How Web Browsers Developed and Evolved


Looking at the best Australia casinos, it can be had to fathom just how far web browsers have come i their development and evolution. Within a few years, the new HTML5 specifications would adopt some elements that had been implemented in browsers at varying levels of success. These technologies required new major features and technologies, of course. As the newest versions of Internet Explorer (9) and Firefox (5.0) came out, a new era of widespread support for Web standards was on the horizon.

The first major tech shakeup that we see on the Internet in 2008 happens at the major tech events hosted by Adobe and Apple: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Adobe. In the keynote of Adobe’s keynote at WWDC 2008, the company announces the Adobe Flash Player 10.0 and Adobe Flash Player 11.1. Both applications are meant to be compatible with Web standards. Adobe’s Flash Player 11.1 adds a new feature called Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) to Adobe’s products. Today, most of these web applications have evolved to perform different functions. Along with the diversification of web applications, the security tools for these applications have also developed. Radware’s Cloud WAF (https://www.radware.com/products/cloud-waf-service/), for instance, provides continuous adaptive web application security protection.

Starting with Flash 11.0 and 11.1, the browser checks for a framework to open links based on whether it’s allowed to do so. Since some systems don’t allow for cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, Adobe has enabled CSRF protection for Flash Player 11.1. At this time, Flash Player 11.0 only supports the Flash Web browser plug-in and no browser plugin.

Shortly after Adobe’s announcements, the Web Standards Project launched Web Platform Working Group (WSPG). The WSPG wanted a coherent set of standards that would allow more browsers to work well with Web standards, with the goal of producing less iteration of existing technologies. The WSPG also launched the Future Development Work Package (FDW) for the Web Application Compatibility Document (WACD).

The FDW is meant to allow users to see their security status, based on pre-defined criteria, on a Flash Player installation page. However, to maintain compatibility with Flash Player 11.1 and newer, the FDW doesn’t currently display security status on installations that don’t have CSRF protection.

Allowing Flash Player to access the Web via Flash is a big shift in how developers expect their software to work on the Web. The downside is that Flash, just like other desktop software, needs to be installed, updated, and installed again.

By March 2008, Firefox 5, Microsoft Internet Explorer 8, Apple Safari 4.2, and Google Chrome 5.0 all supported cross-origin request forgery (cross-origin CSRF). At the same time, Apple, Mozilla, Adobe, and Google began working together to add similar functionality to their Web browsers.

Microsoft, Mozilla, and Adobe were joined by Adobe (and Apple) at an event hosted by Google in San Francisco in April 2008. The event is the genesis for WebKit, the cross-browser Web rendering engine that is still used by most of today’s browsers. Again, this is easy to take for granted when one is enjoying some fun with all the new casinos coming online, with their wealth of features. The idea is to create an architecture that allows for consistent performance, security, and feature parity between Web browsers.

The requirements for creating such an architecture depend on the details of the technology involved. The WSPG launched the Web Application Compatibility Document (WACD) in July 2008, and the WACD would be responsible for that consistency and security between Web browsers. By the end of the month, Chrome 5 and Firefox 5 were made available. Windows XP was the first version of Windows to support Chrome.

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