Browser makes one last stab at beating Microsoft

New York A Web browser project run primarily by volunteers and backed by America Online is making one more attempt at challenging the dominance of Microsoft Corp.

The group released its Mozilla 1.0 package this month some four years after AOL’s Netscape unit launched the project. Mitchell Baker of www.mozilla.org, above, works on hanging a banner last week at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco where the Mozilla 1.0 release party was held.

While analysts aren’t sanguine about the browser’s prospects, there is excitement among those who believe Mozilla’s real strength lies in its versatility and potential for gadgets such as wireless devices where Microsoft is not yet dominant.

Mozilla may thrill some tech-savvy users, “but it’s not going to make a dent with the mainstream,” said WebSideStory’s Geoff Johnston, unless, that is, AOL Time Warner puts major marketing muscle behind it.

AOL is using Mozilla in newer Netscape browsers, including the 7.0 version now available as a preview release. The company also is testing Gecko, the Mozilla component that displays content on a screen, for its flagship AOL service, which now runs on Internet Explorer.

Chip integration grows more sophisticated

San Jose Three years ago, as many as 50 chips would have been needed to handle the features built into Ericsson’s new T66 cell phone. Today, four slivers of silicon do the job.

As a result, the phone is among Ericsson’s smallest and most powerful, one of a generation of devices integrating functions that used to require multiple gadgets. And the phone is on the market now not stuck on the drawing board.

The semiconductor industry has always managed to squeeze ever-more features onto smaller pieces of silicon, but this integration is leading to remarkable results. Complete systems now can be built on a piece as small as a match head, allowing cell phones to act like palm-size computers, and small handhelds to work as phones.

These systems-on-a-chip, which usually aren’t advertised to consumers, also are behind smaller set-top TV boxes that can handle both video and Web-surfing, powerful video game players and the latest, Internet-capable video recorders.