times call for desperate measures”? If anything, this move by Google (and Mozilla) is an elegant finger to Microsoft.
Google could just sit on its pretty throne, throw more resources into advertising its own browser, and wait ’til it eventually dominates the market. Search, email, advertising, online office suite, VoIP, real-time protocol: everything it touches turns gold. History is on Chrome’s side.
But there’s more to Google Chrome Frame as it seems to scream: “when will you ever get your act together, Microsoft!”—masked by a 24-karat, “we’re here to make the Web a better place” grin.
In yet another interesting turn of events, two of the biggest issues when it comes to web design and development make way for the newer, better versions of themselves.
Goodbye, IE6!
Asa Dotzler of Mozilla reports that IE6 usage has now been overtaken by IE8, based on the browser tracking data from Net Applications. This happened as recently as June 2009.
Of course, specific demographics on your respective websites will vary, but this trend is a sign of things to come. And we’re not talking about years anymore, but months.
I’d have to commend Internet Explorer team on their great marketing efforts to improve the IE8 adoption rate. Even if Microsoft’s latest browser is up to snuff compared to the likes of Firefox, WebKit (Safari/Chrome), and Opera—see these comparison charts for HTML5—it’s a big step.
This is it, guys. Freedom.
Goodbye, XHTML2!
Slashdot reports that the XHTML2 Working Group charter is expiring by the end of 2009, and it will not be renewed. The W3C has also decided to pour more resources into the HTML5 working group.
Those who weren’t paying attention to this seeming sibling rivalry between XHTML2 and HTML5 can now rest easy. Though I’m not sure if XHTML2 ever stood a chance given how all the web gurus were backing HTML5 as early as last year. Google is on board, too. And everybody else is starting cash in on its growing popularity.
The good thing about XTHML was that it enforced well-formed markup, with strict provisions for lowercase code, quoted attributes, and trailing slashes for empty elements. Thankfully HTML5 this coding convention too, and can be served as a serialized XML document dubbed XHTML5.
At least we wouldn’t be forced to choose between the two anymore. Competition is good, but not here. We need standards.
Unwanted competition eliminated
How convenient is it that we have two less things to worry about now? Very, but now that they’re gone, it’s time to make up for lost time:
- Microformats. (This is the easiest to jump into.)
- Fluid layouts.
@font-face and custom web fonts: this time it’s not just the browser makers that web designers and developers are up against, but the type foundries. TypeKit and Kernest are attempting to bridge that gap.- CSS nested declarations, variables, and operations: LESS
- CSS if statements: Modernizr
- Animated PNGs.
Exciting times, people!
All the new browser updates seem to be coming out at the same time, which definitely keeps the competition interesting. But while you continue to scoff at IE, gush over Firefox, and smile nervously at Opera, Chrome, and Safari, have you heard that ordinary computer users don’t actually know what a web browser is? Let’s get to that in a bit…
Internet Explorer is the “best”
IE8 Comparison (comic by Brad Colbow)
I think people around the world made a collective ROFLMAO when the infamous IE8 browser comparison chart came out. I reserved any biased judgment when I first saw it, but oh my, Microsoft sure knows how to put its best features forward.
That’s not all it’s doing to promote the latest version of Internet Exploder, though. There’s a treasure hunt for $10,000 buried “online” (you have to use IE8 to find it, of course), and a donation of meals to charity (per IE8 download, of course).
Firefox has a new icon
New Firefox logo
Firefox is definitely the darling of the browser lot, so even a branding update—the fire, the fox, and the glossy globe are still intact and recognizable—is under magnified scrutiny.
Of course that’s not all there is to the next major release of Firefox, but I’m just glad they also care about their image. Lots of open source products pay little attention to the designery stuff. Firefox knows how to stay fresh and accessible to its audience without trying too hard (cough, see previous browser, cough).
Opera unites
Opera continues to innovate with its upcoming release, including an interface refresh from the same person who brought the Firefox logo to life. But it doesn’t stop there. Opera Unite cuts off the middleman for sharing photos, music, and all other kinds of files by turning the browser into a web server.
It’s not for everybody, but it’s a fascinating idea. An interesting twist to the “web as platform” concept. First there was web-based equivalents of desktop apps, as well as full-blown desktop interfaces on the web, then it was cloud computing, then it was the real-time web, then we have this. The jury’s still out on whether this will actually take off—considering Opera’s level of influence compared to the fox and the blue “e”—but any venture into Web 3.0 is a welcome effort. Here’s hoping we jump into it very soon.
But what is a web browser?
But apparently we can’t jump just yet. According to this discovery by The Next Web, the average internet user can’t tell the difference between a search engine and a browser, about 92% of those interviewed. Ironically, it was Google conducting the survey, and the final question was whether people knew that it had its own web browser.
Although Internet Explorer and Firefox were mentioned, people still didn’t know where the Web ended and the software began. It’s all just a blur of computer terms, which, at the end of the day, help them “find stuff”.
Knowing this, shouldn’t web browsers be scrambling to teach its users how the Internet works, including typing URLs into the address bar, and not just relying solely on search engines? Or should they just give up on the nth incarnation of the Browser Wars?
