WEB TECHNOLOGIES

Prepared by:

Wan Ahmad Ramzi Bin Wan Yusuf (M031510006)

Introduction of Web technologies

               Web technology is the development of mechanisms that allow communication between two or more computers over a network. The technology is used in infrastructure office, at home, in the learning center where several computers and peripheral devices such as printers that are interconnected through a network, this allows fast and easy transmission of information access. To get connected and view the Internet most people use a browser, there are many different browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Opera, Firefox and others.  Kartik Dharuna, in his definition about web technologies,  is a package which not only deals with website development and designing but it also covers various field like software development, testing and maintenance of a software, ERP, Database Management, web hosting, security of data, information management, etc [1]. There are many Web technologies from simple to complex, and each describes in detail the characteristics and the web features in term of security, programming language and human computer interaction in aspect. This paper will review web technologies over the browsers in term of three features stated above, Security, Design features and Programming language.

Security Features

People are more oriented to mobile devices running under very different conditions and various safety features such as URL filtering, load protection and no trace has changed the mainstream desktop browsers such as Chrome, IE and Firefox. In a sense all browsers could now claim to be ‘secure’ browsers. Most of the web developers are now more focused on the issue of user privacy, it is possible for browser such Chrome, Firefox or IE, to fine adjustment to a mechanism or system for security and privacy if that’s important. Browser nowadays has a privacy mode to convince the users but sometimes doubtful. Below are the six web developers with pro and cons features .

Browser	Features (pro)	Features (Cons)
1.Epic https://www.epicbrowser.com	-Prioritise SSL connection when possible. -Built in ad blocking. -One button proxy	-Not include malware and  phishing protection
2. Comodo https://www.comodo.com	-Incorporates domain filtering system to    limit malware activities. -Virtualised mode that isolates from the  host system. -Provide SiteInspector for URLs filtering.
3. Tor https://torproject.org	-antisurveillance buil on of hidden relay service. -full of privacy potential -provide do and don’t to user	- Will slower the system
4. Maxthon https://www.maxthon.com	-embeds protection from AdBlock Plus -encryption synchronizes files to cloud service.	-unclear features whether has or no protection. -poor documentation
5. Https Everywhere Chrome,firefox and Opera www.google.com www.firefox.com www.opera.com	-          Enforce SSL where possible -          Popular -          Simplify complex process to much simpler. -          Worth to use
6. Cocoon https://www.cocoon.com	-Military grade product. - anti facebook, -better wifi. -Encrypted end to end connection. -special features ‘mailslots’hide the real of disposable email address.

Table 1 : Security features for some browsers

As a summary, every browser provides their own protection scheme based on their purposes. Epic’s browser is an excellence with advertisement blocking and has special features called button proxy which is used for encryption process that does not slow down the browsing. Following browser is comodo, the main security features provide by comodo is incorporating a domain filtering which to limit an exposure to problem domains of the sort used by malware. Tor is a browser with anti-surveillance features and simply can installed in various platforms even on a USB stick.  Moreover, it used https connections similar to other browser such as Chrome, Opera and Firefox. Tor is suitable for privacy environment and it will slow the system because it demands to use its full privacy potential. Maxthon Cloud Browser provide encrypted sync files to cloud services that limits an access for customer data. With an embedded protection from Adblock Plus and interesting of cloud service, Maxthon is more secure than other branded browser despite it claimed for poor documentation and unclear protection features. HTTPS Everywhere, consist of Chrome, Firefox and Opera are established and popular web browser nowadays. Enforcing SSL features where possible and simplifying a complex to simpler process by using https to start out and return back to non-Https page without realising it. It is a browser plug in based and is worth to have it. Finally, is Cocoon’s browser.  A military grade product with anti - Facebook tracking, anonymous browsing, better security WIFI on open hotspot and encrypted end to end connection. Cocoon is a proxy VPN and it save when using others PCs.

  

Design Features

The best browser for you is could be the browser that you might not think of. Browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari are the option that you have currently. Between browsers stated above, the tests based on [2] have found significant differences in the speed and ease of use.  The comparison of each browser uses the system resources also observed by the author [2]. Choosing the right browser could save you time and frustration.

The tests are using web base tools such as Browsermark, peacekeeper and Sunspider . Browsermark will gather an information related to your operating system, browser and layout engine used in your browser such as webkit consideration which related to design.  WebKit is a layout engine software component for rendering web pages in web browsers.[4] Peacekeeper is an online speed test  mainly using rendering, mathematical and memory operations[5]. The execution tells results of other browsers with different CPUs whilst Sunspider is a benchmark suite that aims to measure JavaScript performance on tasks relevant to the current and near future use of JavaScript in the real world, such as encryption and text manipulation [5].

Another aspect to be discussed is current trend in browser design. All attempt to be as minimal as possible, offering next to no actual text and small, monochromatic buttons that discretely blend with the aesthetic design of operating systems like Windows 8 and Mac OS X. Overall, all five browsers appear to achieve their goals fairly well.  Below are the features extracted in a form of table as summarise for each browsers.

No	Browser	General Features	Design Features
1	Chrome	Able to play video in hiding popup mode. It has Text to speech add on called Speakit! features which is used to proofread an articles. Chrome also the faster browser for rendering HTML as well as Opera and ID, it spawns a number a process that cause lagging time to shutdown the PCs. Despite it has a small issue aside, but still the best choose among the users.	Chrome has a lean address bar configuration, simple tab layout and address bar configuration. Doubles as a search bar Google calls the “Omnibox.” Like most browsers, the window can get incredibly cramped with 15+ tabs open, Adjacent to the omnibox is Chrome’s simple standard navigational features (i.e. back, forward, refresh, home) by default, otherwise, customization can be done weather to delete any buttons or re arrange locations. Chrome’s single-click bookmarking method, done by simply clicking the star located on the right side of the address bar, also makes bookmarking your favorite webpages a breeze and hassle-free experience.[6] Menu button shows in the form of list of text locate on the right side on top of the browser. No Home button
2	Opera	Easy installation even slower than chrome, it has similar webkit engine as chrome and having similar problems in term of multiple process, moreover Opera lack of home button in design. The result shows Opera is nearly as fast as chrome.  It also provides Speed Dial features which is great for work off of multiple sites. Furthermore, Opera is easy to configure.	Opera has a single hybrid address-search bar like Chrome, but the alternative browser also sports Opera’s signature features, stash and speed dial.  Speed dial allows for easy bookmarking and functions like “the most visited page” on Safari. Stash is similar to Pocket, allowing you to quickly store pages for future browsing. The bottom line, it’s a clean design with innovative features such as speed dial, bookmark,discover,tabs and history.[6] Menu button location on the left side on top of the browser. No Home button
3	Safari	From the author [2] says safari is easy to use and runs with very low processing overhead compared to others.  Moreover, the thrifty use of memory which is spawns only a single process and requires only small memory to show up the display, it also popular on platform Mac and Windows. Safari is still reasonable because it has all features found in the others, instead, it is still reliable to use.[2]	The browser that has traditionally attracted criticism is now a serious competitor to the likes of Google and Firefox. Safari offers the address-search bar hybrid. Updates to Safari 8 include a share icon embedded to the right of the search field. The sharing feature serves as a way to bookmark pages, post to social networks, and share via native Apple platforms (iMessage, Mail). Mac users running the most recent operating system can even launch the browser in full-screen mode for the ultimate viewing experience.[6] No Home button Menu button locate on the right side on top of the browser.
4	Firefox	Offers many useful add –on, a long time competitor for IE and Chrome as well. it has malware attack avoidance features and most recommended to the users.  Despite the Gecko rendering took a bit memory to process but firefox recently upgraded to overcome the leak memory problem. Result shows Firefox has better than chrome and Opera in speed test using Sunspider.  Morever ,Firefox only used 510Mb memory which is consider less memory used.	This browser features a similar, more useful layout when compared to its competitors, placing the tab bar above the address bar. The browser offers the same kind of single-click bookmarking that Chrome does by click the star located to the right of the search bar.  The settings menu is accessible in a similar fashion to that of Google Chrome, allowing you to access various options by clicking a simple button depicting three horizontal bars located in the upper-right corner of the window. [6] Menu button shows in the form of images/icons locate on the right side on top of the browser. Yes Home button locate on the right side inline with the search bar.
5	Internet Explorer	Most popular web browser and the most targeted by the malware. Fast with html, javascript and renders pages reliably. With active X technology, the capability to integrate functionality into IE with business site that make IE sometimes easier to use. IE used only 7 process which is half process taken compared to chrome and Opera but it using 714Mb of memory which is can cause slower of performance.	Technically, IE 11 is the most minimal Internet device of the four. IE 11 features a single bar that simultaneously functions as the browser’s address and search bar. Other notable design features include the single-click bookmarking star now widely adopted by almost all other prominent browsers.[6] Menu button shows in the form of list of text locate on the right side on top of the browser. Yes Home button

Table 2 : General and Design features for popular web browsers

  

Figure 1: Testing result performance between browsers

The Browsermark test showed pretty close performance by all products (except IE, which Browsermark could not run). The results are based on browserwork measurement tools to test the performance for related browsers.

Based on the author [2], from the testing that has been doing by Browserwork, Sunspider and peacekeeper; chrome is leading with 5773 browserwork, time taken 150.4ms to complete sunspider and scored 5627 on peacekeeper. Opera is fall at second place with score 5625 on browserwork, 5447 in peacekeeper and took 150.1ms on sunspider which is considered faster compared to others. Third place is for safari with 4831 test by browserwork, peacekeeper 3062 dan sunspider 179.9ms. Firefox taking 4^th place with score browserwork 4540, 134.4ms to complete sunspider and 3956 in peacekeeper. Finally  Internet Explorer, the IE could not be testing by browserwork because of some updating reason [2],but it score 3670 on peacekeeper with 74.1ms to complete sunspider. So far ,IE is the fastest browser for  running javascript and HTML.

Programming language

A programming language is a formal constructed language designed to communicate 

instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs to control the behavior of a machine or to express algorithms [8]. Browsers are made up of many components, such as rendering engines, JavaScript engines, and UI, each of which can be written in different languages.[7] The most popular  browser such as (i.e., the most visited) websites have in common that they are dynamic websites. Their

development typically involves server side coding, client side coding and database technology. The programming languages applied to deliver similar dynamic web content however vary vastly between sites.[9] this section will listed a type of programming language used for some browsers and popular websites in common.

No	Browser	Programming Language
1	Firefox	·         PHP/Phyton ·         Rendering engine: Gecko, C++ ·         JavaScript engine: SpiderMonkey, C ·         UI: Mostly XUL (a custom XML dialect), CSS, and JavaScript, with some C++.
2	Chrome	·         Rendering engine: WebCore, C++ ·         JavaScript engine: V8, C++ ·         UI: Mostly C++, though the mac port uses Objective-C, and some features in all platforms use HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. ·         C, C++, Go,[3] Java, Python
3	Safari	·         Rendering engine: WebCore, C++ (shared with Chrome) ·         JavaScript engine: JavaScriptCore, C++ ·         UI: Unknown, but likely Objective-C with some HTML
4	Internet Explorer	All C++
5	Opera	Written in C/ C++

Table 3 : programming language used for some browsers

Figure 2: programming language used for some popular websites in common.

As conclusion, three aspect of web technologies has been reviewed consist of a few web developers. For security aspect, various type of web developer is taken from the techworld.com [3]. The purpose is to differentiate various type of browser in general for security features as many of popular web browsers such as Chrome, opera and Firefox are similar approaches. Then for design features aspect, five most popular browsers has been review their features in term of speed, ease of use (general features) and design. At the end of design features part are shows testing result of the performance measure by web tools such as Browserwork, Sunspider and peacekeeper based on [2]. Finally, programming language aspect which to determine what programming language used to written and support the web development. Listing of programming language is given to five most popular browsers and also to popular websites that actually apply more language for its development.

Reference:

1.         [1] https://www.quora.com/What-is-meant-by-web-technology

2.            [2] Jon L. Jacobi(sept 2014) http://www.pcworld.com/article/2605933/browser-comparison-how-the-five-leaders-stack-up-in-speed-ease-of-use-and-more.html

3.         [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebKit

4.         [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_speed_test#Peacekeeper

5.       [6]http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-browser-internet-explorer-vs-chrome-     

             vs-firefox-vs-safari-vs-edge/#ixzz3rztFwf00
6.       [7]  Aaron Boodman, https://www.quora.com/What-programming-languages-are-  

                   web-browsers-like-Google-Chrome-Opera-and-Mozilla-Firefox-written-in

7.            [10] http://www.slideshare.net/CaptAahmed/web-browsers-39095670

8.            [8] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_language

9.            [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programming_languages_used_in_most_popular_websites

10.          [3] http://www.techworld.com/features/security/