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Google Takes Partial Ownership Of Maxthon Browser!

techcrunch.com — Multiple sources are confirming that the Chinese/Israeli startup behind the Maxthon Browser has sold a minority stake to Google. The total investment size is rumored to be around $1 million. We are also hearing that this investment is part of a “much larger strategic deal” between the two companies.

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webtech 1 year 237 days ago, made popular 1 year 237 days ago

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Who Dugg It?

willynilly, on 10/12/2007, -38/+4OMG, stop the presses!

Now... WTF is the "Maxthon browser"?
- koregaonpark, on 10/12/2007, -4/+20Maxthon, despite using an amount of IE code, is supposed to be a very feature-rich and powerful Windows browser that some people love.
- neave, on 10/12/2007, -2/+21"WTF is the "Maxthon browser"?"
  
  Try reading the article! http://www.maxthon.com/
- cquinnd, on 10/12/2007, -9/+13Maxthon browser is the browser I am currently using to read this digg.
- Ellsass, on 11/05/2008, -13/+8It's an attempt to give IE the same features as Firefox (at least, it uses IE's rendering engine).
- cquinnd, on 10/12/2007, -3/+10It can switch between IE and the Gecko engine, up to the users choice.
- CBTF, on 10/12/2007, -7/+12"It's an attempt to give IE the same features as Firefox (at least, it uses IE's rendering engine)."
  
  Um... no. It's an IE shell basically, with lots of features. Nowhere does it aim to be like firefox. Being an alternative browser doesn't mean chasing after firefox all the time.
- polymorphist, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13"Maxthon, despite using an amount of IE code, ...[CUT]"
  
  Maxthon uses IE code??? Since when IE is open source?
  It uses the IE core, it's binary not "code"...plain and simple.
- PirateChaOS, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15@ cbtf
  
  Maxthon (MyIE) predates firefox... Nice try pal.
- Noctem, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6@patik:
  "It's an attempt to give IE the same features as Firefox (at least, it uses IE's rendering engine)."
  
  Actually, if I want the same amount of features in Firefox that Maxthon comes with by default, I'd have to spend half a day installing 327 extensions and configuring them just right.
  
  Give me Maxthon any day.
- dnthomps, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Maxthon is a great browser. The one, and only one problem with it, is that it runs off IE's engine. The fact is, I have been using Maxthon / MY IE 2 / Green Browser for about 4 years now. It has also been VERY feature rich. It has had tabs for the last four years, before many of the now mainstream browsers. I wanted to switch to Fire Fox many years ago as my primary browser, but after using Maxthon for years, it was very hard to go without the features. I have had to do MUCH tweaking in Firefox to get it to work like Maxthon. Only after installing All-In-One Gestures, Tab-Mix Plus, and a number of other Fire Fox bloating extensions, am I close to the functionality of good 'ole Maxthon.
  
  If this is true about Google and Maxthon, we will have another STRONG competitor in the browser market!
kbeeveer46, on 10/12/2007, -5/+23Doesn't the fact that it runs mostly off of IE code mean it's susceptible to all the downfalls of IE? I haven't used it in a long time. Is it basically IE with some added features/extensions?
- stunna, on 10/12/2007, -10/+6No, it doesn't have all of IE's downfalls.
  I believe Maxthon has some of its own secuirty features to fix some of IE's.
crucifiedpooh, on 10/12/2007, -6/+10Maxthon is what IE7 should have been and I love the mouse gestures ..
malavalla, on 10/12/2007, -22/+4it was nice knowing you firefox
- LonesomeFighter, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6firefox isn't dead. it's not like there was 2 browsers out there and now a 3rd one came out. there are tons of browsers and if it took people (schools) lots of time switch to firefox, it's going to take even longer for them to switch to something new.
- samthegecko, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2ff is NOT dying! to me maxthom just looks like a copy of ie (only unlike ie and ff its website doesn't work).
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1google just took some stake and they probably agreed to make them the default search engine (which they prolly already did, but now its offcial) and there will prolly be a mozilla-like google homepage. why is that such a ground breaking story.
Raian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12The Larger Scheme: squeeze Baidu by making Google the default search engine (25% of Baidu's referrals are coming from Maxthon).
- Lick, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Agreed, but curious; where did you get that info?
kaffein, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18Gave up MyIE2/Maxthon for Firefox... Haven't looked back.

@Patik,
Maxthon has been around MUCH longer than Firefox.
- sid0, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I gave up Maxthon for Firefox a couple of years ago, and a year later I gave up Firefox for Maxthon. When enough extensions are installed to compare with Maxthon's features, Firefox becomes too slow and unwieldy.
- anastrophe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1absolutely right. i have the following browsers installed:
  
  IE7 Maxthon 1.5x Flock Opera Firefox
  
  occasionally i use firefox, for the occasional site by the occassional asshat true-believer who refuses to even let you look at his website if you're using IE. the others are hardly ever touched.
  
  right now, i have 57 tabs open. absolutely, positively, ZERO degradation of performance or responsiveness. click a tab, no delay, no lag going to that tab. memory usage....quite high! that's to be expected with that many pages open - about 232M/215M res/vm. i've had more than 100 tabs open with again no degradation of performance. firefox on the other hand becomes sluggish as hell with more than about 50 tabs open.
  
  and yeah, the mouse gestures rock. not that they're unique to maxthon.
  
  my PC has never been compromised. the argument that running IEx puts you at risk is meritless. there've been more exploits published for firefox the last couple of years than for IE, if i recall correctly.
TunaFisu, on 10/12/2007, -14/+13The problem with maxthon is that it uses the ridiculously bad ie rendering engine.
hay112, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10i've been using maxthon since its been myie2, its come a long way, microsoft could learn a lot from the design and functionality and options available. Great interface, informative status bars, rss feeds, mouse gestures, speed, and 11ty billion customizations...If you haven't tried it, you should give it a whirl....
seandfeeney, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3let the rumors roll....
sleepwalker, on 10/12/2007, -15/+7WTF Maxthon browser are you ***** kidding me.... This piece of ***** is based on the IE browser which has held up front-end web development by 10 years. Come on Google what are you thinking! The last thing we need is another browser based on bad code. If they were smart, which normally they are, they would just do the same thing that Apple has done with Safari. Take the base code for the khtml browser and add to it. It's open-source (free!!) and the license allows you to do whatever you want to it, including keeping the new code you've created in house to yourself. So Google there are two choices here one build and market a browser based on standards compliant code and move the web forward or build one based on code that has pissed off every professional front-end web developer in the world and hold back the web even more! The choice is yours, god help us.
- Langford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+13They are only interested for the sake of making sure they get a Google search function by default for the large users base the browser enjoys.
- anastrophe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2are you ***** kidding? use safari? even apple fanboys acknowledge that safari sucks.
Eric4, on 10/12/2007, -12/+8Besides the fact that it uses the IE engine, it only runs on Windows. A big limitation with many people migrating to Linux/Mac.
- starbird, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That is my concern. Sad to say it, there are some sites that STILL require IE 6+ to render correctly. For instance, links from my realtor. I can see all the pictures unless I open it in IE. And since I am on a Mac (PowerPC)....
  
  I would like to see a Mac browser that renders IE only sites "correctly"
  
  (Of course, as soon as I get an intel mac, it won't matter, because I'll just use Parallels/Coherence and IE7)
TheWriteGuy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Google probably doesn't look at using Maxthon to compete against Firefox, but rather to capture the eyeballs of those Windows users who insist on using IE or are unaware of Firefox (and other alternatives like Opera).
aldomatic, on 10/12/2007, -9/+2is it not called myie? -- yea i use it from time to time
- T3rry, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8it used to be, a long time ago. it's probably been like 3-4 years now since they changed the name.
BradC, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Oh great, google will probably mess with Maxthon now (i.e. crappify it) and I'll have to find some other browser to use. Here's hoping they don't suck it up!
- LonesomeFighter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6when did Google "crappify" something by giving them lots of money and asking to be default browser? Google is a great search engine, so that is a plus. And lots of money is also a plus. Two pluses don't make something crappy.
clickwir, on 10/12/2007, -12/+7Google hopefully takes it over and throws it out. What a garbage product.
- anastrophe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1there's a thoughtful analysis. logical. rational. detailed reasons for the assessment.
  
  asshat.
isage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I doubt that this will lead to Google giving Firefox the cold shoulder. This is a strategic move to increase Google's exposure internationally. Stepping away from Firefox would do the opposite, especially in European countries like Germany, where Firefox has already has over a third of the market share. Besides Google has always been a supporter of open source/code efforts and saying bye-bye to Firefox would go against their "do no evil" philosophy.
raff, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Been using Maxthon for a few years now, it's form-filler with the simple keyboard shortcuts is the one that I've yet to see duplicated in Firefox with any add-on. This is why I keep using it :) (at work anyhow) If anyone else knows one that does the same thing for Firefox, I'm all ears!
shade73, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Maxthon is much better than IE. However, It did always worry me that it was using IE as a base. However, you have to realize alot of people have to use IE to view the webpages they need (yes, it's true!) Most aren't willing to install the IE extension in firefox. For these people Maxthon is an excellent alternative to regular internet explorer. It has a *much* improved feature set. Hey, it has aliases(keywords in firefox) microsoft, and you guys still didn't put that into IE 7!! *mumbling*
mozillamonks, on 10/12/2007, -11/+4Maxthon--
IE--
Opera--
Firefox++

Long live open source!
- jazh, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7Your rating of Opera is appauling, it does more than firefox and hogs less. How does that make it "--"
- Numfar28, on 10/12/2007, -5/+3Why, because Opera isn't open source. Didn't you know that means it's evil and should not be used under any circumstances, no matter how many benefits it has over Firefox?
- stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Opera has some annoying bugs though, for instance when you try to close a tab with the middle mouse button, it might actually close the wrong tab. Also, Opera users keep expecting webmasters to make their sites compatible with Opera when Opera should just follow the W3C standards to make their browser compatible with websites.
  
  Other than that though, Opera is an excellent browser.
- Numfar28, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@stoppedcode
  
  Funny you should mention that. According to this page:
  http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support-summary
  
  Both Opera and Firefox are shown to have their shortcomings when it comes to adhering to web standards. Actually Opera is technically ahead of Firefox in CSS 2.1 and DOM compliance. Are there any particular issues incompatibilities you are aware of?
- sid0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1M2 will have support for Gecko (the engine behind Firefox).
- stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't know if it's Google, but Google calendar, Google Notebook, and sometimes Gmail does not work in Opera, these are just a few web apps that I use everyday, but there are also others that I can't think of right now.
crash2005, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9for that price google should own the whole thing not partial.
PirateChaOS, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Well, I'm glad that Maxthon is finally getting some attention. Despite being a great browser, and being around forever, it still seems to lurk in the shadows.

I personally quit using it when they released IE7. With the addition of IE7pro, it really gives me all I needed from Maxthon (mouse gestures, etc). Maxthon is a great browser though!
- Agret, on 10/12/2007, -6/+2You should switch to Opera or Firefox, IE render engine == bad. No matter how good the shell is.
har0ld, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2Some web pages are a mess in IE. They render fine in Maxthon.

However I have sometimes some rendering problems with it, the tabs behavior is awesome (just the best IMO) and the look&feel of the 1.5v is simply great. I love this browser.
- sid0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"Some web pages are a mess in IE. They render fine in Maxthon."
  
  That doesn't even begin to compute... except if you have ads on the page which are ***** up the layout, and which Maxthon has blocked.
baseless, on 10/12/2007, -6/+1yeah it will be interesting what Google is going to do with it...maybe sth evil ;-)
before i forget... google is NOT your friend

http://weekendeconomist.blogspot.com/2007/03/52-google-is-your-friend.html
- LonesomeFighter, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7You are right, Google is not my friend. They only answered many of my questions, helped me a lot in school and work, made me money, kept me in contact with people, held onto stuff for me, navigated me through the world, and tons of other stuff.
  So in other words, are you retarded?
zurp, on 10/12/2007, -7/+6Ok tards, Mozilla's Navigator was around way before the ***** MyIE/Maxthon (yes I've tried it and it blows).
- jekimball, on 10/12/2007, -6/+5"***** MyIE/Maxthon (yes I've tried it and it blows)."
  
  Agreed !!!
- stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4More preciously, the mozilla 'gecko' rendering engine (used for firefox and a number of web browsers) has been around since 1997.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What features are Maxthon rumored to have stolen from Navigator, or even Gecko though? Firefox is currently my browser of choice but I'm hard pressed to think of one thing they innovated. Tabbed browsing, skins, standards compliance, and plug-in architectures all existed long before Firefox. We're entirely too concerned with who did something first, which isn't nearly as important as who is doing it best.
  
  Maxthon is a great tool for those still using the IE rendering engine, either by choice or necessity. Lighten up!
- oddfox, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@EtherGnat
  Let me start off my reply with a chuckle at the idea that "standards compliance" existed long before Firefox. Standards compliance is still a big deal when IE dominates the webscape, and even Netscape supported things differently (Or exclusively, Microsoft and Netscape both loved to extend things), same as IE. Firefox and Opera are getting close to standards compliance, but the fact of the matter is that standards are really only starting to emerge now that the web is being recognized as the useful utility it is. KHTML is supposed to be one of the most compliant engines, IIRC.
  
  Ok, as for the features, tabbed browsing came from Netcaptor in 1997. Skins came from NeoPlanet, standards compliance is being driven as a selling point only now by Firefox and Opera, with KHTML getting much love from Apple and people only recognizing it for the great product it is through Safari (I know plenty of people who like Konqueror though). The plug-in architectures existed well before Firefox, sure. However, the plug-in architecture for Firefox is far easier to develop for.
  
  Maxthon is a great tool for those still using the Trident rendering engine, either by choice or necessity, and I salute it's wide feature array provided by default. However, I'll stick with Firefox for most of my browsing, simply because, well, it might not have done a whole lot first, but it did a whole lot better than the rest. Now if only we can get Adobe to stop releasing plug-ins that crash the hell out of it on occasion.
- EtherGnat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"I'll stick with Firefox for most of my browsing, simply because, well, it might not have done a whole lot first, but it did a whole lot better than the rest."
  
  I couldn't agree more, which is why I use Firefox and made the comment about focusing on what currently works best. My main point was that it's kind of stupid to criticize products solely for incorporating features from other products--that's part of progress. When you criticize a product for stealing features from a product that didn't even exist when it was developed it's ludicrous.
  
  Maxthon obviously didn't steal any features from Firefox because it predates it by three years. I doubt it stole any features from the Gecko rendering engine because it's not even a rendering engine. I'm sure somebody can come up with something it "stole" from Netscape (every modern browser has been influenced by Netscape) but that's really splitting hairs. Firefox is a fantastic browser, but people constantly whining (often inaccurately) about stolen features is just annoying.
Lick, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Funny, www.maxthon.com indirectly got killed by the Digg effect? It's down at the moment.
- samthegecko, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3ya, if they want to become popular i suggest they get a better server. it gives u a bad first impression
IamZed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I'm for anything that will help get M2 out of its eternal beta.
carstereos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1has nobody tried Avant browser @ avantbrowser.com, I always had better luck with it than Maxthon. I hope they let a google coder get at it and make it better.
Jammerdelray, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Maxthon & K-melon are both nice.
adsoftheworld, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3IE based code? WHY?? I hope Google will not support any IE standards. It would be appalling.
mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why would Google touch something that's just a shell for IE? It gives it all of IE's weaknesses - a slow update and bugfix cycle, security that's pathetic on a good day, tie-in to the operating system, etc. Even if it gives you the features of Firefox, features aren't the main reason most people need to be encouraged to use it - it's all about IE's terrible security. Plus, Maxthon has a questionable future - all Microsoft has to do to kill it off is integrate most of its features into the main version of IE.

The solution to what's wrong with IE is to just not use the damn thing, not put a pretty shell over it.
stoppedcode12, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1wow, is it just me or are there a lot of spelling errors on this page? (maybe it has something to do with Maxthon and its dominance in china?)
ironmonk3y, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Interesting article. Thanks you!

Thanks
alohafound, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0maxthon (precedent name is my2) is the browser i am using to read digg. it is sleek in design and rich in features. but it is still in beta test period. the lateset version is beta5. i dount how many betas are still left behind.
the biggest problem for maxthon is it eats too much of my RAM and some unreasonable crashes or hangs.
Wisely, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0
I loved Maxthon for over a year until it so easily allowed malwares to infect it and thereafter infect every other application.
Nixkitty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Great, now one other piece of crap software to want to install the Google Toolbar and Desktop Search when you install it.
theonesteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maxthon (which I'm using right now) already had Google as a default search item before Google bought some of their stock. Maxthon supports searching from the address bar, and you can assign any letter/number combo to any search engine or other site. The default key is 'g', so you would type 'g I like Maxthon' into the address bar and it would automatically put your search string into the querystring for Google and send you to the results (and quickly).

Maxthon is highly customizable. It has optional tabbed browsing in which the default tabs are small, readable, and include favicons. The default tabs use Windows XP styles, if that's what you're using (I'm not sure if it checks or not). Because Maxthon is skinnable, you can make the tabs look however you want, and completely change the face of the browser.

Pop-up, ActiveX, web ad, float ad, javascript, Flash, and many more nuisance blockers are built into Maxthon. You can save groups of tabs as files and move them with you to different computers. There are tons of features that come with the browser, and you can choose which ones you want to turn on or off. I believe there are also plugins you can download, but unless you've got a very specific need that's not already addressed by the default install, I can't imagine why you'd bother.
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Google Takes Partial Ownership Of Maxthon Browser!

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