Recently I am reading more and more articles about the Opera browser. This browser is well known in the mobile space and is pretty much under the radar in the desktop space. However, recently I have been noticing a change upwards, especially in Europe. Opera has hired the graphic designer who worked on FireFox, has improved significantly its set of features and design, and keep introducing new innovative features such as the Opera Unite. As a web developer, I would keep an eye and make sure new site do not break in Opera, especially global sites with European audience.

2. FireFox’s (Mozilla) revenue is tapering off

According to a post “State of Mozilla” by Mitchell Baker, Mozilla has increased overall revenue in 2008 but at a slower paste. This along with large dependence on revenues coming from the main competitor, Google, brought a slew of articles and questions from Analysts and Enthusiasts. The main question from a web developer’s perspective is the long term validity of the FireFox project. At the moment, it does not seem to be in jeopardy at all and according to the article, perhaps even in a better state due to increased innovation and development as a result of fierce competition. In most cases, competition is a good thing. The dependence on Google revenue is a problem, and if I was running the show – working on decreasing this dependence will be my main priority.

3. IE9 – Performance is one of the main improvements

According to the IE team, the new IE9 which is currently being developed will be much faster then its predecessors. This is great news as speed is now the main advantage of using its competitors. Now that Microsoft is in favor with the public again due to Windows 7 and since it is continuing to push new features to IE, I think the rate of market share decline will decrease if not reverse itself and we will see a rise in market share. As a web developer this means no change: still utmost respect to IE, make sure that all websites (new or old) work on IE. Soon, we will need to test for IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 and notice that none of them pass the acid test. The good news is that we will drop support for the painful IE6 browser soon (will depend on the rate of adoption of Windows 7 in corporate).

Happy Thanksgiving!

Related Posts

• July 3, 2008 -- FireFox 3 and Internet Explorer 8 Beta (0)
• May 5, 2009 -- Browser Wars: IE Share Dropping while User Base Still Growing (0)
• December 1, 2008 -- Google is on a diet! (0)
• September 3, 2008 -- First Google Chrome Screenshots (2)