Blake Ross started working on building “a better” browser while other kids were just getting hooked on instant messenger. He worked on the earlier versions of Netscape at the age of 14 and eventually interned for the company following his freshman year of high school.
Mozilla Firefox Browser Blazes Across the Globe
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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If anything, Ross just wants to see a better browser available for the general public. He noted the dissatisfaction with Internet Explorer among his colleagues and peers and said he believed Internet browsing could be faster and more efficient.
In some respects, I hope Internet Explorer stays the way it is. For example, before IE had a popup blocker, there wasn’t really a need for webmasters to find more creative ways to work around popup blockers, since so few people were using them. But now that IE has one built-in, I fear that is going to make life more miserable for the rest of us, as I have noticed an increase in popup ads recently using FIrefox, even with ‘only requested’ popups enabled.
POPUPS? Never had one show up on my system unless they were shockwave/flash ones. Even then they were rare. How did you get a popup in Firefox?
How did you get a popup in Firefox?
Dunno … they just show up on random sites, and then when I go back, they’re not there anymore. The most common kind are the borderless CSS (?) popups with the Close button.
Of course, I’m still using the 1.0 preview release, haven’t upgraded to Final yet – plan to do that in the next couple of weeks, so that may be part of the problem.
are the similar to this?
http://astalavista.box.sk/
Those are flash I think.
you’re not talking about pop-ups, you’re talking about floating DIVs. and afaik, there’s no way to block them because, as you said, they are just CSS and HTML (could a browser be smart enough to know its an add and not a navigation pallette?).
i’m sure we’ll all start seeing more of this kind of stuff as web-ad developers realize that pop-up/unders don’t work anymore.
Worked on Netscape at age 14? Interned while in highschool? This is the kind of role model kids need! Rather than they become pesky script kiddies.
I wish they could do their homework before writing their “facts”
One of the novel features is the tab option, which allows users to open several Web sites at once in the same window
We all (should) know that Firefox was not the first tabbed browser. It is still a great browser, but it doesn’t need this kind of “help”, claiming false inventions. That’s reserved for another companies browser 🙂
floating DIVs are the next unethical spam wave.
I’m gonna puke.
Microsoft will counter-strike next year with MSIE 7 and will have just about all features Firefox has.
” That’s reserved for another companies browser 🙂 ”
no its not. its was first introduced in a academic browser. look that up
“Microsoft will counter-strike next year with MSIE 7 and will have just about all features Firefox has.”
i dont think they will ever support transparent png or proper css2 support or disable activeX or have a good security history ever
“Dunno … they just show up on random sites, and then when I go back, they’re not there anymore. The most common kind are the borderless CSS (?) popups with the Close button.
Of course, I’m still using the 1.0 preview release, haven’t upgraded to Final yet – plan to do that in the next couple of weeks, so that may be part of the problem.
”
yes. that exactly is the problem. PR release had a regression with the popup blocker. Besides the final release has several important fixes. do upgrade soon
You care to post a link to where you’re getting your info about IE7 because as far as I know MS hasn’t announced any updates to IE until Longhorn in late ’06, and this is only for longhorn so all users of older versions of Windows are SOL. Sounds to me like you’re making stuff up.
I wish they could do their homework before writing their “facts” …We all (should) know that Firefox was not the first tabbed browser. It is still a great browser, but it doesn’t need this kind of “help”, claiming false inventions. That’s reserved for another companies browser 🙂
The article never claims that it is a feature that was invinted by Firefox developers, and as you point out when you quote the article simply refers to it as a novel feature.
Novel adj – Strikingly new, unusual, or different.
Most would agree that tabed browing is a newer feature and it is certainly unusual and different considering the large marketshare of Internet Explorer. While Firefox developers did not invent this feature, they should be applauded for recognizing it was a great feature and including it in their software.
“Novel adj – Strikingly new, unusual, or different.
Most would agree that tabed browing is a newer feature and it is certainly unusual and different considering the large marketshare of Internet Explorer”
Well, it’s not strikingly new, unusual, or different. Those of us that aren’t driving 1950s cars don’t think that disc brakes fit those either. Only those using IE would. That just points more to IE’s lack of updates for the last couple of years.
“Well, it’s not strikingly new, unusual, or different.”
considering that almost 90% is using IE unlike 1950 cars this tabs are definitely a novel feature for them. I agree that it isnt for the rest of us using mozilla suite /firefox/ opera or others but thats clearly not the majority. as long as this is true tabs are novel feature for them
whenever there is a new language feature the lisp crowd would yell that this is not something novel and lisp had this third years or so back but doesnt change the fact the mainstream languages didnt have the feature. same case here
no its not. its was first introduced in a academic browser. look that up
Hmm, telling people to prove themselves wrong, eh?
Opera is the first browser of any significance to support tabbed browsing
“Hmm, telling people to prove themselves wrong, eh? ”
no. he was nitpicking. so was I
“The other day I coughed up the registration fee for Opera. Worth every penny, Firefox or not.”
we dont care. this is a firefox discussion,
Opera is the first browser of any significance to support tabbed browsing
Not like they invented tabbed browsing though, which some people give them credit for.
I think a well-configured adblock helps with some of the nastier popups, too. Do you use it? What definitions are you using if so? I hit up the adblock forums regularly and use the latest cunning filters the regexp geniuses over there have come up with…
“we dont care. this is a firefox discussion,”
Then either (or both):
1. Stop talking about academic browsers, ActiveX, Lisp, programming and 1950’s cars.
2. Lose the holier than thou attitude.
Do they have a filter list file somewhere for download? I don’t want to get into this thing like with Proxomitron where people spend 4-5 hours a day trying to block every ad that shows up, just the more annoying ones. I’d be happy with a list that is conservative/not overly aggressive, but still blocks those annoying CSS popup things.
“Microsoft will counter-strike next year with MSIE 7 and will have just about all features Firefox has”
——
Gecko has taken years to be at the level it is today. If Microsoft, all-powerful Microsoft, manages to make a browser with the same level of w3c standards compliance and non-buggyness (let alone security) – by 2007 -, especially with all the backwards-compatible liabilities they have to carry on to the new browser in order for them not to upset their major customers who have built things relying on IE’s quirks and non-standards, I think hell would have a much greater chance of freezing over.
http://www.positioniseverything.net/ie-primer.html
http://www.positioniseverything.net/explorer.html
http://www.positioniseverything.net/gecko.html
On top of that, their current plan is to only offer the browser with a new operating system, last I heard. Some masochists out there love (indirectly) paying for their non-standard insecure browser which happens to be locking them into the Windows/IE platform so a filthy rich corporation can continue to make money off the lemmings.
All the while Mozilla is truly free. And truly quality. And truly standards-compliant.
I use Opera 7.54 and have yet to see a floating DIV. Even tried http://astalavista.box.sk/ and it looked normal to me.
Tried IE and it froze.
So what’s so great about Firefox as compared to Opera?
I use this one:
http://www.geocities.com/pierceive/adblock/
So far I’ve been very happy with it. Seems to block a lot of stuff and very good at not creating false positives. The only CSS thing that’s successfully hit me recently is the incredibly annoying Sony one, but I haven’t seen that for a few days. Just download the latest dated file and import it into adblock. I add the following to it:
falkag
hera.hardocp
industrybrains
pez.ign.com
eur.a1.yimg
That covers some big servers on the sites I visit most often. HTH…
I get no popups on http://astalavista.box.sk/ for me using FireFox 1.0 final on Gentoo.
I get in the infobar that a popup was blocked…
“So what’s so great about Firefox as compared to Opera?”
Firefox is totally FREE, open source software
I use Opera 7.54 and have yet to see a floating DIV. Even tried http://astalavista.box.sk/ and it looked normal to me.
Tried IE and it froze.
Uh, what if the floating DIV actually is wanted rather than unwanted?
So what’s so great about Firefox as compared to Opera?
For me, Opera just doesn’t have a good L&F. As for Firefox, I really miss the point of it, Seamonkey blasts it any time (my opinion).
Why would you use one for any legitimate reason?
Are you sure? I use FireFox 1.0 since it’s release and it crashed only once (and this was while playing around with non-1.0 themes, not browsing..) – ie on the other hand crashed quite hefty – especially if you try stuff like enabling transparent png’s with javascript / css …