Recently in BrowserPlus Category

Via ZDNet, I learned about a new Yahoo initiative called BrowserPlus, which is playing in the same space as Google Gears, with both products vying to bring additional functionality, both on- and offline, to the Web browser.

From Yahoo:

BrowserPlus is a platform for extending the Web: an end-user installs it and a developer uses its features through a small JavaScript library. Some of the features that exist in the platform today include:

* Drag-and-drop from the desktop
* Client-side image manipulation (cropping, rotation & filters)
* Desktop notifications

There's even an "official Web site" for BrowserPlus. Right now, it appears that the main app from BrowserPlus involves image editing.

While it's debatable whether anybody can beat Google at just about anything, it's nice to see Yahoo stepping up when it comes to emerging Web technology.

I look forward to seeing what both Yahoo BrowserPlus and Google Gears have to offer, although I'm mostly waiting, right now anyway, for Google Gears to support any of the browser/OS combinations I'm running right now that has a need for offline functionality.

My Windows and Mac computers are always connected to the network, so those don't need it.

My Linux computers run either Iceweasel, which Google Gears refuses to see as Firefox 2, the Firefox 3 beta (Ubuntu), which is not yet supported, or the Epiphany browser, which though based on the same Mozilla code as Firefox is, again, not supported in Gears.

I'm running FF 2 in OpenBSD, but Gears doesn't run in OpenBSD. I can't expect that, but if Google is serious about supporting Linux, they need to add Iceweasel and FF 3, if not Epiphany, too, to the list of supported browsers.

According to the Yahoo FAQ, BrowserPlus doesn't support Linux at all. Lovely.

End of the rant, end of the day. Catch you all later.