Google has done the “impossible” to show the power of HTML5, and ported Quake II to run in the web browser in what seems another dig at Adobe’s Flash.

The move seems a little contradictory, with Google announcing just last week that they were bundling Adobe’s Flash with Chrome. Either way, a lot of work appears to have gone into porting the game.

“We started with the existing Jake2 Java port of the Quake II engine, then used the Google Web Toolkit (along with WebGL, WebSockets, and a lot of refactoring) to cross-compile it into Javascript. You can see the results in the video above — we were honestly a bit surprised when we saw it pushing over 30 frames per second on our laptops (your mileage may vary)” said Google’s Chris Ramsdale.

Right now, the game will only run in Google Chrome and Safari, and the port can be downloaded by visiting the Google code page.

Web browser market share results are now available for March 2010 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer was the only browser to loose share last month, dropping from 61.58% to 60.65%, while it is likely to account for less than 60% of the market by the end of April.

Firefox was up in March, from 24.23% to 24.52%, while Chrome was up from 5.61% to 6.13%.

Safari and Opera also gained share in March, jumping from 4.45% and 2.35% to 4.65% and 2.37% respectively.

Full results can be read in the March 2010 Browser Market Share report.

Welcome to the newly improved Browser Watch, fetching a brand new custom created WordPress theme.

We hope the updated design will make it easier for our users to read the news without the pages being too cluttered.

The design itself relies heavily on CSS3 features, such as border-radius, box-shadow, text-shadow the CSS gradients, so Internet Explorer users, and to a degree Opera users (with it’s lack of CSS gradient support) will miss out on the full effect, though the site is fully functional in both browsers.

It’s still a work in progress, with a few features missing (such as the search box), but it’s mostly all there. Let us know if you spot any bugs, have any suggestions or comments.

Dear Mozilla and Opera,

Get with the <video> programme! Ogg Theora has lost the HTML5 video format war.

The evidence is all in front of us. The battle seems to have been won with the final move by Microsoft, who have announced that they will support the H.264 and MPEG-4 formats for Internet Explorer 9, completely ignoring the OGG video and audio formats.

In contrast, both Firefox and Opera only support the Ogg video, which is a free open source video format that is not covered by any known patents.

Read more

Results for web browser market share during February are out thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

As usual, Internet Explorer lost more market share for the month, dropping from 62.12% to 61.58%.

Firefox also lost some ground, dropping slightly from 24.43% to 24.23%.

Both Opera and Safari were also down, to 2.35% and 4.45% respectively. Opera had 2.38% market share in January, while Safari had 4.53%.

The only browser to gain share this month was Google, climbing to 5.61%, up from 5.22%.

The coming months are sure to be interesting, with Microsoft beginning to roll out the new browser ballot screen to European users.

January has been another interesting month for web browser, with monthly data available from Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer lost more market share taking it down to 62.18%, down from 62.69%, while Firefox also suprisingly lost some ground in the same period.

Firefox finished January 2010 with 24.41%, down from 24.61% the month before.

Google Chrome had a good month, taking its share above the 5% mark for the first time, ending the month with 5.2% share. This is up from 4.63% in December 2009.

Apple’s Safari also gained a small amount of new users, most likely thanks to the holiday season. Safari holds 4.51%, up from a share of 4.46%.

Opera also suffered a small loss, with a market share of 2.38%, down from 2.4% in December.

This year looks set to be another big battle for browser makers, as they try to draw in new users in 2010.

With 2009 now over, it’s time to analyse web browser market share over the last 12 months.

It’s been a big year for web browsers, with Internet Explorer taking a massive loss, down from 75.18% share in December 2008, to 62.69% share in December 2009.

Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera were all big winners, ending the year up higher than they started.

Google Chrome has had such an impact that it now holds third place in the browser market, which has been held by Safari for the last number of years.

We have compiled a graph below to show you the browser movements over the last 12 months.

All data has been provided by Market Share by Net Applications.

November has been another standard month, with Internet Explorer bleeding more market share, falling from 64.64% in October to 63.62%, while it looks like most of those users have moved to Firefox, which has gone from 24.07% to 24.72% share.

Safari lost a bit of ground for the month, moving from 4.42% to 4.36%, but rival web kit browser Chrome is up from 3.58% to 3.93%. At this rate, Google Chrome usage will overtake Safari some time in the first half of 2010.

Toping out the major browsers is Opera who also rose for the month, moving from 2.17% to 2.31%.

A big thanks to Market Share by Net Applications for the month’s statistics.

Browser market share stats are out for October 2009 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

As usual, Internet Explorer was down for the month, dropping from 65.71% to 64.64%, while Opera had a surprise loss, albeit only small,  from 2.19% to 2.17%.

Firefox had a small gain, jumping from 23.75% to 24.07%. Safari was also up 4.24% to 4.42%.

Google Chrome share was the biggest winner for October, jumping from 3.17% to 3.58%.

Opera’s drop off is likely from users who were testing Opera 10 and have gone back to their original browser. The jump for Safari suggests strong sales for Apple Mac’s, confirming the bumper year the Cupertino based company has been having.

Microsoft has made changes to the browser ballot screen that will be shipped with Windows 7, and rolled out to past versions of Windows in European Union countries, in a bid to keep the European Union happy.

The ballot screen will give users the easy choice to download and install up to 12 different browsers, with the big 5 – Apple Safari, Google Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Opera heading up the list.

Changes to the ballot screen include:

• Make it so competing browsers can be downloaded from the ballot screen more quickly and easily
• Ensure equivalent placement on the Windows 7 taskbar for Internet Explorer and all other browser icons
• Add introductory information, improving the design of the ballot page about each browser to help users make more informed choices
• Alphabetize the list of browsers so that the five most popular are listed first (by vendor), followed by the next seven most popular (also alphabetically ordered), so that 12 choices are displayed in total
• Provide the browser ballot to users for five years

The browser ballot screen is set to be rolled out to users on October 22nd, the same day Windows 7 goes on sale worldwide.