browser

KidZui seems like a kiddified browser with social networking rolled in. Children can find their favorite YouTube videos, rate content using tags, and share opinions with other KidZui friends, all from a colorful interface with big buttons and labels. KidZui is anything but a standard kids' browser, though, and what makes it so unique is precisely why it's such a safe tool for children.

KidZui is a closed system, not filter-driven, so all content that's available has been approved by editors into a whitelist database. Kids can explore the Internet by using the search/URI bar, or search … Read more

Adobe's latest version of the Flash Player browser plug-in is just as trouble-free as previous versions, existing unobtrusively in your system until Web-based animations, games, or ubiquitous Flash ads require its services.

The latest version downloads and installs quickly, and will probably always require a browser restart. Our tests turned up nothing to make us scratch our heads, and upgrading from version 9 to the current one has fixed for many people a bug that caused embedded video to freeze.

You need a Flash Player to experience the Web at its fullest, so users at any level of expertise … Read more

Google on Wednesday night released the new version 0.4.154.31 of its Chrome browser to bash a bug that bit me by blackening the new big-screen version of Street View.

Indeed, I no longer get the problem. Now if the company could get its Google Earth browser plug-in to work with Chrome, it would look more like Google's right hand is cooperating with its left hand.

According to Chrome Program Manager Mark Larson, the new version also fixes "trackpad scrolling on more laptops (and the) Sogou Pinyin Chinese input method editor skipping the first letter typed.&… Read more

There's a new OpenID extension for "social browser" Flock, and it was created with the help of password management service Vidoop and News Corp.-owned social network MySpace.

It's now available for download for all Flock users who have upgraded to Flock 2.0. For MySpace, which initially announced its support for OpenID back in July, this is also a push for Data Availability, a universal-login project that the social network announced in May but has since only rolled out with a few partners.

Yahoo, one of MySpace's launch partners for Data Availability, has also thrown its weight behind OpenID.… Read more

If, for some reason, you've been missing out on a reason not to use your browser's pop-up blocker, here's a new one: Window Pong. The age old game of Pong comes to your browser using separate pop-up windows. You play against a computer that volleys back yet another window that acts as the ball--complete with sound effects. Meanwhile, a fourth window at the top of the screen keeps score of the ordeal, giving the first player to reach five points the win.

Is it practical? No. Is it a great use of JavaScript? Definitely.

I found it … Read more

Google has published its plan to build into Chrome what is arguably its most requested feature: the ability to accept extensions that can customize how the open-source Web browser operates.

And guess what? Google's dependence on advertising notwithstanding, one of the extension examples the company points to is the ability to block advertisements.

The Chrome extensions document, spotlighted Saturday by Google programmer Aaron Boodman, doesn't include a timeline, but it does shed light on why the project is a priority for Chromium, the open-source project behind Chrome.

"Chromium can't be everything to all people," according … Read more

Alternative browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome may be aimed at toppling Microsoft's reign, but analysts say Internet Explorer's "overwhelming dominance" in the workplace will be difficult to defeat.

The main reason for the Microsoft browser's seemingly stranglehold position is the near ubiquity of Microsoft products used in enterprises today.

Ray Valdes, Gartner's research vice president, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia: "Due to longstanding accumulations of dependencies, most enterprises will find it difficult or unfeasible to switch from Internet Explorer to an alternative browser, such as Firefox, Opera, or … Read more

Is Google's Chrome browser mainstream?

Certainly not. But I've been curious how widespread its use is, in particular because I'm curious if I have any company in my choice to set Chrome as my default browser.

So I persuaded CNET's tech guys to give a window on what's going on here at CNET News. The result surprised me: 3.6 percent of those visiting the site in October used Chrome, up from 1 percent in September, when Google launched Chrome.

That's higher than I expected. It lagged Microsoft Internet Explorer, with 40.7 percent, … Read more

Chrome is Google's attempt to make the browser disappear and to focus on the applications and pages users are viewing, rather than on the border with its tools. Some of Chrome's basic underpinnings are quite novel, but people will recognize other features as they exist in other, open-source browsers on the market today.

Currently only for Windows, Chrome is blazingly fast and is easily the quickest browser available. Based on Webkit, the same open-source engine that powers Apple Safari and Google's Android mobile platform, Chrome's interface is a drastic departure from other browsers. Instead of the … Read more