The Features That Make Each Web Browser Unique 132
snydeq writes "InfoWorld's Peter Wayner offers a look at 13 promising features unique to one browser. From Chrome's support for SPDY, to IE9's emphasis on energy efficiency, to Firefox Sync, browser vendors are working hard to establish any edge that might attract more users to their stack of code. And while speed and HTML5 compatibility remain key in the battle of the Web browsers, unique features often point the way forward. 'Given the pace of browser updates these days, don't be surprised to find the best of the bunch being copied by competitors soon,' Wayner writes. 'After all, yesterday's browser bells and whistles are today's must-have features.'"
User Agent (Score:2, Informative)
Safari 5: Easy user agent alterations
While most modern web sites do not check for user agent, at least not to prevent access, there are a few that still are loyal to MS, so block non-IE browsers from accessing content. In a perfect world we could just all ignore these sites and let them fail, but unfortunately most of these sites are corporate and so much deal with them to keep our jobs. I was sad to discover that most browsers had removed this functionality, and that Safari was pretty much the only one that had it build in,
Firefox Sync copied Opera Link (Score:5, Informative)
per usual. Opera Software innovates (tabs, spell-checking, syncing of bookmarks, turbo compression) and others copy.
>>>There was a time when Mozilla combined the email program with the browser, but it stopped this integration long ago.
No. Not really. Look at Mozilla SeaMonkey (direct descendent of Netscape Navigator/Communicator). It includes not just email, but also Usenet newsgroups, relay chat, and a composer.
>>>Safari 5: Easy user agent alterations
Opera has had this for years, allowing users to display sites as Internet Explorer or Firefox-compliant.
Re:User Agent (Score:5, Informative)
Opera's had that for ages. Literally 4, 5 or maybe even 6 "major" versions.
Re:User Agent (Score:5, Informative)
>>>so block non-IE browsers from accessing content.
These sites don't actually "block" the content - they are just poorly programmed. For example I cannot access Youtube Mail from Mozilla's SeaMonkey or Opera's opera, because the idiot web programmer didn't recognize the browser as "IE" or "FF" and simply didn't send the HTML (or javascript). He made the stupid assumption that the browser was incapable of displaying youtube. Either that or he was lazy.
>>>Safari was pretty much the only one that had it build in
Opera has had user agent strings since the early 2000s. You can set it as Opera, or Internet Explorer, or Mozilla Firefox, or IE/opera, or FF/opera.
Revisionist history (Score:5, Informative)
"Before the Internet, there was a collection of nets, like Compuserve, Minitel, MSN, and AOL. Then the 'Inter' prefix was added by linking these nets altogether, and everyone was given the freedom to request information from any computer out there."
The Internet predates CompuServe, AOL, etc., and wasn't created by linking those walled-garden services together.
Re:No, but (Score:4, Informative)
Firefox does have it built-in. You go to about:config and add a "general.useragent.override" string. Plugins just make changing it an easier and friendlier process.
Re:Firefox Sync copied Opera Link (Score:4, Informative)
This again? Opera didn't invent tabs. Please stop spreading this myth
He said 'innovate', not invent. One of the things Opera had on FF for years was that the windows were tabbed... and the UI supported them properly. While FF's tabs were very basic, Opera's tabs had a lot well-implemented features for managing them.
That doesn't matter, though. The reason Opera people get uppity about who got what first is numerous people on Slashdot, while riding on a high of FireFox/Mozilla fandom and IE hate, made claims about how FireFox was 'inventing' these features. It gets a little old when you try out FireFox, coming from Opera, and find the UI can't do have the things the Opera UI can do.