Maxthon browser: a Beijing based company we reviewed recently, will announce today an investment with Charles River Ventures and is preparing a version 2 of its already very popular browser that is supposed to be realeased in weeks time.
Maxthon went over 50 millions downloads since last time we reviewed them. They are now over 55 millions and are growing at the speed of over millions per month. Let’s remind that Maxthon is built on IE code and that they have managed to create a very good browser (not everybody agrees but they do have a great product)
Maxthon is also preparing a version 2 of its browser that will be including many new features: new clean interface, full customization of layout, better security, multi-tab workspace, improved rss/podcast reader. More 3rd party plugins, bookmarklet and toolbar will be supported which was until now a big inconvenient. A few exclusive screenshots below. But one of the most interesting feature Maxthon is putting together will be the possibility to create an account and have stored online all your settings (bookmark, rss,…) and use them from a different computer just by logging in.
Browser is the new war field for the big guys. Microsoft is fine-tuning its IE7, FireFox and Opera get more and more sophisticated and more and more market share.
Yahoo is betting on access out of the browser with its Widgets just like Google with its new desktop search. Safa Rashtchy, from Piper Jaffray said, recently
In the new era of Internet, we believe application functionality will expand beyond the operating system into the desktops and the web; the point of personalization and delivery will become more important. We believe Maxthon and its organic growth is representative of this trend
Maxthon is definetly entering the courtyard of key players in this market. They have very serious investors (CRV, WI Harper, Morten Lund a seed Skype investor) a beautiful product and a growing community.
This war is going to be interesting to follow up and we can bet that browsers are just of the beginning of a new era.
More on Maxthon Blog.
Screenshots :
Just want to mention that ‘multi-tab workspace’ is no new feature. It’s been in this browser since its MyIE2 days.
After years of stagnation Firefox seems to have ignited the browser space after Microsoft’s domination of this sector and their subsequent lack of real innovation. It is great to see developers adding to the innovation in this area. This is exactly what is needed to support the initiatives in the Web 2.0 space.
I see a need for what I call “Tear-Off” browser applets that can be dedicated to specific functions, such as Google Mail and Calendar. (http://ekive.bl...of-browser.html). In the Mac OS X space Michael McCracken has done exactly that using WebKit follow this link to find out more (http://ekive.bl...ear-off_13.html)
But developers, please adhere to some basic standards. If we end up with too many customized flavors of browser web app developers will have to resort to coding for the most popular browsers and excluding others. Transparency/compatibility needs to be a critical objective for browser developers in order to avoid perpetuating the IE-only sites that still survive today.
Maxthon 1.0:
its got some really nice UI features but why use ieEmbed? and not the FireFox engine/component like flock.
does it still Wrap itself round IE?
How can anyone put money into a Business that relies on another Companies closed peice of software? I’m sure the investors know a lot more about investing then me but it just seems odd.
Dedicated users of Maxthon might feel they don’t need security patches for IE because to them they are not using it!?!?!?
It does use IE by default but it has had the option to use the Gecko engine for quite some time now. Hopefully they will make that the default or at least more prominent in this next release.
Maxton is great to use a replacement for average computer user.
I actually like it better than FF.
Browser is a tool, not a toy.
So is Maxthon actually a browser program? From what I understand, it just wraps around IE. You are actually running IE when you open Maxthon. So you can’t really compare apples to oranges in this case. And I believe the only magnficent feature of Maxthon is that it has tabbed-browsing. So basically it is just IE with tabbed-browsing. With the new IE already having tabbed-browsing, I really see Maxthon just eventually going down the drain.
I’ve read through a lot of the complaints that people have said about Maxthon, but I’ll be giving it a shot. I’ve been using SlimBrowser, which I adore, and NEVER had any problems with. And, sorry, I go to some down right dirty parts of the web. No problems. Oh, and when I’m on my Windows Laptop using Slimbrowser on these dirty parts of the web, I always always always forget to do security updates and all that stuff. Nothing has happened. I’m clean. Lookie mee! I can run though acid.
Now that’s SlimBrowser, not Maxthon, but they’re similar, we’ll see what happens. But JUST because it’s based on IE doesn’t mean it’s dirty. Just because you’re mother’s a whore doesn’t mean you can’t make something better out of the situation.
Just a reminder, before we had CSS and Firefox was out, we used to “break” the table tags to create a lot of layouts, and many of these websites are still out there… and Firefox is so “hip to the new code” that it -can’t read the old, albeit broken code, as it was meant to be read. I like these IE “wrappers” They read the old and the new. As much as you people want to say it’s about the browser reading the code, it’s not. It’s about ME sitting behind my computer and seeing the same thing that a PERSON, the webdesigner wanted me to see. Firefox doesn’t do that when there’s too much of a time difference because the internet changed a bit too much.
I tired Maxthon a couple days ago and can’t for the life of me figure out what it does that firefox (with standard extensions) can’t do.
If it’s just a matter of not having to install extensions, that’s fine. I can understand the hassle of having to find and install all of those, and how that can be annoying when you have to do it multiple times.
However, for a power-user, it’s worth it to get everything out of the browser that you want.
Mouse gestures are better in FF.
Tabs are better in FF.
Session saving is better in FF.
Bookmarklets work in FF.
Google Toolbar works in FF (I tried multiple times in Maxthon and it never appeared, despite being claimed that it does).
AdBlock works as well, if not better (hard to compare) in FF.
There’s a better extension community in FF (does maxthon even have one?).
I’m not “hating” on Maxthon and it does look like a super clean browser, and it seems faster than FF. But I’ll sacrifice an ounce of speed for the much greater functionality in FF.
Brian
To bfos7215,
You missed a lot when you tried Maxthon.
Taking your points one at a time:
Mouse gestures. There are only two differences between Maxthon 1.5.x and FF: FF doesn’t let you use buttons in a gesture (e.g. “Hold Left Button, Click Right Button”) and Maxthon doesn’t show you the Visible Gestures of FF. Maxthon 2.0 already includes the visible gestures and so seems to have this one in the bag.
Tabs. When I tried FF (admittedly, for the same short time you tried Maxthon) the one thing I really missed from Maxthon was the customizable Tab handling. From the Options menu, select Maxthon Options and click Tabs on the left hand side. I tried to reproduce this range of options in FF and only managed to do so by installing three extensions. This led to instability since (as I later found out) two of them don’t “play nicely” together. Way too much hassle for something Maxthon has out of the box.
Session saving. Not a feature I give much though to. If I close my browser with twenty five tabs open, the next time I open it I know they’ll be there. If I want to keep them for a permanent group of sites I visit I’ll save them as a Group. Simple. Straightforward. It just works.
Bookmarklets. These tend to be chunks of Javascript. Maxthon has two ways available to run JS on any given page: the built-in tabbed notepad with code support, and plugins. Again, these work fine for every bookmarklet I’ve ever thrown at them.
Google toolbar. It can be made to work in Maxthon (see the many posts and FAQ entries in the Maxthon forums helping newbies get it running) but I honestly don’t see the point. My understanding is that there’s nothing that the toolbar can achieve that Maxthon can’t do natively.
Extension Community. In Maxthon these are called Plugins. The community has a friendly and hospitable home in the Maxthon forums. Users collaborate to produce great plugins and often these are made to request.
The major thing you seemed to have ignored in your trial seems to have been the Maxthon forums. Anyone who wishes to try out this very poewrful tool really ought to go there first with questions – you’ll get all the help that the community can give.
I don’t dislike FF. I just prefer Maxthon. Horses for courses etc.
The one thing I miss from FF is the “Clone tab with all history”. However, since this is coming in Maxthon 2.0 I won’t miss it for much longer.
Amazing how Arrington sings the praises of a product HE CAN’T TEST BECAUSE HE IS ON A MAC.
WHAT A HERO!
to reader 10. This post was published by me and not by Michael Arrington. And be assured i have tried it. It is my favourite and daily browser
Re: #9
I have rocker functionality in my Mouse Gestures
Tab Mix Plus seems to have more options for tabs than the tab options I saw in Maxthon.
You’re right, Session saving is probably as good. (I hadn’t noticed the ‘don’t show this again’)
Chris Pirillo had a Maxthon guy on his show some time ago and even he lamented bookmarklets not working properly. But said they were working on it.
I had checked a FAQ about the google toolbar and their suggestion didn’t work. I’m sure their may be a way to get it to work, but to take that much investigation doesn’t set well with me. I know a lot don’t like toolbars, but they fit well and save me time with my style of browsing.
I guess my main point is that I don’t understand how Maxthon is an improvment over FireFox. It almost seems like Maxthon users don’t see a need to switch and vice versa, but if that’s the case, Maxthon will be at a fairly large disadvantage and better hope IE buys them.
Brian
This isn’t just about basic functionality anymore. The browser matters. The web is so large at this point (~1B online accounts according to Comscore, I believe) that there is simply a big enough market for more than one browser. I can’t tell you why Mercedes, BMW and Lexus are different, all have 4 wheels, 4 doors are equally plush and get you around, but people want choice and prefer one over the other. That’s where we’re going with the browser.
I use IE, Firefox, and Maxthon on an almost daily basis based on what I want to do. I absolutely need my Copernic, which I thought was only IE but I will try it in Maxthon. But either way, sometimes I just don’t want tabs. As for Firefox, it does offer both tabbed and non-tabbed browsing, but I don’t like the way it functions as much as IE (scrolling, clicking, saving files, etc). And the search box in Firefox is crap compared to Copernic. With Copernic I just put “addengine” into virtually any text box out there and it automatically adds it to my list and makes it searchable. Doing it any other way seems retarded to me. I love the built in rss bookmarks for Firefox, but I am assuming IE7 will have that. I also like how you can open IE in different processes.
It just seems like trying to go against FireFox and IE would be such a difficult feat
I’m a journalist and I use the software since the name was MYIE2. Maxthon has a feature called “Simple Collector” very, very handfull when working with multiple sites and information sources. And even when you turn off the computer, the text there is automatically saved. I miss that in other browsers.
try “the world”,it is simpler that Maxthon but you can find even all you want,.
FX is powful that Maxthon, absolutely.
I prefer Firefox for myself, but Maxthon is a fantastic piece of work. If they did a Firefox distribution I would recommend it to friends. The Maxthon team has been on a roll for a long time.
I hate people that decide something is bad before they try it, and once they try it they flame it for everything that’s different. Give new things a chance. Guess what, I’ve tried Opera, IE, FF, Avant, and even netscape; none of them have compared to maxthon. You say it’s based on IE so it must suck, news flash dick-wads it doesn’t matter what it’s based / runs off as long as it’s fast, reliable, and customizable. Why don’t we just all start using unbuntu and save me this rant.
Bastards
sincerely, Christopher M.
Maxthon is really an awesome product with a lot of FF functionalities that you won’t find in IE. Nonetheless, the ad hunter feature of maxthon make me worry because this feature can kill Google Adsense ads and most of the text-links advertisitng programs out there. All Adsense ads space became blank with Ad Hunter turned on in Maxthon.
Arrington, did you try to browse TechCrunch.com with you Maxthon browser with Ad hunter on? It kills about 50% of your revenue !
If Maxthon went gecko/firefix in 2.0, I’d switch to Opera full-time. Maxthon already had everything that Firefix stole, and still does it better. Don’t trash IE7, though. If you’re criticizing it, you haven’t checked out Beta 2. It’s damn fine.
CEO. Binarer, you are absolutely right. With the Ad Hunter on, you get rid of all the schmutz…
I’m the guy that led this financing. Ive been using the product for almost a year, and its the only browser I use now. This product is a product of a movement. its here to stay. The community element around this product ROCKS.
Curious! I’ll definately be investigating this browser. Being a web developer I’ll have to see what the deal is.
Thanks for the article
response to post #24: it is just a GUI slapped onto IE
Maxthon is not a browser. It’s a UI.
The browser is IE.
What I hope becomes clear is whether Maxthon 2.x will run in the special protected mode sandbox that IE7 runs in under Vista. That mode makes IE’s security problems moot, since the browser is for all intents and purposes in its own virtual machine. If Maxthon is in the same box, great, under Vista it may be the greatest thing since sliced bread. If not, then because of IE (even the improved IE7) I still can’t use it.
To “Schmaxthon” guy:
“Firefox is not a browser. It`s UI.
The browser is Gecko.”
Is it what are you trying to say?
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Oh boy, i’m so sick reading the
“Maxthon is a skin for IE”
“Maxthon is just an addon for IE”
“Maxthon is kinda a ripoff”
“Maxthon is a shell for IE”
And specially the
“Maxthon has the same flaws/security issues that IE”.
ALL FALSE. All damn false.
If Maxthon were REALLY a skin/shell/addon of IE, that would exactly mean
that ‘98 was a skin/shell/addon for DOS. That’s just PLAIN DUMB *AND*
IGNORANT. ‘98 is a OS on it’s own, unlike, say, 3.11 for DOS.
Yes, i’ve tried Firefox. And, VERY VERY VERY honestly, i was dissapointed; on _every single version_ that i tried it. Lacks a LOT of features from Maxthon, and i don’t want to install 20+ plug-ins to do the similar things Maxthon does. However, there are a few things that Maxthon does not.
A better name.
A nice icon.
Multiplatform.
ADVERTISING
…and that’s it. Secure? Hah, if there’s something hot today is finding FF Flaws. Faster?? MOZILLA IS FASTER THAN THAT THING.
Maxthon. All the way. Ever.
I am a current Firefox user and I really like it however, I used Maxthon exclusively for a very long time, all the way back to the MyIE2 days. They were had tabbed browsing long before it was “cool”. It is an extremely well built, easy to use and dependable broswer? I have been using Firefox almost exclusively now for 3-4 months and I really like it…..however it has taken me all that time to get Firefox to behave the Maxthon will with just a few simple mouse clicks. I’ve spent countless hours downloading Firefox extensions, installing, restarting Firefox, testing out the extenstion and uninstalling it because it was junk or didn’t do what I wanted. Again, I love Firefox and use it over Maxthon now, as I am right this moment, but Firefox takes ALOT of work to customize into a useable tabbed browswer in my opinion. And what is up with the HUGE amout of memory and CPU usage that Firefox uses?
Being a computer nerd, I do love the flexibility that Firefox offers with all the extensions but they are not something that the avg. “dumb” (no offense) internet user is going to figure out. I think Maxthon’s popularity will continue to grow, as will Firefox’s. I’ll probably use both and might use Maxthon again more if they come up with some really cool new features.
Maxthon is best browser for me. I looked for best internet surfer tool. first i used slimbrowser but it has many bug. i’ve tested many browsers and firefox too. unfornately it lack of many features. I found Maxthon later on ,and I love it.It support all IE featuers and many new features. and i like mouse action very much.
sorry, for my bad English.but i love maxthon very much.
Well, like everytime… It is always the matter of “mine is bigger”… Really, if you want to be objective, give it a try. Ie more than couple of days. Did you get married because you “tried” your wife/husband just couple of days?
I tried Maxthon for awhile, loved it, and now use it all the time. And to all those Firefox followers, yes it is its own browser application, it just uses IE’s layout engine, Trident. And it can use Gecko (not all it’s cracked up to be, to be honest) as well, so shut-up. Maxthon has mouse gestures, tabs, ad blockers, and countless other stuff that that you’d take for granted once you start using it. Take the plunge and try it.
I am very impressed by maxthon except for the tabs, which i prefer to keep on my task bar.
The tab management (saving as group, opening many at once, drag and drop) options are great. Task bar browser tabs don’t have flavicons, whereas browser tabs do, sometimes.
But it is a real shame that tabs have to be in more than one place because one looses sight of them in different applications.
The best thing about Maxthon is the fact that it uses so little memory. I like to open a lot of web pages and Maxthon is really light. It is so light that I can afford to ask it to open all my favourite pages in tabs upon start up.
I fear however that the advantage of Maxthon (low memory) is at the cost of enforced tabbed browsing. If Maxthon were to open new task bar windows, as opposed to tab bar windows, then perhaps it would be as bloated as IE?
The perfect browser is not yet with us.
Tim
Of all the browsers out there, these are the only three that I prefer (listed below in order of preference):
1. Maxthon:
My browser of choice, since its MyIE2 days. No other browser is so much customizable and has so many features out-of-the-box. But it could do with some more plugins and better skins though. Maxthon is inherently suitable for official use (most intranet sites are IE only) – it is still much better (and secure) than plain old IE. And Maxthon2 will certainly help to put this excellent browser on a pedestal. If they improve its Gecko plugin, Maxthon can surely give Firefox some nightmares.
2. Firefox:
The rebel browser that is giving Microsoft the shivers. But unfortunately requires a lot of extensions to enhance its usability to match Maxthon’s. However, the sheer number of Firefox plugins and skins are a delight for the power users, and ensure its increasing popularity. With the launch of Firefox2 nearing soon, FF is promising to become a better out-of-the-box browser experience for the internet user.
3. Opera:
The browser that is still trying to conquer the world, and may probably conquer the mobile computing world. No other browser is so stable between releases. Frankly, I appreciate the effort these Opera guys put in making a great browser. And some of the features that they come up with are laudable atleast for the creativity. Opera9 is getting much-deserved attention (but I don’t think widgets are needed for a browser!). I use this browser sometimes just for the fun of it.
And for those who hate IE, check out IE7 Beta3. It is a great improvement over IE6, but still no match for Maxthon or Firefox or Opera.
The browser wars are hotting up — Maxthon2, Firefox2, Opera9, IE7.
And guess who’s the winner – we, the users, of course !
Cheers and happy surfing folks!!