According to a story on ComputerWorld, market share of Apple’s Safari web browser as well as usage of Mozilla Firefox both dropped in the last month. Internet Explorer market share actually gained.

Market share for Safari dropped from 5.8% to 5.5%. Firefox usage went from 17.8% to 17%. Internet Explorer usage went from 74.8% to 76%.

I’m not exactly sure what would explain the shift, although that shift isn’t very large.

Apple did make news not long ago for using Apple Update to promote Safari to Windows users who were not running it. This made some people angry, including John Lily, CEO of Mozilla. He lambasted Apple in a blog post where he compared the practice to malware and said it “undermines the Internet”.

My guess is that IE usage increased slightly because of a new wave of people using Windows Update because they are looking for service packs for XP and Vista. Windows XP SP3 is rolling out currently whereas Vista SP1 hasn’t yet officially made its way to Windows Update. But, I have little doubt that people checking Windows Update is leading to the increase in usage of Internet Explorer.

While Safari market share dropped overall, their update strategy certainly was effective when it comes specifically to Windows users. A story on Gizmodo shows that Safari usage on Windows tripled.

For web developers and those of you who prefer Internet Explorer as your web browser, you might want to give a look at the latest and greatest version 8.

Perhaps the biggest change in IE8 is the move to being more “standards compliant”. All the old quirks which IE supported will still be available, but users have to opt in to this functionality. You can read about all the new functionality here. IE8 appears that it will only support Windows XP (with SP2) and Windows Vista desktop OS’s.

If you do want to give it a try, keep in mind this software is still in beta, so it is subject to stability issues.

One of the most useful features that Firefox offers over Internet Explorer 7 is the ability to re-open a tab which was closed. Several times myself, I have closed a tab accidentally in IE7 only to have to try to dig it up in my browser history. This is no longer a problem with the IE7 Open Last Closed Tab plugin.

The description on their website explains how it works:

This is very useful when you accidentally close a tab that you didn’t mean to close. Instead of trying to find it in your browser history, you hit “Alt-X” and it automatically reopens in a new tab. It also supports a Quick Tab Style View, shown when you hit “Alt-Q”, which gives you thumbnails of the previous tabs you’ve closed (like the built-in IE Quick Tabs, but for previously closed tabs). You can then click on the thumbnail of the page you want to open in a new tab.

Enough said. This plugin is complete free and definitely something worth having.

Apple has officially begun pushing their Safari web browser into Windows users by way of iTunes. This was in the cards ever since Steve Jobs announced Safari for Windows last year.

This started on Tuesday, when Apple released version 3.1 of Safari. What makes the move unique is that Apple Software Update is rarely used to promote new software. Typically, you get the Update utility whenever you install any Apple software on a Windows machine, such as Quicktime or iTunes. Usually, you’ll only be given updates to those software. Using the same medium to push a product the person never downloaded is new territory.

When jobs announced Safari for Windows, he said:

“Hundreds of millions of Windows users already use iTunes, and we look forward to turning them on to Safari’s superior browsing experience, too.”

To clarify, Apple is not forcing Safari onto your computer. That would, almost literally, cause a war of the nerds. Instead, it is just showing the browser in the Update utility. You can uncheck it to decline. This is actually very similar to Microsoft using Windows Update to push Internet Explorer 7 even though you can decline it.

Personally, I find it a little odd that Apple’s music player is being used to distribute unrelated applications. Word has it that iTunes will also be the distribution medium for iPhone third-party applications (allowing Apple to control it, of course).

Are we going to see iTunes get renamed? Perhaps iDownloader? iGimme? iWannaMoreCrap? I mean, we wouldn’t see Microsoft using Media Player to push a web browser, would we?

Source: ComputerWorld

The beta edition of IE 8 was released so I downloaded it and gave it a go.

First I will state that this is a beta product and certain things don’t work correctly, so unless you’re a web designer/developer, stick with your current browser (be it IE 7, Firefox, Opera or whatever you currently use).

The short list of things that don’t work correctly / aren’t finished just yet

Unable to select text via keyboard or mouse in form fields on some web sites

When typing text in a form field I will sometimes use my SHIFT and arrow keys to highlight text, then do a CTRL+C to copy to the clipboard. On certain web sites I found this didn’t work.

Letter spacing and word spacing CSS rules not recognized

With CSS you can set the spacing of letters and words with certain CSS rules. IE 8 doesn’t recognize these at present (but IE 7 does).

Drop-down menus in "Programs" section of Internet Options sometimes do not work

I noticed when going to select default actions/programs in that section the menus were a bit "argumentative" and wouldn’t activate unless I clicked on them several times.

Help menu is IE 7 and not IE 8

Pressing F1 on the keyboard brings up help for IE 7.

. . .

I’m sure I’ll find other little oddities in this beta browser.

The short list of things that do work correctly / better in IE 8

Tabs are much faster on load

The first thing I immediately noticed is that the tabs work much better. They load much faster whether activated by mouse or CTRL+T. When switching tabs I also noticed that was faster as well.

Flash seems to work more smoothly

On flash-intensive web sites the browser had a lot less "chop" compared to IE 7. In addition the animations had the same fluid nature they do in Firefox (something much appreciated).

Internet Options cleaned up in some areas

It’s now a bit easier to find your way around while in Internet Options. Certain things were "clustered" together, meaning it takes less clicks to navigate to certain settings.

Any visual differences?

None that I could see. It looks identical to IE 7.

What matters in IE 8 is the "guts" that allow for better faster web browsing.

New Stuff in IE 8

Two new items for IE 8 are "Activities" and "Slices".

Activity example: You highlight a portion of text on a web page and right click. The context menu appears with new choices. You can blog it (Live Spaces), define it, map it, search with Google and so on.

Microsoft defines a slice like this: "Developers can mark parts of webpages as "WebSlices" and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the web"

I have absolutely no idea what that means, said sincerely. If anyone wants to chime in and give a "WebSlice" example I’d be more than happy to listen.

Is IE 8 a Firefox killer?

No, for the reason Firefox still rules in the plugins department (but IE is catching up).

However, I can guarantee this will be the first IE you will actually enjoy using since version 5. I found myself using IE 8 and saying to myself "Hey, this isn’t half bad" because it’s not as bulky or clumsy. Things run faster and smoother and it works well.

Once it’s out of beta stage I’ll definitely be first in line to upgrade to the official release version. This isn’t to say I’m switching back to IE from Firefox, however as most people know there are some sites that just "like" IE better where you’re forced to use it.

Final words (for now)

My initial impression is that it at least keeps up with Firefox in the speed department, and the less time I have to wait, the better. Part of the reason I can’t stand IE 7 is because of its slowness. IE 8 on the other hand is a definite improvement.

Microsoft is on the right track with IE 8. When the finished version is released this is going to be a no-brainer upgrade.