OStatic

While many people don't think of Safari as an open source browser, it is based on the same open source WebKit rendering engine found in Google Chrome, and depends on improvements to WebKit to stay competitive. In fact, it's a good example of how polished a hybrid application--straddling the open source and proprietary software arenas--can become. Safari is the browser of choice for many Mac users, and if you're one of them, TheAppleBlog has some truly great tips for customizing and supercharging it. You can find out about full screen browsing, how to enhance Safari with the free Glims extension, easy ways to block annoying ads, and more. Check out the tips found here, and here.

Foxmarks has long been beloved by Firefox users who use it to synchronize Firefox bookmarks and passwords for various devices. Recently, the Foxmarks team also added support for the Internet Explorer and Safari browsers. Now, the Foxmark folks are changing the name to Xmarks, and adding many new capabilities. Among the chief new additions is the ability to suggest sites to you based on your own usage data. You visit a web site, click the Xmarks icon and get a list of five suggested sites similar to the one you are browsing. You can also get additional site information on your Google search results. Check out JKOnTheRun's thoughts here.?

How many web browsers do you run? If you're like me, you regularly use Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome and Safari. Each of those browsers, of course, has its own underlying rendering engine: Gecko (in Firefox), Trident (in Internet Explorer), and Webkit (in Chrome and Safari). Today, a Japanese startup called Lunascape has released an alpha version of its Lunascape browser, downloadable here, that allows you to switch between all three of these prominent rendering engines. The company says that the Japanese version of Lunascape has been downloaded 10 million times and touts it as the fastest browser available. Is it?

Even though it's only available in a Windows version so far, Google's open source Chrome browser is reaching a lot of people, according to data from Nielsen Online. Nielsen reports that between Sep. 1st and Sep. 7th, more than 1.9 million unique visitors in the U.S. visited the Thank You page for the Chrome browser. The data lines up with similar findings from NetApplications, which has found that Chrome has about one percent of browser share--ahead of Opera. Which browser does Chrome not appear to be taking share from, though? That would be Safari.

As our sister blog JKOnTheRun is reporting, Google has introduced a beta version of Google Gears for Safari--good news for Safari users who want to work with GMail, Docs, and Reader offline. Note that Google is serious that it is only a beta though. Their post reads: ...It might break your browser. Chances are it will break your browser. Please proceed with caution. Check out JKOnTheRun's thoughts.

With Mozilla due to release the final version of its Firefox 3 open source browser this month, there are already strong signs that Firefox is gaining more market share traction. In an interview with Computerworld, web metrics company Net Applications' executives said Firefox's market share grew 0.6 percent in May to account for 18.4 percent of all browsers used during the month. Furthermore, Net Applications forecasts that Firefox will crack 20 percent market share in July. How much will the release of Firefox 3 matter?