BEIJING, Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Maxthon International this week posted a new beta version of its namesake browser, Maxthon 2.5.1, that includes a feature -- The Isolator, that separates the functions of each Web tab from all other tabs and other parts of the browser. The Isolator protects other tabs from also becoming frozen because a single unresponsive tab is monopolizing a computer's resources.
Maxthon's engineers redesigned the browser's framework so that each tab associated with a Web site works independent of each other. With that new architecture, if a tab becomes unresponsive for any reason, the other tabs and the browser are unaffected. The computer user can continue to browse normally and can refresh, reopen, or close the tab that is creating problems.
"Basically, our technology separates the tab and the browser," said Jeff Chen, CEO of Maxthon. "That why the tab's problem will not affect the browser's performance, and so the browser can be a better environment to run Web application in tabs.
"As far as I know, no other major browser has such a feature," Chen said.
Test pages at http://maxthon.com/test/ provide different examples of tabs that can halt the activity of all the tabs in a browser. One shows a page where a script cannot load a Flash animation. Another emulates the effect of a tab hung on a script that has entered an endless loop. See the accompanying blog entry, "Guidelines for Testing Maxthon Isolator Technology" for a complete description of all the tests.
The effects of the test pages stop automatically after several seconds so that they can be controlled by browsers that do not have Isolator technology.
Chen explained that tab freezes most often occur in specific situations:
When the tab is busy loading a lot of content, it will sometimes freeze. Chen said Microsoft Internet Explorer often suffers from this.
When a message box, such as an alert or warning, pops up on the page a user cannot switch to other tab without dismissing the box. All major browsers have this problem, Chen said.
When the tab has some other control, such as a Flash game, that is using a lot of processing time, the tab it is in may freeze, bringing down the browser's other tabs with it, a common occurrence in other major browsers, Chen said.
The new version, designated 2.5.1.4751, includes other fixes, changes, and improvements. Among them are improved plug-in security, and a "save as" function in the Collector, Maxthon's build in, tabbed notepad.
Maxthon with Isolator technology is available for download at http://dl.maxthon.cn/mx2/mx_2.5.1.4751.exe . The Isolator is considered to be in advanced beta in this version, and COM plug-ins originally designed for Internet Explorer have been disabled. Older versions of Maxthon without Isolator may be downloaded from the Maxthon archives at http://www.maxthon.com/download.htm . All versions of Maxthon are free.
Maxthon has some 10 million users in China, and more than 2 million in the rest of the world.
Don't just surf the Web. Seize it!
