It goes to show how big this one country is and the “special features” it requires to jump over or be “compatible” with the Great China Firewall. Having been in and out of China the last 6-7 years, I have to admit, it still gives me surprises every single day. Yet, the whole world is flocking there, only because there are no better places and no better markets at the moment….
Sogou, the search engine service under Sohu, today released a Internet browser, Sogou Browser. It is an IE kernel-based browser with some features to improve users experience.
Sogou Browser claims that it is using a multi-task asynchronous browsing technology which can make each tab browse the web independently. When a tab is crashed, other tabs will not be affected, which is similar to Google Chrome. To provide better online video-watching experience, Sogou Browser enable you to play only flash video on a web page in an independent windows, which can be put on top of all other windows and can be resize freely, then you can watch videos which you are browsing other tabs.
To address the Internet usage problem of China’s university students, Sogou Browser has an embedded proxy feature. In China, students in Universities are using CERNET (China Education and Research Network), which does not allow them to access overseas websites freely. Sogou Browser adds a proxy which enable users inside CERNET to access overseas websites.
Actually, Internet browser is an important software segment in China. There are several browsers in China which are using IE kernel, the most famous one is Maxthon which has been downloaded for over 177 million times, and on the list of top 10 international products of 2008 by ReadWriteWeb. Tencent also has its IE kernel browser called Tencent Traveler(TT). Another one is The World, Qihoo released a safe browser early this year based on The World and Qihoo 360safe security software. Even on mobile applications, there is a very popular Chinese mobile browser called UCWeb. Besides those local-made browser, both Firefox and Opera also want to take more shares in China market by offering special Chinese version. Last month, Firefox launched a Firefox China Version specially made for Chinese users. Opera released its China version just in last week.
