The first developer tool of Opera browser, Opera Dragonfly will be officially released on May 6th, 2008. The inquisitive may request beta access, but there was no way to get it now. At this moment, you only can find more details of it on this blog post.
If you know what PayPal mean to eBay, then you’ll know the importance of Alipay to Taobao, a site owned by Alibaba. Alipay just announced that it will not permit the Firefox users to access its secure Web page and process the payment after this August 15. The main reason is that information layout on the Alipay site can’t be authenticated via Firefox browser, and the Opera browser as well. It is therefore, the Firefox users need to download an add-on, i.e. IE tab in order to continue using the Alipay system, as shown on this page (in Mandarin). I’m just wonder, for a site to succeed in the market, should Alibaba set up some restrictions on the site that tend to turn away the users who loved the Firefox or Opera. Some Chinese users believed this move will also bring the negative impact on the Linux users that Firefox browser is pre-installed in the Linux operating system.
Meanwhile, Alipay management seem very confident that their request for the IE browser in order to use its system will only bring about a dramatic increase in trading volume. With the strategic partnership between Yahoo! and Alibaba, and we know Yahoo! has released its own customized version of Internet Explorer (IE), it’s not surprise that Alibaba is now backing the use of IE on Alipay.
I just came across a story that talked about Opera browser is going to replace Flash, a popular product of Adobe. Though the management of Opera did not mentioned much of this move, but I believe this is a real attempt that Opera is putting the onus with it. Surf on the web you will come across some web pages stated that Opera browser is being utterly the safest browser nowadays. I do not want to elaborate on it because todays’ topic is not on this issue. Basically, I do believe Opera’s move is to really make sure that their users will not encounter any more problems with the Flash plug-in. A vulnerability has been reported in Macromedia Flash Player included in Opera two years ago, yet an article reported the Flash problem found on Mac this year, and again, there’s comes on the heel of a story, Opera web browser running Adobe Flash Player unspecified vulnerability. I think it’s enough for Opera. Enough is enough, now they need to do something, but there’s never too late.
Nevertheless, it’s a bit of strange feelings to visit a site that teach users on how to block Flash on Opera while I poke around on the web just now.
From recent buzz on the web, few are arguing on the speed of Apple’s Safari 3, Apple’s newest browser that just released to the market. Whether or not, it is faster or the slower than Internet Explorer, Firefox or Opera browser, as demonstrated in two different charts, it’s a debatable question. In the meantime, I just came across a forum, an user stated that by using a Javascript speed test, it showed Safari 3 indeed faster than the other browsers on the web, i.e. average time is 123, Aha!
Source: available at http://www.apple.com/safari/, accessed June 14 2007
Source: available at http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2007/06/wired_news_benc.html, accessed June 14 2007
Albeit that this feature is their strongest selling point, and of course, its biggest appeal, and some Mac users thought Safari browser is terrific, but I don’t think Apple can build an empire for Safari browser by simply relied on this “faster speed” feature. Was faster speed the answer for all the browsers, I wondered?
