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If only they patented tabbed browsing...

There were at least 3 browsers (well, one was an IE shell) that featured tabbed browsing before Opera. The first was NetCaptor.

"Tabbed browsing is the biggest fundamental improvement in the Web browser in years. NetCaptor lets you do a staggering number of things with tabs. Try it... You may never go back to Internet Explorer again." - Walt Mossberg, The Wall Street Journal

Besides, the EU doesn't give software patents (thankfully).

The now-defunct browser called Netcaptor was the first to implement tabbed browsing. It was originally released by Adam Stiles in 1998, and was a shell for IE's Trident rendering engine. I still use it as an IE replacement for IE-only sites, and you can get the last version from the Netcaptor site

It was first introduced in NetCaptor browser, more history here.

The first browser was tabs was IE shell NetCaptor. Their site brags about it.

Tabbed browsing is a concept that was first put into implementation by NetCaptor. Even Firefox copied it. *gasp!*

America Online is creating its own standalone browser,

Does stand-alone mean that it wouldnt take the OS with it when it crashes ? :-D.Stop trying to make the shit taste better.There are already stuff available that do that. Try Avant Browser
Maxthon
Netcaptor

Just STOP re-inventing the wheel !

A lot of folks have thus used IE's rendering engine to enable tabbed browsing, plugin architecture, integrated popup blocking, etc. As a matter of fact, though I use IE's rendering engine, I probably haven't seriously used IE in 4+ years. Using IE as the base of the browser allows me to avoid all the incompatibilities of Mozilla/Opera/Firefox. On my PIII-350 IE is also a lot faster than Firefox. Tabbed browsing, popup blockers, etc. (currently by way of CrazyBrowser, though Maxthon/MyIE2 is more powerful and has plugins to block ads, restructure content, etc.) keep me sane.

Actually, it might have been NetCaptor. They've had a tabbed browsing implementation since 1998.

D.

Acutesearch adds this functionality to IE.

Netcaptor also has this functionality built-in, along with tabbed browsing and pop-up killing.

Other than wanting good products to thrive and geeks to be happy, I have no interest in these products.

I, I know, people shouldn't use IE.

I'm always curious when people are complaining about IE why more people don't sugest IE replacements like Netcaptor or MyIE2. Both allow tabbed browsing, popup blocking etc etc. I've been using Netcaptor for a while now and like it alot. Cheers

Slimbrowser
MyIE2
Crazy Browser
Avant Browser (not free)
Netcaptor (not free)

Slimbrowser
MyIE2
Crazy Browser
Avant Browser (not free)
Netcaptor (not free)

People are always talking about IE vs Netscape/Mozilla/Firebird/Opera/etc., but there is also another route that, for one reason or another, often seems to be ignored or forgotten: Browsers based on IE's rendering engine. For the average desktop user who wants more than what IE offers but doesn't want to switch to a browser/OS they're not familiar with, they can be a very enticing option. The one I happen to use is NetCaptor

It has all the "advantages" of regular IE... namely, compatibility with the great majority of web sites and software out there. Now, it simply adds a ton of features, including most of what Mozilla/Netscape/whatever offers, on top of that IE engine.

What can it do?
-Highly-configurable tabbed browsing
-Pop-up blocking that blocks either unrequested popups (quite reliable) or URL (unnecessary, but there if you need it)
-Ad=blocking (based on configurable URLs, with wildcard support, exclusions, and more)
-Grouped favorites (meaning you can open a series of sites together, and they'll load as seperate tabs)
-Cookie management
-Built-in mouse gestures
-Built-in history/search/cookie/whatever data wipe upon browser close, including up to 35x data overwrite.
-User-configurable address bar-based search/bookmark functions (i.e. instead of typing "www.google.com", I can just type "g" to go there... or I can type "g search term" to be brought directly to the result page for that search term. Or type "d strangeword" for a fast dictionary definition."
-Easy-to-access dropdown buttons/menus that allow you to do to the current site: Translate (BabelFish), Whois info, Waybackmachine, Google cached pages, similar sites, site information, anonymizer, and more.
-Fast menu toggling of various media loading (images, sounds, animations, javascript, activex, etc.)

It does all of that, and more, while maintaining IE's familiar interface and rendering engine. With 90% of Mozilla's advantages gone, I don't have much incentive to switch anymore.

Of course, it's not perfect. It costs $30 (shareware). It is not open-source (although the developer does listen and respond to feedback). But in the end, I found that it's much easier than using Mozilla. I never have to worry about incompatible webpages, plugins, or web programs. I can stick with the shortcut keys and interface that I've grown so familiar with.

I know I don't speak for all types of users -- for example, anyone running Linux will be excluded, since there's only a Windows version, and anyone who insists on OSS will not be happy with it -- but for other users who, like me, either don't want to or cannot switch to Linux, I think software like this is actually better than Mozilla.

And before anyone shouts "wannabe", I believe NetCaptor had a lot of those features (tabbed browsing, popup blocking) before Mozilla did, and in some cases, implemented them better too.

I don't work for the Netcaptor company, and I do respect the work the Mozilla/Firebird/etc. teams do. I simply think there is an alternative out there that is very rarely mentioned, one that makes it more unncessary to switch from IE, and it wouldn't hurt to give it a little attention. Perhaps some people will even find it useful, as I did.

• NetCaptor is the oldest, but costs $$$.
  
• Crazy Browser is free, and it's interface is almost a direct copy of NetCaptor but is no longer being actively developed.
  
• MyIE2 has a stupid name but is free and being actively developed. It also has tons of features including skinning, a plugin architecture and mouse gestures. Watch the spyware during installation though.
  

Your wish has already been granted. It's called NetCaptor, a terrific shell for Internet Explorer. I use it every day, and glady paid its registration fee. It's my primary browser until Mozilla Firebird becomes more stable.

> IE6 has really stagnated

Exactly how is this? I am not a web developer, but IIRC IE6 has pretty decent support for CSS1 and DOM level 1. Agree, IE hasn't kept up with bleeding edge stuff like CSS2 (and yes, transparent PNG support sucks), but that's hardly stagnation. Is there a link available somewhere (just so I could learn) that lists all the things IE6 does not do?

On the other hand, IE6 SP1 seems to render this XHTML 2.0 page slightly better then Phoenix 0.6 (Moz 1.4b) does. Opera 7.1 does not render it at all. For all its doodads (notes and all) isn't Opera 'stagnating' faster than IE?

As for UI tweaks, like tabs, gestures and popup blocking -- there are lots of IE "shells", like NetCaptor that add these to IE. Nothing stops someone from writing their own shell and giving it away.

Btw, I agree with you in principle -- with little competition in the marketplace, companies do have less incentive to add features. On the other hand, in practice, it is not clear that IE's competitors have produced a better product yet. Opera sucks memory, and even Firebird 0.6 (which I'm currently using because it's the best non-IE browser I've tried so far) has serious bugs with its History pane. I'd say basic features like those are way more important than chasing the latest standard-of-the-week from the W3C.

Maybe someone can point out how to change these by editing config files so that I can send IE away for good:

• I want to sort bookmarks with folders first.
• I always want the tab bar displayed.
• I want bookmarks (clicked in both the sidebar and in the Bookmarks Toolbar) to always open on a new tab.

Until then, I'm still using NetCaptor, in which the tabbed interface is much more intuitive and under my control. IMHO, of course.

• MyIE2
  
• Crazy Browser
  
• Netcaptor
  
• Avant Browser
  

But to answer your question, you probably should ask daddy before installing any software on his computer.

For those who've never heard of it, there is a great browser that uses IE's rendering engine and implements all of these things: NetCaptor.

It can block unrequested popups, popups by URL, anything else on the page by URL (such as for blocking non-popup ads), tabbed browsing, cookie management, grouped favorites, and much more.

The downside is that it's Windows-only and $30 shareware.

But if you're looking for a powerful browser, I think this is well worth the money... download the trial version and judge for yourself. I've been using it for years and can't live without it.

I use CrazyBrowser which is just the IE engine with tabbed browsing, pop up killer and a number of other useful things.

I actually prefer the way it does pop-ups too, they go into a new tab rather than actually popping up. Makes it much easier to kill them (as you can just double click on the tab). I don't think Moz does this (or if it does, I didn't find it).

My only complaint is that some (Microsoft) applications insist on firing up IE despite the fact that CrazyBrowser is my default browser.

Oh yes, and it's a silly name.

There is also a commercial version called Netcaptor too which has a few more features, but CB is free (as in beer).

I am replying to this post in Phoenix 0.2 running on Windows 2000.

SWEET MERCIFUL CHRIST ON A MOTORCYCLE TALKING ON A MOBILE PHONE!@$ This thing is fast as hell.

I'm really glad it did not go the way of Mozilla interface, which looks like Netscape. Part of the Mozilla trouble is just that. People presume it's the "old" netscape and are reluctant to keep it on their systems.

Furthermore, I love it how Phoenix does not integrate into your OS like a multi-headed hydra. Tabbed browsing is a plus. Still achievable with netcaptor on IE 5.x/6.x but not a native application.

This will be the browser I will use on Win2k when they figure out how to dock the google toolbar on it.

Also, many windows users confuse the IE loadtime with page render time. It's a common misconseption. I am sold on Phoenix.

As for tabs, try NetCaptor , which I haven't used myself -- but it looks like it adds that capability.

Normally, I'm not a Micro$oft fan in any way -- but I have to admit that IE generally does a better job at rendering the kinds of pages that actually live on the net.

Standards are nice, but if people are already failing to follow them, must we continue to have "nearly as good" or "works if the web author had followed the standard" browsers? What's the point of staying to a "standard" that isn't used? I'd rather be able to READ what's out there.

Netcaptor

It wraps the IE rendering engine and gives you the following features:

- tabbed browsing
- configurable pop-up and url blocking (via regexp)
- pre-defined groups of pages you can bring up with one click
- F2-F3 to cycle through tabs
- macros on the address bar (search google by typing "g foo" on the address bar)
- aliases (go to slashdot by typing "s" on the address bar)

If you have to use IE, this is the only way to go.

There is an application that creates a wrapper for IE to allow tabs. NetCaptor, however, is trialware.

Another one I've tried is Crazy Browser , which is very similar to Netcaptor but is free. I've also found that it's buggier than Netcaptor. Crazy Browser also offers ad and pop-up filtering.

Netcaptor also does tabbed browsing in IE. Never tried it, but it's been around for years.

Netcaptor is an IE based browser that's had tabbed browsing, popup blocking, keyboard shortcuts and a load of other features for a while. I actually switched to it from Opera, and have had no problems whatsoever.

Netcaptor does this on windows.

http://www.netcaptor.com/tour/1/:

"This screenshot demonstrates NetCaptor's patent-pending browser tab interface."

It would be like Opera patenting "mouse gestures in web browsers". If NetCaptor get a patent on tabbed browsing, it could be possible for Opera to patent mouse gestures in a web browser. But let's hope NetCaptor die a horrible death, and Opera will probably never try to stiffle competition by taking patents.

1. It costs $29.95
   
2. It is based on the IE engine, and gets horribly slow and munches RAM like the Cookie Monster.
   

Now this is about the only thing I wish IE had. XP groups multiple windows, but it sucks. I hope MS adds this soon.

Try out NetCaptor. It uses the IE rendering engine and adds tabs and a few other goodies. It's commercial unfortunately (trial download available), but I got hooked and paid for it.

-Bruce

There is a great browser based on IE's rendering engine called NetCaptor that has had tabbed browsing in Windows for quite a while. It is shareware, so that kinda sucks, but with the other features (popup blocking, url blocking, aliases, built-in translation, tons more) its worth it IMO. I would heartily recommend it to any Windows user who enjoys the tabbed browsing but can't take Mozilla for whatever reason. Check it out at www.netcaptor.com.

(and no, I don't work for NetCaptor.)

heard all the raves about tabbed browsing and I downloaded a copy of Mozilla 0.9 to try it out. It's the exact same thing as the Search/Favorites/History panel in IE! I don't get how this is "revolutionary". (Please, if you care to enlighten me on how it is different, do so. I'd welcome a better explanation.)

Forget IE, forget Mozilla, and though Opera's tabs are decent, check out Netcaptor. Based on IE's component engine, it does justice to tabs.

And, to stay on topic, you can configure QuickSearches with almost EVERY search engine (google included) where you just type an abbreviation and the search term in the address bar. I, for instance, have Google as g, AltaVista as av, Network Solution's Whois as wh, etc. It'll change the way you browse.

Note, that it's shareware, but it's really worth the money. Up to around version 6.5 it was freeware, then they included ads (yech!), then went to a 30-day demo. But at $29.95, it's definitely worth it.

fyi: if you want your IE and want tabs, try netcaptor: http://www.netcaptor.net/
unfortunately it's not free.

ah well... back to moz.

I really tried to give Mozilla a chance on my WinXP system, but it's simply a hog. Using the Quick Launch feature (the only way it was usable.. I don't want to wait 10-15 seconds for my browser to launch when I open a link) it would consistently eat up 30MB of RAM and having the browser running just made my computer feel slow. This is in addition to the numerous UI bugs, I don't know if they are specific to the Windows version, but even things like rearranging favorites on the fly with drag and drop wouldn't work, and sometimes text boxes like the address bar would refuse to take entry and I'd have to kill and restart the browser.

I was bearing with it for a while, I had really gotten to like tabbed browsing, but then I searched around a bit and found a couple of solutions that would give me tabs in IE, pretty much the best of both worlds. I'm using NetCaptor at the moment.. only downside is that it's shareware, and $30 for tabs kind of sucks. I'll probably go back to Moz in a few versions and give it another try if they can work out some of the bloat/bug problems that it's having at the moment.

just gave it a go, and it didn't affect me. running winxp with netcaptor browser (embeds ie) and trillian (im client that connects to the msn messanger network among others)

not that i was expecting it to work.

what amuses me though, is how the linked page from this article reads like a very handy worm writing primer, suggesting better propogation methods -

Optimized scanning routines, hitlist scanning, and permutation scanning can be combined to produce hyper virulent Warhol Worms. Since they are so fast, such worms would be the vehicle of choice for delivering malicious payloads to the net at large.

According to their website, "tabbed browsing" is patent-pending.

So get it while its still legal :-)

http://www.netcaptor.com/tour.php

And Galeon copied it from Netcaptor, which has been around for a few years on Win32.

note: i'm predominantly running windows lately on my desktop machine. don't start with me. it's the curse of being a gamer.

last year i ran in to NetCaptor (http://www.netcaptor.com), which, uses IE and, among other things, is "tab-able", and i simply can not go back now. (i'm addicted to tab-able apps. PowerShell rules! having 20+ windows open at any given time doesn't). so, my suggestion to developers is an add-on app that incorporates Moz for this. i'm sure i'm not the only one that would love to see this.

just my .02

It features nice things, including PopupCaptor: this little stuff can block only the popups you choose (when they appear, you can just hit F8 and tell bye bye to the popup).

I wonder if Galeon/Konqueror/Skipstone and other browsers did this too (as I'm not a Win32 user).

NetCaptor can be found at www.netcaptor.com.

But, AFAIK, K-Melon lacks the coolest feature of Galeon -- tabbed browsing! That can be found in Netcaptor, however.

Does it finally do fixed positioning? This was promised for IE 5.5, but alas. Does IE6

Try NetCaptor and be done with opening up seperate windows for each IE incarnation. Right now I have 6 sites open in one window and can switch back and forth quite easily. And it uses roughly the same amount of memory as 1 IE window, and scales better for more sites.

Oh, but to answer your question, IE 6 on my Win2K system does open new windows in a logical order.

When browsing warez sites (I know, I don't do it often though) I usually find the popups with porn to be the worst. So therefore I use NetCaptor which opens different windows in tabs. Very useful, do try. That is, if you run a winbox.

Yes, the Netcaptor browser for Win9x/NT/2000 does. Check it out, it's real neat.

Alfredo was dead-on: a review of 'independant' browsers with a mere three browsers reviewed is like a review of the year's new cars including only Ford, Lotus, and Chevy. Of course, the playing field would have been severly limited if CNet had chosen to define 'independant' as specifying a browser that did not require NS and particularly IE as a backbone. However, the inclusion of Neoplanet should have opened the competition to some other notable browsers, namely, Netcaptor, Power Browser, and K-Meleon. My personal favorite, excepting Opera, is Netcaptor: Captorgroups and tabs are invaluable, and the author is very responsive to users. Power Browser is tabbed, and has a handy little feature that allows notes to be added to a a web page. K-Meleon, while still in it's infancy, should have at least been mentioned as perhaps the only alternative interface app for Netscape in the Windows world.

According to the NetCaptor website, they are already working on a Mozilla based version.

I would bet it will be available before Mozilla 1.0

http://www.netcaptor.com/article.php?id= 56

- D -

A long time ago when Mozilla was in the initial stages, there was a utility that let you replace the Internet Explorer engine with Mozilla's engine. Does anyone know where I can find this? I just love NetCaptor as a browser, but it only uses the Internet Explorer engine... If I had the time, I'd code one based on Mozilla just like it, but I don't...