Focus On: Browsers

After Maxthon gulped down yet another infusion of cash from yet another venture capitalist, observers are wondering what's next for the better-than-IE browsing platform based on Microsoft's rendering engine. Will the cash allow Maxthon to withstand a coming onslaught from the new, improved Internet Explorer 7? Or is the money intended to buy lipstick for an upcoming sale to a well-known suitor?

The Firefox 1.5.0.3 patch blocks an open hole for attackers while further stabilizing Javascript. That will make a lot of Firefox power users happy. But a Firefox contributor reports that the new patch still doesn't completely solve the issue that stimulated his bug report. Even so, developers say the vulnerability no longer exists. And when you stack up Firefox security flaws against Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari, Firefox looks pretty good.

The latest Firefox update (1.5.0.2) fixes a number of headaches, trimming back the memory leak "feature", and shutting down remote code execution. But one of the most frequently reported bugs centered around JavaScript problems. How bad is it? The bug is so bad that, Mozilla developers say, it can bring performance to the edge of a cliff. To fix it, Mozillites turned to their old nemesis, Internet Explorer.

If you sensed something might be slightly askew when Microsoft switched from allowing anonymous public comments about Internet Explorer 7 to requiring sign-ups in order to see Internet Explorer Feedback... you sensed right. The reviews of Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 are in. After toting them up, Email Battles has Good News and Bad News. The good news is for Firefox. The rest of it belongs to Internet Explorer.

While Alexa's website Traffic Ranking service is well-known for sporadic updates, its behavior since April Fools Day is best described as nutty. The weekly and quarterly averages of many of the web's biggest sites have plunged by millions, while their graphs displayed minds of their own. Email Battles shares the angst experienced by the traders who stand to lose fantasy fortunes in Alexa's psuedo-stock market.