Netbooks, which only in the past 6 months have gained popularity, could pose a threat to laptops.
Netbooks are smaller and less powerful laptops, geared to be a secondary computer solely for browsing the web. A standard netbook has a built-in wi-fi adapter and a webcam, along with a decent amount of RAM for web browsing. PC manufacturers like ASUS and Acer (both Taiwan-based) have begun producing netbooks and marketing them as an inexpensive, portable secondary computer for browsing the web and carrying out low-memory tasks.
However, users wanted to save money by getting cheaper computers, and started buying netbooks instead of the more expensive notebooks (normal-sized laptops). The PC industry’s intentions backfired.
More and more, the web browser you use is becoming more important than the operating system you use. With web-based applications, you can save a file in Washington, DC and open it San Fransisco with no need for a flash drive. Software can be upgraded with no need for an installation. Documents can be shared or worked on by a number of people simultaneously. The major downside is obviously that if you’re in an area without Internet access, you’re documents are inaccessible.
Right now, one in five laptops sold are netbooks, and that number’s on the rise. It’s a very real possibility that netbooks and smartphones could overtake notebooks as the preferred type of mobile computer.
Firefox 3.5 will be the next version of Mozilla Firefox. The latest beta version, 3.5 Beta 4, is available on Mozilla’s website. For the past week, I’ve been using Firefox 3.5 beta 4, and taking notes on what it’s like.
Firefox 3.5 will not be a completely new version of Firefox, so don’t expect to see a new theme or redesign. Rather, there will mainly be security and stability updates.
Features added
- Firefox 3.5 has a Private Browsing Mode, which is also available in Internet Explorer, Safari, and Google Chrome. When using private browsing, Firefox does not add sites visited to your history or save forms, logins to websites, searches, or cookies. This could especially come in handy on public or shared computers. To enter private browsing mode, go to Tools > Start Private Browsing or type Control+Shift+P.
- Instead of using File > New Tab or Control+T to open a new tab, Firefox 3.5 introduced a tab bar with a quick button to open a new tab. The new tab bar can be disabled by going to Tools > Options > Tabs.
- Location-Aware browsing (see below).
Website compatibility
- I went to the following websites to see if Firefox 3.5 had problems loading them. They all were loaded correctly.
- google.com, yahoo.com, live.com, msn.com, youtube.com, microsoft.com, en.wikipedia.org, ebay.com, aol.com, ask.com, craigslist.org, answers.com, about.com, mapquest.com, windows.com, and adobe.com. In addition, it also loaded Website Graveyard and our sister site, TemplatesOne, correctly. I have yet to find a website that isn’t fully compatible with Firefox 3.5.
Pros
- Firefox 3.5 uses Gecko 1.9.1 as its rendering engine. It was either significantly faster than Gecko 1.9, or more compatible with my computer. Either way, pages loaded faster.
- Utilizes a new feature called Location-Aware browsing. With Location-Aware browsing, Firefox sends your current IP address to Google, which determines your location based on it. This feature will only be used if you OK it.
Cons
- Originally, Firefox 3.5 loaded more slowly than Firefox 3. However, Firefox 3.5 is now loading just as fast as Firefox 3.
- Firefox crashed twice, but the addon Session Manager was able to recover the tabs.
In the end…
Firefox 3.5 is definitely an improvement from Firefox 3, offering better compatibility and more features. However, it’s not yet as stable as Firefox 3. For those of you who just want a web browser, wait until it comes out of beta. But if you want to experiment with the next one, why not try Firefox 3.5?
Wolfram|Alpha, a first of its kind “computational knowledge engine” that gives users answers to questions like, “What is the life expectancy for a male at age 45?” is scheduled to go live to the world at 5:00 PM Pacific Coast Time (8:00 PM Eastern Time). However, when running a simulation to see if the servers could handle a large amount of traffic, the selected part of the server reportedly failed. By the time you’re reading this article, Wolfram|Alpha will have probably already been launched (or not).
To watch what’s happening live, starting at 8PM Eastern Time, click here to go to the live webcast.
I’ll post updates here as they happen (in Eastern U.S. time)
UPDATE 1 – 7:50 PM – 10 minutes to the scheduled launch, and the Wolfram|Alpha website is loading normally, a sign that so far the servers are handling the traffic. The real bandwidth will come when the tools go live.
UPDATE 2 – 8:01 PM – I’m on the webcast, site, and as of now the webcast hasn’t appeared. Server overload?
UPDATE 4 – 8:09 PM – The live webcam above on Justin.tv has stopped streaming, and members of the chatroom next to the video are wondering if the Wolfram server is having difficulties.
UPDATE 5 – 8:13 PM – Members of the Justin.tv chatroom are getting frustrated, leaving comments expressing it.
UPDATE 6 – 8:16 PM – Wolfram announced on Twitter that they are running behind because the uplink on Justin.tv is not working.
UPDATE 7 – 8:20 PM – The Justin.tv stream is now embedded on the Wolfram website, but still is not working.
UPDATE 8 – 8:24 PM – The Justin.tv chatroom is buzzing with frustrated comments from users, blaming Justin.tv for the error. The error could actually be on Wolfram’s part or Justin.tv’s part.
UPDATE 9 – 8:31 PM – The uplink has started working! Available on the Justin.tv website here.
UPDATE 10 – 8:35 PM – Wolfram announced on the stream that the server problems in simulations were because the routers and switching mechanisms were being confused.
UPDATE 11 – 8:38 PM – One of the reasons for the technical difficulties is that the data center is currently in a not only a thunderstorm, but a tornado warning.
UPDATE 12 – 8:41 PM – They told viewers that, if the power went out to the area, which isn’t unlikely, the battery system would continue to run the center.
UPDATE 13 – 8:44 PM – The stream is currently showing a pre-recorded video of how they are protected against power outages: A battery will power the system for a few seconds, and then a diesel generator will power the data centers.
UPDATE 14 – 8:49 PM – The stream showed another pre-recorded video showing the servers in Wolfram|Alpha.
UPDATE 15 – 8:54 PM – Some users of the chatroom are reporting Wolfram|Alpha is up, while others are saying it’s not. I currently can’t use it.
UPDATE 16 – 8:58 PM – It’s up! Click here to use it. The data centers are reporting a few queries a second.
UPDATE 17 – 9:04 – They announced on the stream that they don’t want too many people to start using Wolfram|Alpha. That’s probably why the homepage isn’t allowing you to enter queries yet.
UPDATE 18 – 9:16 PM – Sometimes when I enter a query, I’m redirected to the homepage. Probably to keep the number of incoming queries from going too high.
UPDATE 19 – 9:30 PM – The people at Wolfram are now reading feedback from users.
UPDATE 21 – 7:15 AM (May 16) – The Wolfram|Alpha homepage is currently loading, but sometimes gives you an error message saying that the incoming traffic is above the test amount.
Google Chrome, launched by Google on September 12, 2008, has been gaining market share, surpassing rivals Opera and Netscape. In a relatively short period of time, Chrome has become the fourth most used web browser at 1.42% of the market share, according to Net Applications. A pretty impressive accomplishment.
Chrome, which offers a minimalist interface, has more “under the hood” than you might initially expect. First of all, each tab has its own process, so if an application in on one website is malfunctioning, that individual tab will close, not bringing down the entire web browser. Chrome is based on Apple WebKit. It also offers security that many would consider better than that of the majority of other browsers.
Its main interface is essentially a back button, forward button, reload button (which turns into a stop button when a page is loading), and address bar (which can be used as a search bar) — far less cluttered than Firefox, Opera, or Internet Explorer by default.
But will Chrome be able to be the browser used on the Internet. If current market share trends continue, Firefox will overtake Internet Explorer as the #1 web browser. Safari would be second, and Google Chrome would be third. However, the chances of current trends staying the way they are are little to none. A web browser that more and more sites would start optimizing for would gain momentum. The web browser(s) losing market share would probably see their rate of decline increase.
Today, Microsoft and Mozilla are racing to add new features to Internet Explorer and Firefox. Chrome lacks many of them. We have yet to see if a minimal interface will defeat the browsers offering a more complex one.
Many distributions of Linux now are bundled with Firefox. Google recommends Mozilla Firefox alongside its own browser, Chrome. Firefox uses Google as its default browser. And in theory, users who are recommended by Google to use Firefox have a higher chance of becoming more interested in open source, improving their likeliness of using Linux over Windows or Macintosh.
And it looks like this is working for all three. (According to Net Applications), since June 2008, Firefox has gained 3.45% of the web browser market share, Google has gained 3.03% of the search engine market share, and Linux has gained 0.22% of the operating system market share.
Another factor driving the increases of all three is the sale of netbooks: more people using Linux, the Firefox web browser included, and the Google search engine utilized by default on Firefox.
For Google, however, this partnership isn’t free. Mozilla’s deal with Google, renewed last November to 2011 (and most likely to be renewed again), brings in approximately 85% of their income, $56.8 million.
For Microsoft, this could pose a serious threat to three of their products and brands: The MSN/Windows Live search engine, Internet Explorer, and Windows, their most valuable product.
Several major sites have already closed in the past year. More will definitely join them. Here are 3 sites that I think will not still be around in 10 years.
1. MySpace
MySpace, once the top social networking site in the United States, has fallen to second and is losing large amounts of traffic. Facing tough competition from Facebook and Twitter, the executives of the News Corp-owned site are desperately trying to find a way to save the site, but the future doesn’t look good. In the past year, MySpace has lost an estimated 7.2 unique monthly visitors.
2. AOL
This may come as a surprise to some, but I think that AOL probably won’t be around in 10 years. AOL developed a somewhat infamous reputation by sending out mass mailings of free CDs. The AOL software itself was dubbed “the worst tech product of all time” by PC World. In the past year, AOL.com has lost an estimated 3.4 million unique monthly visitors.
3. MapQuest
One of the most popular map and directions websites, MapQuest is losing ground, fast. Owned by AOL, MapQuest has often been associated with giving faulty directions. MapQuest has lost an estimated 5 million unique monthly visitors in the past year.
According to the April report from Net Applications, Linux has finally reached 1% of the operating system market share, something they’ve been trying to do for a long time. This marks a major achievement for Linux, an open-source operating system.
Linux is available in numerous distributions, the most popular of which is Ubuntu.
Market share increase in recent months was helped in part by the large number of netbooks being sold, although the majority come with Windows preloaded. ASUS Eee PCs come with Xandros Linux available.
Features: Antivirus, antispyware, anti-rootkit, anti-phishing, network shield (firewall), web protection.
Lacks: Search protection, antispam.
In the end: avast! Home Edition is better than most paid antivirus programs. The only major features it lacks is search protection, which can be made up for with McAfee’s free SiteAdvisor, and antispam, which is usually built in to webmail programs and email clients. In the end, avast! Home Edition is probably the best free antivirus software available.
AVG Antivirus Free Edition – 80 million users (Grisoft)
In the end: AVG Antivirus Free Edition may have good protection against viruses, but no anti-phishing leaves you open to scammers and no firewall can let online websites that get past the web protection install software on your computer without you even knowing it. A more secure web browser will help, such as Firefox or Opera. In the end, AVG Antivirus Free Edition just doesn’t offer the level of protection you’ll find from some of its competitors.
Lacks: Firewall, web protection, search protection, antispam.
In the end: Avira AntiVir Personal is one of the best antivirus softwares available, but it’s not quite as good as avast!. However, most major webmail (Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc.) and email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.) have built-in spam filters.
According to the Net Applications report for April, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer fell 0.72% from 66.82% to 66.1%, passing the 2/3 mark in market share. Meanwhile, Firefox gained 0.43%, Safari lost 0.02% (slight decreases are relatively common in Safari’s market share), and Google Chrome gained 0.19%.
Two thirds of the web browser market share may seem like a lot, but this means much more than it appears. After the first browser war, which ended in the late 1990s, Internet Explorer had over 90% of the market share. Netscape was down to only a fraction. What browser you used became a very rare question.
To come from the web browser almost everyone used to one now used by less than two thirds of the population is big.
In addition, Internet Explorer 8 was just released in March, something that should have bumped up IE’s overall share. Will Microsoft be able to get back market share, or will the browsers made by Mozilla, Google, and Apple continue to gain popularity? We’ll see.
Microsoft released the first non-beta version of Internet Explorer 8 over a month ago, hoping that users that had switched to Firefox, Opera, and other alternative browsers would switch back. However, it looks like Microsoft has been unsuccessful so far.
According to Net Applications, which publishes IE8 market shares daily, Internet Explorer 8 has only gained about 1.4% in market share in the past month. This is small when compared to Firefox 3′s launch, which won a Guinness World Record with just over 8 million downloads in 24 hours, about 100 downloads a second. The demand was so high that Mozilla’s servers went down for a couple of hours during the period. Today, 89% of Firefox users use Firefox 3.
Internet Explorer 8 has introduced many new features, including “accelerators,” “web slices,” and a private browsing mode. Despite these new features, IE8 has done poorly among users on sites such as CNET, where it currently scores only two and a half stars. Users said it had “too many crashes,” “problems,” and was “way too slow,” and “mediocre.” However, CNET’s editor Seth Rosenblatt gave it 5 stars and said current IE users should definitely upgrade.
A Net Applications poll on their website showed that about two thirds of those surveyed preferred Firefox, while 14% chose Opera, 11.2% Safari, and 11% Internet Explorer.
Internet Explorer has been losing market share for years, while Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome have been gaining market share. Opera remains steady at around 0.7%. Internet Explorer won over Netscape in the 1990s, but this time, it looks like the alternative browsers have a better chance. Microsoft has already confirmed that Internet Explorer will be a removable feature in Windows 7, the next version of Windows.
Will Internet Explorer 8 gain momentum and win back alternative browser users, or will it be like IE7, which only left a tiny dent in the usage share of other browsers?
Quick Info: Firefox is the top alternative browser, followed by Safari, Chrome, Opera, and the old, now unsupported, Netscape.
Microsoft released the first non-beta version of Internet Explorer 8 over a month ago, hoping that users that had switched to 
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