Credo:

Truly, it is in the interest of companies deploying Web software to encourage the use of capable Web browsers that are ready for today's "Internet 1.5".

Description:

The Internet 1.5 Consortium (© 2003 TreeLogic Software Engineering) seeks to aid Web browser vendors with quality assurance and promote the use of suitable Web browsers. This aids businesses that need quality Web browsers and enables the Internet experience to "work" for more people around the world. Join us at i1dot5 A-T treelogic-swe D-O-T com.

Description Detail:

The current motion from the Web as a static document system to a source of dynamic, interactive online software has been threatened by releases of very buggy Web browsers, most famously Netscape 6.x. Christopher M. Balz's personal description of these problems highlights their severity. While Internet 2 will be a long time in coming, Internet 1.5 has arrived. Will we take the opportunity?

On the consumer Web, every user counts. Therefore, just a few poor Web browsers can hold back the Web considerably. In monetary terms, the stakes are tremendous. The cost of working around the bugs in some Web browsers is burdensome for companies deploying Web software, and reduces the net utility of the Web.

Focal Points:

The Internet 1.5 Consortium focuses on:

• Browser bugs: Finding, documenting, reporting, and (where possible) fixing bugs in current Web browsers. TreeLogic SWE's DynaSurv application framework aids in this process.
• Ranking: Publically ranking Web browsers in terms of their overall suitability for the Internet of today, and encouraging the use of suitable Web browsers.

Take Part in Our Discussion Forum!

Rankings: -10 to +10, with 10 being tops, and a '-' (negative) ranking meaning unsuitable for today's Internet.
Ranking	Web Browser	Comments
9	Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5+	Despite complaints by some advocates, by far the best Web browser. Although this Web browser follows Microsoft's policy of "embrace and extend" (adding proprietary, non-standard extensions), it is also in fact the best implementor of the open, public Web standards. Applications of Web browsers that are highly sensitive to security issues, such as corporate intranets, might want to scrutinize the security issues that some commentators have pointed out with this Web browser.
1	Mozilla 1.4	Finally enough bugs have been fixed in this open-source Web browser to make it workable. Still a long way to go.
-1	Netscape 7.1	Netscape 6+ browsers are based on Mozilla code. Netscape 7.1 is an improvement but is still very buggy.
-2	Netscape 7.1	Netscape 6+ browsers are based on Mozilla code. Netscape 7.1 is an improvement but is still very buggy.
-3	Netscape 6+	An awful Web browser, promising much and delivering a lot of disappointment.
-3	Opera	Great implementation of many Web standards, but lacks major features and capabilities.
-4	Safari and Konqueror	Safari and Konqueror are based on the same codebase. Although far from being ready for prime-time, Safari was released as a finished application by Apple.

Links:

• The Web Standards Project -- Lots of great links on this page.
• The ECMAScript standard -- The basis for JavaScript, the world's most ubiquitous and most standardized high-level programming language.
• W3C -- Probably the most important Web standards body, alongside the ECMA.
• A good article describing how the voice of industry practicality is a valid one in the Web standards process.
• An article discussing the petition of 1300+ signatures that tried in vain to convince Netscape not to release Netscape 6 in 2000.

Contact i1dot5 A-T treelogic-swe D-O-T com