Saturday | 11 October, 2008
Computerworld
It's Yahoo's turn to bring desktop features to browser
BrowserPlus lets users drag and drop, upload files, and receive desktop notifications inside browser
Heather Havenstein 29/05/2008 09:11:02

Additional Resources
Executive Guides
Whitepapers
Zones
Zone logoZones provide focussed content from Computerworld and leading technology partners.

Newsletter Subscription

Sign up for our Computerworld newsletters!
Computerworld's twice-daily news service keeps you in touch with the latest, most important headlines from Australia and around the world.
Keep up with the latest virtualisation technologies, products, news and features.
RSS Feeds

Yahoo Wednesday became the latest company to provide developers with the opportunity to build rich Internet applications with some desktop functions with its unveiling of a preview version of a new offering called BrowserPlus.

The software, which in this so-called "sneak peek" release only works on Yahoo sites, helps developers build applications that allow users to do things like drag and drop from the desktop, easily upload files and receive native desktop notifications while inside the browser, Yahoo said. Yahoo said the preview version, which was developed by a small team over the past year, will let it gain input from developers.

The final version of the software will support any Web site, Yahoo said. It did not say when the final version of BrowserPlus will be available.

The most unique feature of the software, according to Yahoo, allows users to add new services without having to restart a browser or reload a page. "For users, this means no more interruptions or installers to run," Yahoo said in a blog post. "We handle the complexity of software distribution and updates. For developers, it means you can check for and activate new services with a single function call (pending user approval, of course). BrowserPlus is dynamic, allowing us to implement the standards of tomorrow while enabling fun and playful web applications along the way.

Yahoo said all updates are signed and verified by Yahoo so users can trust that they're are authentic. Updates are never applied without a user's approval. BrowserPlus will never let sites access a user's data or resources unless the user approves. If a security issues is found in a service on the Web, Yahoo said it can quickly deactivate that service so it can't be exploited.

As for performance, BrowserPlus runs separately from the browser so that Yahoo can minimize the performance impact and shut down the software when it is not needed. As a result, the software is unlikely to affect speed or stability of daily browsing, Yahoo said.

The new yahoo tool will compete with other recently unveiled offerings, including Microsoft's Silverlight, Adobe Systems's Adobe Integrated Runtime, or AIR, and Prism from the Mozilla Foundation.

Market Place

Computerworld Member Login


 

Smart SOA World Tour

Discover how SOA can create smarter outcomes for your business.

Attend and learn:

  • How SOA is helping leading companies to become more agile
  • Where you should be applying SOA processes in your company
  • The top SOA implementation mistakes to avoid

Click here for more information.
Whitepaper

CRM your salespeople will love

Winning over the sales department and obtaining buy-in at all levels is crucial to the success of any CRM initiative. Discover how you can let salespeople work how they want to and reduce their administrative burden with the latest CRM technology.

Enterprise IT Buyer's Guide
Find Technology Vendors Fast
 
Find vendors by name | Find by category
Sponsored Links