OmniWeb
Encyclopedia
OmniWeb is a proprietary Internet
web browser
developed and marketed by The Omni Group
. It is available exclusively for Apple Inc.'s Mac
OS X
operating system
. Like many of its competitors in the Macintosh alternative browser market, Mozilla's
Firefox
and Camino
, for instance, OmniWeb is available as a free download.
for the NextStep
platform on 17 March 1995 after only one month's development time. As NextStep evolved into OpenStep
and then Mac OS X, OmniWeb was updated to run on these platforms. OmniWeb also briefly ran on Microsoft Windows
through the Yellow Box
or the OpenStep frameworks. After Lighthouse Design was bought by Sun Microsystems
, the Omni Group released the product themselves, from version 2.5 onwards. From version 4.0 onwards, OmniWeb has been developed solely for the Mac OS X platform.
OmniWeb is developed using the Cocoa API which allows it to take full advantage of Mac OS X features. It uses Quartz
to produce images and smooth text, it will use multiple processors if available, and features an interface that makes use of Aqua UI
features such as drawers, sheets and customizable toolbars.
OmniWeb originally employed its own proprietary HTML
layout engine
. However, the engine was not fully compatible with all of the most recent web standards
, such as Cascading Style Sheets
. In February 2003, the Omni Group adopted Apple's KHTML
-based WebCore
rendering engine, which was created by Apple for its Safari
browser.
On August 11, 2004, the Omni Group released version 5.0 of OmniWeb which included a number of new features. The most notable feature was an unusual implementation of tabbed browsing
, in which the tabs were displayed vertically in a drawer on the side of the window (including optional thumbnail pictures of the pages.) Despite a certain amount of controversy over the merits of a tab drawer over a tab toolbar, the feature has persisted through the current version.
On September 6, 2006 version 5.5 was released. Major new features include the use of a custom version of WebKit
instead of WebCore, universal binary
support, saving to web archive
, support for user defined style sheets, a "Select Next Link" feature, FTP folder display, ad-blocking improvements, updated localizations, many other small changes and bug fixes.
On February 24, 2009, Omni Group announced that OmniWeb would be made available for free, a change from its previous price of $14.95.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
developed and marketed by The Omni Group
The Omni Group
The Omni Group is a company that develops software for the Mac OS X platform. The Omni Group was informally founded as a NEXTSTEP consulting company in 1989 by Wil Shipley, who immediately brought on Ken Case and Tim Wood. The three incorporated together under the name Omni Development, Inc. in...
. It is available exclusively for Apple Inc.'s Mac
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
operating system
Operating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
. Like many of its competitors in the Macintosh alternative browser market, Mozilla's
Mozilla Corporation
The Mozilla Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey Navigator web browsers and the Mozilla Thunderbird email client by a growing global community of...
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
and Camino
Camino
Camino is a free, open source, GUI-based Web browser based on Mozilla's Gecko layout engine and specifically designed for the Mac OS X operating system...
, for instance, OmniWeb is available as a free download.
History
OmniWeb was originally developed by Omni Group, and was released by Lighthouse DesignLighthouse Design
Lighthouse Design Ltd. was an American software company that operated from 1989 to 1996. Lighthouse developed software for NeXT computers running the NeXTSTEP operating system. The company was founded in 1989 by Alan Chung, Roger Rosner, Jonathan Schwartz, Kevin Steele and Brian Skinner, in...
for the NextStep
NEXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
platform on 17 March 1995 after only one month's development time. As NextStep evolved into OpenStep
OpenStep
OpenStep was an object-oriented application programming interface specification for an object-oriented operating system that used a non-NeXTSTEP operating system as its core, principally developed by NeXT with Sun Microsystems. OPENSTEP was a specific implementation of the OpenStep API developed...
and then Mac OS X, OmniWeb was updated to run on these platforms. OmniWeb also briefly ran on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
through the Yellow Box
Cocoa (API)
Cocoa is Apple's native object-oriented application programming interface for the Mac OS X operating system and—along with the Cocoa Touch extension for gesture recognition and animation—for applications for the iOS operating system, used on Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and...
or the OpenStep frameworks. After Lighthouse Design was bought by Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, the Omni Group released the product themselves, from version 2.5 onwards. From version 4.0 onwards, OmniWeb has been developed solely for the Mac OS X platform.
OmniWeb is developed using the Cocoa API which allows it to take full advantage of Mac OS X features. It uses Quartz
Quartz (graphics layer)
Quartz specifically refers to a pair of Mac OS X technologies, each part of the Core Graphics framework: Quartz 2D and Quartz Compositor. It includes both a 2D renderer in Core Graphics and the composition engine that sends instructions to the graphics card...
to produce images and smooth text, it will use multiple processors if available, and features an interface that makes use of Aqua UI
Aqua (user interface)
Aqua is the GUI and primary visual theme of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system. It is based around the theme of water, as its name suggests, with droplet-like elements and liberal use of translucency and reflection effects...
features such as drawers, sheets and customizable toolbars.
OmniWeb originally employed its own proprietary HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
layout engine
Layout engine
A web browser engine, , is a software component that takes marked up content and formatting information and displays the formatted content on the screen. It "paints" on the content area of a window, which is displayed on a monitor or a printer...
. However, the engine was not fully compatible with all of the most recent web standards
Web standards
Web standards is a general term for the formal standards and other technical specifications that define and describe aspects of the World Wide Web. In recent years, the term has been more frequently associated with the trend of endorsing a set of standardized best practices for building web sites,...
, such as Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets is a style sheet language used to describe the presentation semantics of a document written in a markup language...
. In February 2003, the Omni Group adopted Apple's KHTML
KHTML
KHTML is the HTML layout engine developed by the KDE project. It is the engine used by the Konqueror web browser. A forked version of KHTML called WebKit is used by several web browsers, among them Safari and Google Chrome...
-based WebCore
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
rendering engine, which was created by Apple for its Safari
Safari (web browser)
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc. and included with the Mac OS X and iOS operating systems. First released as a public beta on January 7, 2003 on the company's Mac OS X operating system, it became Apple's default browser beginning with Mac OS X v10.3 "Panther". Safari is also the...
browser.
On August 11, 2004, the Omni Group released version 5.0 of OmniWeb which included a number of new features. The most notable feature was an unusual implementation of tabbed browsing
Tab (GUI)
In the area of graphical user interfaces , a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching between sets of documents...
, in which the tabs were displayed vertically in a drawer on the side of the window (including optional thumbnail pictures of the pages.) Despite a certain amount of controversy over the merits of a tab drawer over a tab toolbar, the feature has persisted through the current version.
On September 6, 2006 version 5.5 was released. Major new features include the use of a custom version of WebKit
WebKit
WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...
instead of WebCore, universal binary
Universal binary
A universal binary is, in Apple parlance, an executable file or application bundle that runs natively on either PowerPC or Intel-manufactured IA-32 or Intel 64-based Macintosh computers; it is an implementation of the concept more generally known as a fat binary.With the release of Mac OS X Snow...
support, saving to web archive
Web ARChive
The Web ARChive archive format specifies a method for combining multiple digital resources into an aggregate archive file together with related information. The WARC format is a revision of the Internet Archive's ARC File Format [ARC_IA] that has traditionally been used to store "web crawls" as...
, support for user defined style sheets, a "Select Next Link" feature, FTP folder display, ad-blocking improvements, updated localizations, many other small changes and bug fixes.
On February 24, 2009, Omni Group announced that OmniWeb would be made available for free, a change from its previous price of $14.95.
Features
- Separate window form editing: Click the square in the upper right corner of multi line form fields to open it in a separate window. This helps when you wish to add lots of text to an area which is very small and you want to see all of it at once. This feature also allows you to enter tab characters.
- Workspaces: groups of web browser windows and tabs in them. A user can have multiple workspaces for different web research topics and quickly switch between them with a key shortcut or menu choice.
- View Links: By clicking on this button in the toolbar, one can quickly view all the links contained in the page.
- Ad blocking: OmniWeb uses a powerful pattern match ad blocking feature to stop images from loading from servers matching the pattern. It is also possible to block images that don't originate from the current server you are browsing and to block images that match common advertisement sizes.
- Shortcuts: allows one to type a key word or phrase to open a certain web site or begin a specific web search.
- Site preferences: OmniWeb allows you to specify preferences that apply to specific websiteWebsiteA website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s. For example, if you adjust the font size on a given web page, the adjusted font size will be used on all other pages of the same site. Preferences are saved automatically and retained between browsing sessions.
See also
- List of web browsers
- Comparison of web browsersComparison of web browsersThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of web browsers. Please see the individual products' articles for further information.-Historical web browsers:...
- List of feed aggregators
- Comparison of feed aggregatorsComparison of feed aggregatorsThe following is a comparison of notable RSS feed aggregators. Often e-mail programs and web browsers have the ability to display RSS feeds. They are listed here, too.Many BitTorrent clients support RSS feeds for broadcatching ....