We don’t normally like to belittle the weaknesses and mistakes of our competitors. The competition, after all, is made up of dozens of browsers that strive to be better and most often succeed by being different, creating a diversity of technology that pays off for everyone, software developers and software users alike.

But there are times when you have to rub it in if only to make a valid but ignored point. Which is, friends, why I’m just mentioning—not making a big point of it…not passing judgment– that Firefox has just recently been shown to be responsible for nearly half of all browser vulnerabilities.

Cenzic, which creates intrusion detection for Web sites, said in a written report that vulnerabilities in Web browsers were concentrated among Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Safari. In the first half of 2009, browser vulnerabilities accounted for about 8 percent of all Web vulnerabilities.

Mozilla Firefox had the greatest share of the vulnerabilities at 44 percent. The Safari browser had more vulnerabilities—35 percent–than in Cenzic’s previous report because iPhone Safari’s flaws were also included. Internet Explorer came in third at 15 percent, and Opera trailed with six percent of total browser vulnerabilities.

Cenzic has some theories as to why Firefox took the lead in vulnerabilities, which are bits of the software’s code or structure that can be manipulated by hackers to gain control of a system.

“It’s a combination of different things,” Lars Ewe, chief technology officer of Cenzic, told InternetNews.com. “They’ve gotten more traction as a browser, which is good for them, and the more you get used the more exposure you have. As well a fair amount of the vulnerabilities have come by way of plug-ins.”

One key area that Ewe said was responsible for a number of reported Firefox vulnerabilities is with how the browser handles plug-ins.

“They can’t control security aspects of all the plug-ins and the vulnerabilities are a side effect of that,” Ewe said.

Now the reason I’m so ungraciously spreading the word about Firefox’s weaknesse is that I’m sick and tired and tired and sick of reading online comments and reviews that toss Maxthon aside with only a comment that, “Of course, since Maxthon is just riding on Internet Explorer, it shares the same security weaknesses as IE.”

First, that’s so not true for two reasons. One is that Maxthon in not “just riding” on top of Internet Explorer. Maxthon uses the same rendering engine that IE uses to display Web pages correctly. The rendering engine, Trident, accounts for only about 20 percent of the code in Maxthon. The other 80 percent is made up of technology and code that is exclusive to Maxthon and that far exceeds anything done in Internet Explorer—or Firefox. Among that 80-percent is security code created by Maxthon’s developers and which has replaced quite completely the security technology of Microsoft’s browser.

The results are that Maxthon’s susceptibility to hacking is far smaller than that of the “Big 4” browsers. And that’s why when it comes to Firefox, I must, in the immortal words of Monty Python, say, “You empty-headed animal-food-trough wiper! I fart in your general direction!”

Chen Xiao Xu. Director of the new Maxthon R&D Center, said strong competition led Maxthon to create the center, which will push to create more new technologies to meet the challengers of completion.

Giving a speech at the ZOL Software Summit 2009 about the technological issues surrounding browsers, Chen admitted that Maxthon has encountered problem coming from the competition posed by rivals. Chen, also known by the name Huipk in the development world, said that competitive pressure led to the establishment of the Maxthon R&D Center, which was announced last week by Jeff Chen, CEO of the Beijing-based Maxthon International.

“First, product development must be backed up by technology,” Hulpk said. “Second, cross-platform strategy requires even greater technology support.”

He said that Maxthon currently has “a pretty good” market share in Russia. To grow that international business to the point where it can compete globally, in 2009 Maxthon shifted from competing solely for market share to competing also for technology. The biggest browser R&D center in China was established to ensure high standard of Maxthon’s core technology.

Speaking of future development of Maxthon, the center’s director said that Maxthon has already deployed an independent browser engine in Maxthon 3.x, and will inject more resources to develop Maxthon 3.x alongside the Internet-based Maxthon 2.x.

“A Browser is a platform. Maxthon is willing to more openly connect websites to people, and connect people to people, he said. “Maxthon will explore new areas in the development community, and work together with business partners to provide Internet users one stop service.”

editors notes :
• huipk a.k.a Chen Xiao Xu, is the director of the Maxthon R&D Center.
• ZOL is short for ZhongGuanCun On Line, www.zol.com is the largest IT portal in China engaging in IT news coverage and sale promotion. It is considered having the highest commercial value among professional IT portals in the Greater China.

——MaxthonGuy

BEIJING, Nov. 9 — Maxthon International Ltd. ( http://www.maxthon.com ) has announced the establishment of the largest browser research and development center in China. CEO Jeff Chen, accompanied by dozens of business partners and user representatives, announced the creation of the Maxthon R&D Center at a press conference in Beijing, the location of the center.

The center has an initial capital investment of more than RMB2 million (approximately US$300,000). Maxthon’s goal is to develop an R&D center capable of competing internationally within two years, Chen said. The center will provide support to Chinese-made browsers in addition to those developed by Maxthon itself. It will also expedite the development of a variety of Internet technologies in China, including Web page display and security.

The center currently has a professional team of more than 30 researchers and developers, who have obtained two patents and who have several other new technologies in the patent process. The technologies will be applied in the near future to provide internet users a higher quality browsing experience. Plans call for the recruitment of other technical experts to form a staff of 100.

According to Net Applications’ latest research, the global market share of Maxthon is 1.55%, which exceeds that of Firefox 2 and comes close to the market share held by the Opera browser. In China Maxthon has 22% of the browser market, making it the 2nd most popular browser behind Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The China Internet Network Information Center reports Chinese Internet users exceeded 338 million in the first half of 2009. These numbers translate to about 9 million Maxthon users in China alone.

“The strategic importance of the browser as the gateway to the Internet,” Chen said, “is obvious in view of the substantial resources invested by Microsoft, Google, Apple, and Firefox in the last 2 years.”

All of those companies have either introduced a new browser during the period or have upgraded established browsers.

“In the view of many people,” Chen added, “Maxthon could be very ordinary as a business focused solely on browser development. That’s why we will assist Chinese Webware developers to join us as part of the ‘Innovation Base’ of Chinese-made Internet software.

“The unbundling of Internet Explorer from the European Windows editions in 2010 will break the Monopoly of IE and bring new opportunities to the worldwide browser market,” Chen said. “And the establishment of the Maxthon R&D Center will inevitably lead to a new wave of competition in the local browser market.”

——MaxthonGuy

“Windows 7 will be a milestone in the development of the windows operating system,” Chen said.

“A browser is not merely an application, but a platform that also provides endless new development possibilities,” Chen said. “Windows 7 has many browser-related new features that can significantly improve users’ browsing experiences.

“In addition, the European edition of Windows 7 will contain a browser ballot showing most browsers for selection by users. This could significantly change the worldwide browser market,” he said.

The Beijing executive said that the Maxthon Browser has passed the Windows 7 compatibility tests.

“Existing versions of Maxthon can already be used in Windows 7. The soon-to-be released Windows 7 optimized version of Maxthon will support various mew features of Windows 7, such as windows management, task bar enhancements like preview and jump list, and a multi-touch touch screen feature,” according to Chen.

Describing Windows 7 as “a small step in technology, a big step in the industry,” Chen believes that the blending of Windows 7 and Maxthon will provide a brand new experience to users.

The following is an abstract of the interview created by Maxthon language specialists.

Tencent: Do your products already support Windows 7? If not, when do you expect them to support it?

Jeff Chen: Full support of Windows 7 new features will be available in the soon-to-be released optimized version of Maxthon. As the leading browser developer in China, Maxthon is dedicated to innovation. We closely monitor the needs of users, and always put user experience first.

Tencent: How much work or changes are required to support Windows 7?

Jeff Chen: Windows operating systems have good backward compatibility. Existing versions of Maxthon can be used in Windows 7 directly. Yet the soon-to-be released Windows 7 optimized version of Maxthon will support various new features of Windows 7 in the future.

Tencent: From your experience supporting Windows 7 in your products, what do you think about the new operating system? What are the most impressive characteristics?

Jeff Chen: The new task bar design is very convenient and the half screen snap is useful to big screen and widescreen users. But I find the dedication to innovation and attention to details the most impressive. It is similar to Maxthon’s dedication to user experience and innovation.

Tencent: Do you have anything about Windows 7 to add?

Jeff Chen: Recognize the need for technology, keep innovating? A small step in technology, a big step in the industry!

————MaxthonGuy

BEIJING, Oct. 21 — After months of polishing the new features and code in Maxthon 2.5.9, the final version of the popular Web browser’s interim edition was released this week. This release of the award-winning, free browser, which may be downloaded at http://www.maxthon.com/download.htm , was aimed at fine-tuning a host of improvements and new features.

In the time since the release of Maxthon 2.5, developers of the second most popular browser in China have relentlessly come up with new, original functions and features for the tabbed, Windows browser.

In these days of multimedia Internet, one of the most impressive improvements was detachable video that lets a user click on a video or flash animation or game and move it to a different location on screen. The video or game will continue to play while the user surfs other pages. The same button that activates detachable video may also be used to block ads that manage to slip past Maxthon’s normal ad defenses.

Another multimedia feature is an onscreen mute button that silences sites that open up with music or spoken product pitches. By clicking the mute button in Maxthon’s status bar, the user turns off the music.

A Clear History menu has also been added to the Search Bar to provide users control over what information that has appeared in the search bar remains and which is deleted.

A new built-in feature, Quick Access, is similar to a plug-in called Speed Dial that Maxthon users have had access to for several years. When a Web page would ordinarily be blank, Quick Access displays a sidebar containing some frequent and recently visited sites along with nine configurable sites shown in a grid of thumbnails.

Lastly, a new technology called “The Isolator” was also introduced to version 2.5 to protect the freezing of one page tab from spreading to other tabs. The Isolator revives tabs that have stopped responding to mouse clicks or keystrokes. At the same time, the Isolator protects other tabs from also becoming frozen because an unresponsive tab is monopolizing a computer’s resources. The computer user can continue to browse normally and can refresh, reopen, or close the tab that is creating problems.

In the latest decimal-point version, support for Internet Explorer toolbars has been re-enabled, and some download manager issues have been fixed, support has also been added for additional audio playback and improved keyboard support of Magic Fill, which enters passwords and other information into Internet forms.

A comprehensive list of changes can be found at http://www.maxthon.com/changelog.htm .

——MaxthonGuy

BEIJING, Oct. 16 — Yandex, the largest Internet search engine provider in Russia, has teamed up with Maxthon, the most popular Chinese-made browser in China.

Under the two companies’ agreement, Maxthon International, based in Beijing, will produce an official Russian edition of its popular browser. Maxthon’s Russian edition will set Yandex’s home page as Maxthon’s default start page and include Yandex’s search engine by default. The Russian version is expected to appear soon.

Leveraging an extensive knowledge of the complicated Russian language, Yandex has become the largest search engine provider in Russia and the second largest search engine provider in Europe. According to comScore, Yandex has a 44 percent share of the Russian search market, 10 percent more than Google.

According to research company Net Applications, Maxthon’s global market share reached 1.55% in August 2009, and the largest overseas market is Russia. The cooperation with Yandex is another step in Maxthon’s development of the overseas market after years of solidifying its place in China.

“We are delighted to cooperate with Yandex. We hope that our cooperation will improve both the browsing and the search experience,” said Jeff Chen, CEO of Maxthon.

For years Maxthon has been pursuing its mission of improving the Internet browsing experience in several languages and cultures. Maxthon’s cooperation with Yandex will improve the browsing experience of Russian users by providing localized features in the Russian edition.

——MaxthonGuy

.

The Maxthon Guy is not totally impressed by speed tests.  After all, the slowest part of any computer system is the user fumbling around with keyboard and mouse. And with browsers, the speed of your internet connection has more influence on the speediness of your surfing than the speed with which the browser displays the incoming Web page. That’s why at this blog we don’t resort to benchmarking and….

(What? Really?  Well, I’ll be…..)

So, as I was just saying, we rely heavily on benchmarking to tell us how Maxthon and the upcoming Max-3 compare to the competition.  And we particularly like to use objective testing done by others so no one can accuse us of fiddling with the numbers.

For example, Lee Mathews at the Download Squad put the latest build of Max-3 up against the generally acknowledged speed demon on the Internet, Google’s Chrome. Using the V8 Benchmark Suite, Mathews came away with the scores shown in the screen shot above. But it’s a bit hard to read, so here are the same scores. (Higher numbers in boldface are faster):

Maxthon Max-3        Google Chrome

Richards                                 3,328                      3,286

DeltaBlue                                2,962                      3,388

Crypto                                   2,823                      2,725

RayTrace                                4,576                      4,160

EarleyBoyer                             5,197                      4,361

RegExp                                    976                         946

Splay                                    4,692                      5,594

Overall                                  3,143                      3,127

Max-3 won five of the eight tests, running an alpha version of the browser that will be released early next year. We haven’t even done the fine tuning yet.

Mathews adds, “Maxthon 3 puts up pretty competitive numbers. In practical surfing on my core web apps and sites? It’s just as fast as Chrome, if not just a hair faster.”

Mathews reasons correctly that the big improvement in Maxthon’s speed came with the addition of the WebKit rendering engine riding in tandem with the engine Max has used for years, Trident.  Although Trident is slower than WebKit, we’re keeping it in Max-3 because it’s required for hundreds of thousands of Web Pages to display correctly. This hybrid engine is controlled by an automatic switching mechanism that senses what kind of page the browser is retrieving and switches between Retro Mode (Trident) and Ultra Mode (Webkit) as needed.

The result is… But I’ll let Mathews describe it:

“With WebKit now under the hood, Maxthon 3 looks like it’s ready to make some serious noise. Enthusiasts, get ready–this is going to be a fun year when it comes to browsers.”

M A X T H O N
Don’t Surf the Web. Seize it!

Online update is available in 3.0.3.3 alpha of Max-3.

Javascript speed is 9% faster in this version than the last one.

Changelog

Framework
*fixed problem that as default browser external links are not opened in correct mode
*fixed login problem when proxy is set in IE
*fixed display problem of gif user avatar
*fixed display problem of favorites folder icon
*fixed a crash problem when incompatible sites list is updated
*fixed problem that pressing Enter does not complete edit/addition of favorite

Webkit Core
*updated V8 javascript engine to 1.3.11, performance is further improved

BEIJING, Sept. 16 — Maxthon International today released version 2.5.8 of its popular browser. The award-winning, free software may be downloaded at Maxthon Browser Download Center .

Many people listen to music when they surf the Internet, but unfortunately the experience is very often disturbed by other music and advertising pitches coming from Web pages. The new mute browser function in Maxthon 2.5.8 is made to solve this problem. By clicking the mute button in Maxthon’s status bar, all sounds from Web pages will be muted without affecting other applications. So, users can listen to music or surf late at night without worrying about any startling sounds bursting from their browsers.

An edit menu, a standard part of most software other than browsers, is being added to Maxthon. The menu provides the standard cut, copy and paste operations found in other programs.

A new login mechanism allows users to log in as in previous versions or to browse Web pages without logging in. When a user logs in, any changes in settings or favorites are automatically saved online. Later they can be retrieved to restore damaged settings or for use with someone else’s PC.

A clear history menu has been added to the search bar to provide users control over what information that has appeared in the search bar remains and what is deleted.

A new built-in feature, Quick Access, is similar to a plugin called Speed Dial that Maxthon users have had access to for several years. When a Web page would ordinarily be blank, Quick Access displays a sidebar containing some frequent and recently visited sites along with nine configurable sites shown in a grid of thumbnails.

The Float Button, which allows users to enlarge and save graphics, now has a Block Ads menu to block advertisements that manage to slip past Maxthon’s normal ad defenses.

A more comprehensive list of changes for developers is found on the Maxthon Changelog .

by Maxthonguy

M A X T H O N
Don’t Surf the Web. Seize it!