Category: Tech Insight

Firefox 9 Released …and Chrome now the number one browser?

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December 19, 2011

Firefox 9In what’s now becoming an almost monthly event, the Mozilla team have released yet another major version of their web browser, Firefox 9! Once again, we’re able to bring you this news “hot off the press”. In fact, so fresh is this news that Mozilla have yet to update their Release Notes for Firefox 9 yet!

It’s looks like the browser war between Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome is really hotting up now too! Less than a week ago, Google also released a major update Google Chrome 16. In the same week, Microsoft also announced that in 2012, Internet Explorer will keep itself up-to-date. This follows in the footsteps of Firefox and Chrome which already do this.

…and if that wasn’t enough web browser news, Google Chrome 15 is now the “world’s number one browser”. That’s if the reports over the numbers over at StatCounter are to be believed.

Google Chrome 15StatCounter claims that in the last two weeks of November and the first week of December, Chrome 15 was used by 24 percent of web browser users worldwide. This compares to only 22.9 percent for IE8. It’s the first time in StatCounter’s history that a non-Microsoft browser has reached the top spot on its statistics.

These results show that Google’s Chrome web browser is definitely gaining more and more users worldwide. Just a couple of weeks ago, StatCounter claimed that Chrome overtook Mozilla’s Firefox to become the world’s number two web browser in terms of cumulative web browsers rather than specific versions.

So it looks like there’s going to be some fierce competition between the 5 main browsers in 2012. We can can expect version numbers to continue incrementing at an ever increasing rate as that all important market share is hotly contended for!

Our browser-based software, MIDAS, is fully compatible with the very latest versions of ALL 5 main browsers. We will continue to work hard during 2012 to make sure that whatever new browser versions the 5 main vendors put out, MIDAS will run in all of them!

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Internet Explorer to update automatically in 2012!

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December 15, 2011

Internet Explorer Automatic Updates Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team have just announced that in 2012, their web browser will begin updating automatically itself to ensure you’re always using the most up-to-date version for your operating system!

Ryan Gavin, General Manager for Internet Explorer Business and Marketing, writing in a blog post today said that from January onward, Microsoft will automatically update older Internet Explorer versions on Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

Mozilla’s Firefox and Google’s Chrome browsers have been keeping themselves up-to-date automatically for some time now, with no user intervention (other than a restart) required. Now, finally, Microsoft is following the trend – well, sort of. Your Internet Explorer will only begin keeping itself updated if your computer is set to automatically receive Windows Updates. If you have Windows Updates turned off or set to manual, you won’t automatically receive updates to IE.

Still, it’s a step in the right direction following The Great IE6 Debate… Are Microsoft Holding Back The Web?

Keen to migrate people using older versions of Internet Explorer, Gavin had this to say on the new approach:

“We want to make updating to the best protection possible as fast and simple as we can for Windows customers. IE is how millions of Windows customers connect to the Web, so keeping that part of Windows updated at all times is critical to keeping them safe online. With automatic updates enabled through Windows Update, customers can receive IE9 and future versions of Internet Explorer seamlessly without any “update fatigue” issues.”

– Ryan Gavin, General Manager for Internet Explorer Business and Marketing

Gavin’s blog post also offers links to “Automatic Update Blocker toolkits [to] prevent automatic upgrades of IE for Windows customers who do not want them”, however, for individuals there is very little reason to use such “blockers”, and we would strongly advise against it!

You should always ensure you’re running the most up-to-date version of your favorite browser. Not only does this help ensure you’re protected from new security threats and vulnerabilities that are discovered all the time, but also so that you can view web pages, and web apps – such as MIDAS just as the developer intended, taking advantage of the latest web technologies and standards!

MIDAS is fully compatible with Internet Explorer 7, 8, 9, and the forthcoming version 10!

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Google Chrome 16 Released!

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December 14, 2011

Google Chrome 16Hot on the heals of the news that Chrome overtakes Firefox to become the number two web browser just a week or so ago, there’s no sign of development of Google’s “Chrome” web browser is slowing down any time soon!

Yesterday, they announced the arrival of Chrome 16 for Windows, Mac and Linux operating systems. According to the Google Chrome team “Chrome 16 contains some really great improvements including enhancements to Sync and the ability to create multiple profiles on a single instance of Chrome”

You can read more about Chrome 16 via the Google Chrome Releases Blog

As part of our ongoing commitment to MIDAS, the latest version of our scheduling software is also fully compatible with this new release of Google Chrome!

We also test our web app in pre-release builds “developer” builds of Google Chrome! Testing in these builds (which right now are for Chrome 17!) helps us to identify as early as possible any potential incompatibilities, so that we can address them before the next major browser update is released!

If you’re an existing Google Chrome user, you don’t need to do anything – one of the things we love about Chrome is that it silently updates itself with no user interaction (other than a restart!) required. This ensures that you’re always using the most stable, secure and up-to-date version of Google Chrome!

If you’ve not yet tried Google Chrome, why not give it a try!?

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Chrome overtakes Firefox to become the number two web browser

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December 2, 2011

Google ChromeJust over a month ago we reported that by the end of 2011, Chrome may have overtaken Firefox to become the second most used web browser. Well, according to new data from StatCounter this has now happened!

Google Chrome now has a 25.69 percent worldwide market share. This compares to Mozilla Firefox with 25.23 percent share. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is still in the lead however with a 40.63 percent share of the browser market.

Ok, so the difference between Chrome and Firefox’s share is only 0.46%, but this milestone of Chrome overtaking Firefox is still very significant. That’s considering Chrome’s global market share has already gained an impressive 10.8 percent this year alone. This big leap in usage comes at the expense of Firefox, which lost 5.5 percent, and Internet Explorer loosing 6.3 percent share of the market in 2011.

According to StatCounter’s CEO:

“We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally. Our stats measure actual browser usage, not downloads, so while Chrome has been highly effective in ensuring downloads our stats show that people are actually using it to access the web also.”

– Aodham Cullen, CEO of StatCounter

Earlier this week, Microsoft released their 4th developer preview of Internet Explorer 10. IE10 is expected to be released to coincide with the launch of Windows 8 in the latter half of 2012.

But you can be sure that the folks over at Mozilla won’t take the news that Chrome has overtaken them lightly!

…so it certainly looks like the Browser War will hot up even more in 2012!

But you can be confident that our ongoing commitment to support our room booking system in the latest releases of all 5 major browsers will continue throughout 2012!

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