RSSGoogle Investing in Maxthon Browser?
By the Betanews Staff | Published April 10, 2007, 4:27 PM
The popular alternative IE-based browser Maxthon may now be partially owned by Google, if press reports are correct. Silicon Valley insider Michael Arrington said Tuesday that sources are indicating the search giant has invested around $1 million in the company.
While Maxthon has gained traction in the United States by offering tabbed browsing and other features that only arrived in IE7, most of its users are located in China. Searches sent by the browser could amount to 25% of leading Chinese search Baidu's traffic, Arrington said. The investment would include replacing Baidu and Yahoo with Google as the default search provider. Mozilla signed a similar deal with Google for Firefox.
Maxthon is a good browser
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|... Maxthon has money involved with it?! Is it weird that I'm dumbfounded? I honestly just viewed it as a fun IE shell.
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|Maxthon FTW!
Long before Firebug for Firefox was released, I had been using Maxthon for development work. There's a plug-in that has some of the features that Firebug has.
Of course now with Firebug, I've ditched Maxthon as a development browser. But, Maxthon still rules!
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|Ummm... why?
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|My thoughts exactly.
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|Considering it's just a shell for IE, no idea.
I'd rather see them investing more into Firefox or Opera, even, than investing in a browser-enhancement.
Of course, this does kind of fit their methods. They want to be cross-platform and cross browser. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this came with a push to make maxathon a cross-browser enhancement that would work with *any* browser.
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|Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Maxthon simply added tabs to IE. In that case, IE, Firefox, and Opera all already have tabs in their latest versions.
So I repeat my question (with even more wonder): Why!?
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|It adds _alot_ more than tabs. Try going to the website and checking it out :)
You'll be wanting to check Version 2, even though in Beta still vastly more advanced than Firefox or IE alone.
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|Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Maxthon simply added tabs to IE.
Consider yourself corrected. Check out their website, man. :)
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|I couldn't agree more. The idea of Google and Opera combining makes for an interesting match. The speed factor would come into play and Google has more server space than anyone.
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|Hey, I donated a lot of money to MyIE2 and Maxthon over the years. Can I get a refund (in Euros or Yuan)?
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|i also thought maxthon would be forgotten once IE7 came out... go google! :D
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|That means you don't know what Maxthon REALLY is. IE7 only has a fraction of the features offerred by Maxthon.
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|"...if press reports are correct."
Great reporting :/
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|It's called BETA news for a reason.
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|It's not even really a browser though is it? It uses the IE engine so isn't it really a skin or an add-on?
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|Maxthon uses the IE Engine, Firefox uses the gecko engine, so if you want to hold this true, then no browser is a real browser except for opera which uses its own engine.
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|Well, IE uses the IE engine. So IE and Opera are the only "real" browsers?
This is cool, I guess. Though, I thought Maxthon and the rest of the IE skin types kind of became obsolete when IE 7 came out.
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|Actually only Opera is a true browser made from ground up. IE is still using Mosaic down there in its roots...
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|No, not really. Internet Explorer 1.0 was based on Spyglass Mosaic. However in IE4 the rendering engine was replaced with Microsoft's own version called Trident. As of IE7 there is no Mosaic code left anywhere in the product.
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|Maxthon can also use Gecko engine. Goto File New Tab and select Use Gecko Engine
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|I can't agree with the notion that IE front ends were made obsolete by IE 7. Firefox has long been my primary browser, but until very recently, I was forced to use an IE-based browser for work purposes. I continued to use Maxthon even after the advent of IE 7, because although IE 7 finally adds tabbed browsing to the product, it also features an interface so horrid that I find it almost completely unusable.
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|Firefox uses the gecko engine (purchased and developed by Netscape then off to open source), IE uses the IE engine, and Opera uses the Opera engine. Is this all somehow confusing?
Maxthon is just a over-cooked front-end for IE.
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|You can use IETab in FF to render pages with the IE engine.
http://ietab.mozdev.org/
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|Yes, I've been using IETab sporadically for quite some time now, but I've kept Maxthon around because I've found a few instances in which IETab didn't work properly.
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|In IE6 if you go to >>HELP>>ABOUT on the menu and read the little box that comes up it says in the first sentence that it is based on NCSA Mosaic. IE7 doesn't say that but IE6 still does. :)
I still think that IE is horrible no matter what version it is.
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|So true. Opera was handed down by the viking gods and affirmed through faith in the Norwegians. I believe. I use. I'll witness for Opera! (but I won't go to your church)
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|Opera and Firefox are both real browsers. IE is....well, IE is a joke and a cruel one at that.
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