Tag Archives: Firefox4 next generation JavaScript engine
Firefox 4 Sure Looks a Lot Like Chrome
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 
4 Comments
Firefox 4 Beta 1 certainly looks familar. I can’t seem to place where I’ve seen this interface before. Oh, I know, it’s the one I see every day when I use Chrome. You be the judge.
Tabs have been moved to the top of the window, the color scheme has changed accordingly and even the input boxes on the main toolbar area now have a rounded look to them. I can’t wait to download this and check out the generation-leaping JavaScript engine this thing is supposed to have.
WSJ: Chrome Browser Now at 7.24% Market Share
Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by Daniel Cawrey. 5 Comments
Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Google’s Chrome browser worldwide share is now at 7.24%. This is impressive to consider since Chrome was launched in September of 2008 and has blazed through versions and innovative features with new releases, currently at version 5.
The question at hand, now that Chrome is at number three of all browsers, is if it can challenge Firefox. NetApplications, the source for the Wall Street Journal Data, puts Firefox in second place to Internet Explorer at 23.81%. In an interview with Gizmodo, Mozilla Open Source Evangelist Christopher Blizzard said that the threat of Chrome overtaking Firefox does not seem to be one of his concerns. In fact, he believes that the fact Mozilla focuses solely on the browser will give his organization competitive advantage.
“What we’re gonna have, I think, with Firefox 4 is that we’re gonna have a Javascript engine that’s a generation ahead of everybody else, which will be pretty interesting. We’re the only one that makes browsers! We don’t sell ads, we don’t make operating systems. We don’t sell hardware. We just make browsers,” Blizzard told Gizmodo’s Matt Buchanon.
And in terms of competing directly against Google, “As long as we stand behind the technology that we have, and continue to improve and invest in it as a mechanism for getting the larger goals done, we’re gonna be fine. I’m not that worried about competing with them.”
That’s good to hear Mozilla has no qualms going up against Chrome. It will be for the best, in the long run, for there to be competing web browsers pushing technology forward – more like web platforms than browsers at this point actually. Firefox’s beta releases of version 4 have shown that they aren’t a afraid of taking something in Chrome and making it a feature in their browser to remain a worthy rival. Anyways, remember when it was only Microsoft that dominated the browser market? It was a black hole in terms of web innovation. Plus IE was hacked a lot, not really a fun time to remember.
By the way, NetApplications by all accounts must be the authority on browser share. In the past, there have been disputes over the validity of calculating browser share worldwide, but major publications seem to quote NetApplications most often in browser research.
