Microsoft Should Worried About Firefox 3 !!!

I was going through techCrunch blog and I found this article interesting Mozilla Discusses Firefox 3 and Microsoft’s Public Embrace of Open Standards?

In the history of internet browser, Netscape came out first and then Microsoft but Microsoft figured it out to do same thing what Netscape have done. Microsoft even came out with better browser and cheaper. Having a browser of its own meant nothing without marketing, though. Microsoft‘s first move was to make Explorer freely available to anyone, unlike Netscape, which still charged a modest sum for the use of its browser. Then came Firefox which is a free, fast open-source, multi-platform, extensible Web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It has excellent support for Web standards, using the Gecko rendering (or layout) engine.

Now Firefox and Internet Explorer are the two main competitor. Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 begin their battle for the hearts and minds of the Web browsing public. There is like nose-to-nose competition and neither is going to give an inch while there are a few other contenders went out fromthe competition. Check this out for Browser Wars: The Saga Continues.

Nowadays, most of the PC users are Internet Explorer base but Firefox also getting popular day by day. There is a big number of fan of Firefox, around 160 million people who now use the Firefox. That’s big number of people and Microsoft must have noticed that. Most interestingly, it is relatively small company compare to Microsoft where 150 people puts out more elegant web browser than Microsoft. For instance, there’s still no IE support of next-generation Java script.

This figure illustrates that that Firefox users are more likely to be better-educated or are seeking to be better educated. Specifically, a far greater proportion of Firefox users than Internet Explorer users visited sites in the education category (78 percent vs. 56 percent), sites that sell books (60 percent vs. 34 percent), as well as sites in the directories/resources (reference) category (70 percent vs. 46 percent).

Recently CEO of Firefox John Lilly invited a group of bloggers to company’s Mountain view. Firefox 3, which has been in development for three years
and has been slated for release in the first half of this year in June or sooner. Firefox also working on Firefox Beta 4 and Beta 5. Firefox 3 is meant to carry forward the motto of keeping the internet “open and participatory”. It will support 50 languages, unlike IE7, which was released with support for only one. About 50% of the extensions developed for Firefox currently work with Firefox 3, with further compatibility expected to accelerate in May.

In addition, Firefox included more security such as new anti-malware techniques which will prevent users from visitors sites that might infect their computers with malicious programs. That’s why I think Firefox has come out of nowhere and taken 17 to 28 percent of market share and increasing day by day. Based on that analysis I think Microsoft should worried about Firefox 3. What you guys think?

–Romiz

Steve Ballmer vs. Guy Kawasaki (Keynote @ MIX08)

I was just reading Mano-a-mano with Steve Ballmer by Guy Kawasaki that had a video from the MIX08 conference held in Las Vegas from March 5th -7th. It is a conference for developers, designers and business professionals, or so the website says. The video was of the Keynote speaking with Guy Kawasaki as host, interviewing Steve Ballmer. Incredible. It was over an hour long, and I watched all of it. I think anyone who has the slightest interest in Microsoft vs. the world, then you should watch this.

One of the things that made this keynote so good, and why I watched most of it, is because of the bantering going back and forth from Kawasaki and Ballmer. Steve Ballmer is now the CEO of Microsoft and was one of the original Microsoft guys (starting in 1980), whereas Guy Kawasaki was one of the original Apple guys which leads to much playful banter. In some cases, it is absolutely hilarious, one of which Ballmer threw Kawasaki`s Mac AIR on the ground (timing in video is given later). I laughed nearly the whole time.

Here are some of the topics (and the times they played) that was discussed:

Yahoo potential merger @ 2:30

Google competitor @ 4:30

Microsoft is an underdog @ 7:18

Anti-trust @ 7:35

Apple (Ballmer gives Cudos) @ 7:48

Facebook @ 9:28

Microsofts millions @ 10:40

Receiving mass email (or not) @ about 15:00

Bill Gates leaving microsoft @ 16:45

Hiring at microsoft @ 18:40

Silverlight @ 24:35

Vista (dodges topic by throwing Kawasaki`s Mac AIR on the ground) @ 26:45

Microsoft losing focus @ 28.30

Firefox vs IE @ 32:40

I think anyone who is interested even slightly in Microsoft, or even if you hate Microsoft and want to see their views on Google and Apple, you should watch this video. It is long, but well worth it.

After watching over an hour worth of video, I could write for forever on this topic, but I guess I can only put so much. Maybe I`ll make another 10 posts all dealing with this video. Thats all for now.

Cheers,

David McKenna

Facebook Applications can now function on any website!!! ( From TechCrunch)

Facebook is a social networking website and it is being very popular to everyone. But the problem Facebook is having now, you have to visit Facebook website to access. On the other hand, look at Google, it supports its social network application (OpenSocials) initiative which will let people develop applications that can run on any website.

Recently Facebook has taken another step to becoming the defector operating system of the web 2.0 world. Facebook recently updated and releasing a JavaScript client library which enables you to add Facebook application to any site. Now you can use Facebook as a toolbar for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Wei Zhu from Facebook explains the benefits:

Since the library does not require any server-side code on your server, you can now create a Facebook application that can be hosted on any web site that serves static HTML. An application that uses this client library should be registered as an iframe type. This applies to either iframe Facebook apps that users access through the Facebook web site or apps that users access directly on the app’s own web sites. Almost all Facebook APIs are supported.

Check the following guidelines… how can you use Facebook toolbar into your browser?

Facebook Toolbar for Internet Explorer:

http://mashable.com/2007/12/18/fbtoolbar/

Facebook Toolbar for Firefox:

http://developers.facebook.com/toolbar/

 

More about Facebook application: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/JavaScript_Client_Library

I have not seen yet anyone to use Facebook as a toolbar into any browser. But I think it is a great move by Facebook and it will enable Facebook to get competitive advantage.

—Romiz