Neowin.net - Teen's Web Browser Wows Top Geeks

Teen's Web Browser Wows Top Geeks

Posted by Arnaudt on 27 January 2003 - 18:49 · 31 comments & 2103 views

Thanks Bink for the heads up ...

MULLINGAR, Ireland -- A 16-year-old Irish student has startled the Internet world by creating a new Web browser that may -- or may not -- be able to goose browsing times by 600 percent.

But the speed claims for the browser -- which comes with 120 search engines, all the major media players, a DVD player, and an HTML and WAP editor built in -- have drawn criticism because no one has yet been able to clock it. Adnan Osmani, a shy but cheerful student at St. Finian's school in this town about 50 miles from Dublin, spent two years coding what he calls his "Xwebs megabrowser" for an annual Irish school science challenge, the Esat BT Young Scientist of the Year competition.

"I just wanted it faster, for myself," said Osmani, the son of two doctors. "I wanted to make the perfect browser."

Osmani's programming precocity is undoubted, said judges for the competition. Larry Taylor, a judge from the competition's sponsor Esat BT, said Xwebs "is of the level of a final-year project by a university student and would be given the highest marks."

News source: Wired News

Osmani said he has developed an algorithm that speeds up the way information is handled inside the browser. The technique takes advantage of the features of a particular type of server used widely on the Internet.

The browser handles multiple requests for information, he said. So, instead of a single stream of information, several streams are processed simultaneously. In essence, the task of bringing over a Web page is divided into a set of smaller tasks, cutting the time it takes to reassemble a Web page on the computer screen.

But the judges evaluated Osmani's browser without even considering its speed, as they could not independently benchmark it and lacked complete access to the browser's source code, Taylor said.

Osmani won't reveal more of the code because he is exploring the possibility of patenting or copyrighting aspects of his browser. Some judges said they were unsure whether the process would work in the real world, but others believe it could.

One judge, Intel Ireland's head of process engineering, Leonard Hobbs, said: "Certainly the capability is there. The technique he invented seems unique."

But Hobbs de-emphasized the speed claims. "What impressed us most of all is he absolutely knew what he was doing. It was a complete work, a whole." Osmani's project demonstrated "the science of the Web," he said.

MIT principal researcher with Media Lab Europe, Gary McDarby, said he was astonished by the teen's "years ahead" programming skills. Even if the speed claims prove false, McDarby said, "What he's certainly doing conceptually is raising the bar for the commercial companies."

The browser is based on the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer that third-party developers use. But rather than using Visual Basic, Osmani used an older language called Borland C++, which meant he also had to use some Microsoft tools to translate from one language to another.

These processes generate thousands of extra lines of code -- a point raised by critics on sites like Slashdot and Fark, who couldn't see how any single developer could write the one-million-plus lines first claimed for the browser.

Osmani, an entirely self-taught programmer who got his first PC at 10, said his computing heroes are Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak ("because they were hackers and hands-on"), as well as hacker Kevin Mitnick.

The teenager, who says he'd like to attend Harvard University, was inspired to start work on his browser after a previous winner, Sarah Flannery, received worldwide attention for a new cryptographic algorithm. The algorithm eventually proved to be breakable, but only after top international scientists spent months trying to crack it.

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#1 Posted by kairon on 27 Jan 2003 - 18:53: nm

#2 Posted by Mav Phoenix on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:01: Should be interesting to see if it ever becomes a browser for the masses (if it really is as good as they are claiming).

#3 Posted by WeeJames on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:04: umm.. did neowin not report this a few weeks ago.. has their actually been any proof it works yet?

#4 Posted by semifamous on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:05: already posted. Not really NEWs. http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=8404&category=main

#5 Posted by default1206 on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:07: ohh yeah, this is about 2 weeks old. Come on guys, lets keep pur stories up to date.

#6 Posted by jkuy9 on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:17: I won't believe this until I can use it myself. I remember reading a post (I don't think it was on NeoWin) about a group of people who wrote a compression algorithm that could compress random data. However there was no proof and the story just disappeared. I can't help but think that this kid just want's his "15 minute's of fame".

#7 Posted by Justin03248 on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:28: where the hell is this "miracle" browser that one kid developed and MS and Netscape couldn't make in 10 years!!!????

(2 replies) #8 Posted by Arch on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:30: [quote]But rather than using Visual Basic, Osmani used an older language called Borland C++, which meant he also had to use some Microsoft tools to translate from one language to another.[/quote] Isn't Basic much older than C++?

#9 Posted by Smifffy on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:40: i will belive it when i see it

(1 reply) #10 Posted by me101 on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:42: Karlin Lillington, a well respected journalist in Ireland, has an excellent blog, which can be viewed [url=http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/]http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/[/url]. She has some really neat info on this new browser... available here... [url=http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/stories/2003/01/24/competitorPutsJudgesToTheTest.html]http://radio.weblogs.com/0103966/stories/2003/01/24/competitorPutsJudgesToTheTest.html[/url], here is a quick piece which I think is relevant...[list]Adnan (16), who decribes Xwebs as "a megabrowser", spent two years producing about 200,000 lines of code for a browser that folds in direct, browser-based access to 120 search engines and contains five popular media players for sound and video - Quicktime, RealOne, Windows Media player, MCI and Flash Video. He also added a DVD player that can be enlarged to fill the screen or miniaturised into a small window. And it has a talking character named Phoebe, who welcomes you by name at start-up, guides a user through some of the processes of the browser, and can read a Webpage out loud for children or the sight-impaired. The browser is based on the basic form of Microsoft's Internet Explorer that third-party developers would use. Rather than using Visual Basic, the language Microsoft developers would usually use to program for IE, Adnan used an older language called Borland C++, which meant he also had to use some Microsoft tools to translate from one language to another. These processes generate thousands of extra lines of code - a point raised by some critics who couldn't see how any single developer could write the number of lines claimed for the browser. He says the browser goes through the normal process of making a request to the internet for a Web page, going through the PC and its modem, through an internet service provider and then out to the computers in the internet's vast network. The data for the page begin to come back to the browser but the browser tells that standard process to stop and starts to process incoming information in a new way. Adnan says the browser handles multiple requests for the information. Instead of a single stream of information, several streams are handled at once. In essence, the task of bringing over a Web page is divided into a set of smaller tasks, cutting the time it takes to reassemble a Web page on the PC's screen.[/list]

#11 Posted by Oogle on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:51: As long as it's W3C standards-compliant, it's all good.

#12 Posted by Solarix on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:52: OMG no way wait i dont care º_0

#13 Posted by yashiro on 27 Jan 2003 - 19:58: And we can see this for ourselves? No downloads eh?

#14 Posted by dduardo on 27 Jan 2003 - 21:26: Is is coincidence that Osmani's name is so similiar to Osama. I think Al-Queda is behind this browser. Once installed on everyones computer it will destroy the Internet. MUAHAHA

(1 reply) #15 Posted by OPaul on 27 Jan 2003 - 21:49: How did blink get credit for something I posted? [url=http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=82c49584ec6352a3b430fb9e515f01f1&act=ST&f=8&t=59452&st=30&#entry627629]http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?s=82c49584ec6352a3b430fb9e515f01f1&act=ST&f=8&t=59452&st=30&#entry627629[/url]

#16 Posted by pctuk on 27 Jan 2003 - 21:53: Leak to irc, leak to irc, leak to irc

#17 Posted by paulhaskew on 27 Jan 2003 - 21:59: interesting assanine comments... if it proves true we will see, if not then just another punk teenage kid who has lied to the world, that is nothing new

#18 Posted by aznx on 27 Jan 2003 - 22:04: man you'd think he could atleast give a copy to the public to see, and hurry up his freakin patenting..blah, the guys such a joke

#19 Posted by netizen on 27 Jan 2003 - 23:01: [quote]Adnan says the browser handles multiple requests for the information. Instead of a single stream of information, several streams are handled at once. In essence, the task of bringing over a Web page is divided into a set of smaller tasks, cutting the time it takes to reassemble a Web page on the PC's screen.[/quote] It's called synchronous DNS, surely?

#20 Posted by mintll on 27 Jan 2003 - 23:32: Hmm I think i would rather spend time finding a girl friend

#21 Posted by MxxCon on 27 Jan 2003 - 23:55: Arnaudt, perhaps you should give credit to somebody who actually posted this story 1st?

#22 Posted by WD-40 on 28 Jan 2003 - 00:33: lets just get a hold of this browser instead of brow beating each other ..

(2 replies) #23 Posted by bluebsh on 28 Jan 2003 - 01:23: I've been a programmer and systems analyst for a while now, and that type of application basicly would not fit into 200,000 lines of code. The app has too many features on it to be under that number if it has that many extras built into it also.

#24 Posted by icie on 28 Jan 2003 - 05:58: I don't know why the majority of your comments are negative. Have we gotten to the stage where we can only show cynicism for the innovative achievements of others? There is a reasonably high probability that this news is in fact true. It's not like he was "showing" off to the world. He didn't call up journalists and start blabbing about it without prior verification. He did it for an official competition. As such, there must have been other people, the judges to verify the code and content. In addition, why should there be such a hurry for him to "release it to public"? If the news source is to be trusted, he wrote/generated the entire code himself. As such, there are likely to be bugs. Also, anyone else here would feel uncomfortable making such a major work and effort public so quickly, when it is likely that others can and will steal or copy part of his innovations. It is only natural to wait till more bugs are ironed out and to secure the proper patents for his work.

#25 Posted by nicuramar on 28 Jan 2003 - 21:25: I think there is a VERY high probability that this is a hoax. There are simply too many things that don't fit, and too many contradictive pieces of information about this story on the web. In one place, the guy hadn't tested the speed himself, in another he claimed he had to cap it at 6x, because 7x crashed the browser (itself a pretty absurd thing, not really indicating a high skill of the programmer). And you could go on and on, other places claim that it's written in an "older language called Borland C++" and then, it would seem, translated into ..VisualBasic? this is absurd!. But indeed, if it is just a wrapper for InternetExplorer (claimed on other sites), then 780,000 lines of code or whatever is ridiculously MUCH. It sounds like it's just a lot of more or less useless gimicks built into an IE frame (like watching DVD's in the browers sidebar! As if you couldn't open a seperate program, not mentioning who would want to watch DVD's while browsing in the first place). As for the few technical bits of information, they sound like pseudoscientific nonesense or fancy explanations of trivial things already done several times before. And of course we completely lack experts having any well founded opinions and analysis of the browser. I am not trying to be cynic, but... looked at realistically, it simply sounds like bogus. The last line of information about this project I picked up: "It can talk to the user and will also translate a web page into the language of your choice.". Judge for yourselves :-).

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