AOL Pulls Plug on Netscape Browser

New browser is faster and ready for HTML upgrade

(NEWSER) - Firefox, once lauded for “speed, stability, and customizability,” seemed lately to have fallen behind the competition—but with version 3.5, out today, it’s back and better than ever, writes Farhad Manjoo for Slate. The new version “adds a much-needed speed boost” alongside bug fixes. And best of all, its use of updated HTML code could “prompt a re-engineering of the Web itself.” More»

Forget the open WWW—it's all about apps now

(NEWSER) - As the World Wide Web turns 18, Wired declares it dead—even as the Internet continues to rule. Chris Anderson takes us through a typical user's day: email checked and Facebook browsed on an iPad; podcasts and Pandora listened to; Skype and IM conversations held. "You’ve spent the day on the Internet—but not on the Web," he writes, and it's because we now want closed platforms, like apps, that "work better or fit better" in our lives. "For the sake of the optimized experience on mobile devices, users forgo the general-purpose browser. Fast beats flexible." More»

(NEWSER) - The No. 1 reason many Firefox users refused to upgrade to the browser’s latest version was fear that it would expose their deep, dark—think "naked"—online secrets, PC Pro reports. Firefox 3’s new address bar suggests your bookmarked sites as you enter URLs, which 25% of people who declined to upgrade cited as their motivation. “A lot of people contacted us to say that they had certain bookmarks they didn’t really want to have displayed,” a Firefox designer says. More»

It's not the fastest browser anymore

(NEWSER) - Mozilla's Firefox is still good, but it doesn't stand out as much as it used to, Walter S. Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal. The latest edition of the web browser, version 3.5, works well on both PCs and Macs, but "Firefox has lost its traditionally biggest advantage: greater speed than its rivals." In tests, Mossberg found that it often lagged behind Safari 4.02 and Chrome 2.0. More»

With browser far behind competitors, innovator goes traditional

(NEWSER) - In a desperate bid to heighten the visibility of its little-used web browser Chrome, Google has launched its first American television advertising campaign, the Guardian reports. The TV ad was made by a Google Japan team and uses stop-motion animation. Google says it’s “excited to see how this test goes and what impact television might have on creating more awareness of Google Chrome." More»