Tag Archives | Web browsers

Worst. Tech. Commercial. Ever?

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 30, 2009 at 12:05 pm

I’m still having trouble keeping solid food down after having been exposed to the Internet Explorer 8 ad that involves a woman projectile-vomiting after accidentally seeing a site her husband had been viewing. But I’m moving on from being appalled to trying to answer an important question: Is it the single worst commercial for a technology product ever?

Until now, this 1980s spot from Commodore Australia would have been my nominee for that honor:

But looking at it again–hey, it’s not bad. Yes, it’s cheesy–it feels like a Mentos commercial from a time before there were Mentos commercials. Yes, the combination of the notion of “Keeping up with the Commodore” and people smiling vacantly and making cryptic signs makes me wonder if some forgotten cult is involved. But at least it’s all cheery, and the song is so infectious that it’s now stuck in my head, which helps to block out the IE 8 ad.

Another plus: Nobody in it projectile-vomits.

Speaking of vomiting, it’s worth noting that the Microsoft ad isn’t the first one for a Web-related enterprise that involves spitting up. The E*TRADE baby tosses his cookies in this commercial, though in a more dignified, less forceful manner–and hey, he’s a baby:

That’s a bad ad, but not bad enough to rival the IE one.

Anyhow, the Internet Explorer 8 is revolting on multiple levels; it demeans both Internet Explorer and its users; it doesn’t even provide a terribly compelling argument for choosing IE, since private browsing is a standard feature in most modern browsers. It’s the first ad from Microsoft or any other major tech company I can think of that can accurately be described by the word fetid.

In short, it’s my new candidate for worst tech product ad of all time. Any other nominees?

[UPDATE: Microsoft has pulled the ad. Sorry, vomit-lovers…]

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Who’s Using What on Technologizer?

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 30, 2009 at 9:11 am

FirefoxWriting about Firefox 3.5 got me wondering: What’s the breakdown of browser usage on Technologizer right now? So I looked it up, courtesy of Google Analytics.

Over the last month, 50 percent of visitors have come via Firefox. Twenty-one percent have used IE, sixteen percent Safari, seven percent Chrome, two percent Opera, and four percent something else.

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Firefox 3.5: The Technologizer Review

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 30, 2009 at 4:06 am

firefoxreviewWas it really fewer than five years ago that Firefox 1.0 debuted? Its arrival ended the dismal period in which only one browser–Microsoft’s mediocre Internet Explorer–seemed to be viable. With Firefox, Mozilla proved that millions of people were itching to adopt a better browser. And today, we find ourselves with multiple better browsers:  Not just Firefox, but also Google’s minimalist Chrome, Apple’s flashy Safari, the ever-inventive Opera, the highly social Flock, and even the no-longer-calcifying Internet Explorer 8.

All of which means that Firefox 3.5–which Mozilla plans to formally release today–is no longer a shoo-in for the distinction of being the favorite browser of browser fans. (As I write, Firefox 3.5 hasn’t replaced 3.0 yet on the Firefox home page, but the Windows and Mac versions are live on Mozilla’s FTP site.)

After having spent months with various pre-release versions of 3.5, though, I’m convinced that The Little Browser That Could remains the best choice for the widest array of folks. That’s as much for the virtues that Firefox has possessed for years as for new stuff: Version 3.5′ s improvements are about better speed, useful tweaks to existing features, catchup with other browsers, and early support for emerging Web standards. In other words, the browser sports no knockout new features. But the moves Mozilla has made are smart, and they’re more than enough for Firefox to keep pace with its fast-evolving rivals.

After thr jump, a look at what’s new in rough order of importance. Continue Reading →

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Cooliris Inside Your Browser

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 26, 2009 at 9:46 am

Cooliris LogoCooliris, the clever browser plugin that lets you view content from Google Images, Hulu, and other sources in a never-ending wall of thumbnails that fly by in 3D space, just came out in a new version, 1.11, with one major new feature: You can now browse photos, videos, and other items either in the existing full-screen mode or within a browser tab.

Here’s Cooliris in the new within-the-browser mode, which is now the default state:

Cooliris in a tab

And here it is in the still-available full-screen mode:

Cooliris Full-Screen Mode

The screens above don’t look much different, but the within-a-tab mode has a major effect on how you use Cooliris, since it no longer means leaving all your other tabs (and other applications) behind. You can leave one or more Cooliris tabs open and jump between them and other activities. It’s also easier to return to a Cooliris view than before: If you move back through pages using your browser’s Back button the Cooliris views show up like any other page, and every Cooliris view has a permalink which you can bookmark or send to friends.

Cooliris also added a horizontal scroll bar which you can use to pan through a wall of images–especially useful on Windows PCs that lack Mac-style multitouch scrolling:

Cooliris horizontal scroll

Cooliris has always been pretty addictive–once you launch a search and start whipping through it, it’s hard to stop. But I think the new mode and better browser integration will make it more likely that you’ll actually use it every day to get stuff done, rather than every once in a while when you remember it’s there.

Cooliris 1.11 for Internet Explorer and Firefox is available now; an update for Safari is due soon. The Cooliris folks told me that they’re also considering creating a version for Google Chrome.

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Six Questions About Opera Unite

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 16, 2009 at 9:46 am

Opera LogoBoy, Opera sure has turned the hype knob to 11 for its Unite technology, which puts a Web server inside Opera 11. It’s not just that it keeps talking about how Unite will reinvent the Web. I just watched a Webcast in which Opera CEO Jon von Tetzchner said that Unite is an example not of Web 3.0 or Web 4.0, but of Web 5.0. Um, setting the bar that high seems dangerous–Unite could be quite remarkable, and still fail to match the expectations that Opera is setting up.

Right now, Unite is a technical preview. It’s fun to play with. But tinkering with it and watching Opera’s Webcast has left me with plenty of questions about it. Six of ’em after the jump…

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Opera’s Web-Changer: Unite, a Web Server Inside Your Browser

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 16, 2009 at 1:37 am

Opera LogoIn Oslo, the Tuesday workday is well underway, and that means that Opera Software has unveiled the revolutionary technology breakthrough it started touting last week. The would-be breakthrough turns out to be called Opera Unite, and a downloadable version of Opera 10 that incorporates it is available now. As blogger Kas Thomas somehow managed to guess, it’s a version of the Opera browser with a built-in Web server. And while it’s impossible to judge at this early date whether it’ll “forever change the fundamental fabric of the Web” as Opera promised, it’s a very big idea. Continue Reading →

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Heads Up: Internet to be Reinvented Next Week

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 12, 2009 at 11:34 am

Opera LogoAs TechCrunch’s Robin Wauters is reporting, browser company Opera has scheduled a product announcement next Tuesday for something it says will reinvent the Web. Sounds ambitious!

I got an invitation to a Webcast that’s more specific. But only slightly so:

With 15 years of continuous innovation, Opera will introduce a technology that will forever change the fundamental fabric of the Web.

Whatever this news is, it’s presumably something more substantial than, say, a mere confirmation that Opera 10 is coming out of beta.

I won’t hazard any guesses as to what Opera is up to, but I hope that whatever it is, it’s an open standard: It would presumably be pretty tough for anything to forever change the fundamental fabric of the Web unless it’s supported by every major browser. Unless it’s something that goes beyond browsing as we know it?

Anyhow, I’m attending the Webcast and will report back then. Lemme know if you think you know what Opera will tell us. Or if you have any theories anout whether it’s even possible for the Web to be reinvented at this point…

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Opera 10 Hits Beta, Adds Turbocharged Dial-Up Mode

Posted by Harry McCracken on June 3, 2009 at 8:13 am

Opera LogoBoy, is it ever a great time to be a browser fan. Not only are there multiple viable, worthwhile browsers to choose from, but every one of them is improving with time. The latest example: venerable contender Opera, which is out today in the first beta release of Opera 10, the next version. An alpha has been out for months, but this beta is smoother and slicker, and packs some new features. In my brief time with it so far it’s mostly run well, but it did crash once.

Opera 10 introduces a feature borrowed from Opera Mini, its pint-sized cousin for phones: an option called Turbo which speeds up page rendering by doing it on the server side, then sending the browser a compressed version of the page that can be downloaded more quickly. It’s aimed at dial-up users, but was noticeably zippier than standard mode even on my broadband connection. There are multiple telltale signs of the compression process–graphics look cruder, and Flash elements don’t play until you click them–but it looks to be a worthwhile alternative for folks who are short on bandwidth. I’ll try it again next time I’m out in the world on an EVDO connection which is unusually slow.

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Flock Gets Even More Social, Contemplates Its Future

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 19, 2009 at 4:37 pm

flock-logoThere was a time when I called Flock, the Mozilla-based browser with a social bent, my favorite Web browser. Lately, however, I’ve flitted from browser to browser–it’s not unusual for me to use Firefox, Chrome, IE 8, and Safari in the course of a given day–and have found myself drifting away from Flock.  But the company released Flock 2.5, a new version today. And while it’s not bursting at the seams with new features, what’s there is formidable enough that I might find myself drifting back.

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Hijacking a User’s Default Browser is Never Acceptable. Repeat, Never.

Posted by Harry McCracken on May 7, 2009 at 8:48 am

The standard “Express” installation of the Windows 7 RC does something I thought software had stopped doing years ago:

If you upgrade from a previous version of Windows, and choose the “Express” option when installing, your default browser will be changed to Internet Explorer. Needless to say, this behavior has immediately sparked complaints from Mozilla and Opera, and rightfully so, because it’s shady at the very least.

This sounds so cheesy that I wonder if it’s a unwitting gaffe by Microsoft rather than an intentional ploy. Can we all agree that this needs to be changed for the final version of the OS?

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