BrowserPlus™ (sneak peek)

Yahoo! BrowserPlus™ is software that extends the capabilities of your web browser to make richer web experiences possible. Different websites can use BrowserPlus to support things like drag and drop from the desktop, easier file uploads, more efficient and secure acquisition of feeds and information, and native desktop notifications. BrowserPlus is a technology designed to "extend the web," so that developers can build more exciting web applications and so end-users can get more done inside their web browser.

Today you can explore our demo applications which include an advanced in-page Flickr photo uploader, a browser based IRC (chat) Client, and a developer tool for exploring Web Services output. Developers can also explore our APIs and test code samples. Given that this is only a "sneak peek" of our capabilities and offerings, we encourage you to stop by again soon for more.

Yahoo! is interested in open, industry-leading platforms that attract the most publishers and developers. An important part of that ecosystem includes the client-side tools those developers use to develop content. Until today, YUI has been primary offering to this audience. BrowserPlus is the next step in providing solutions to browser-based web development.

BrowserPlus has been in development for about a year at Yahoo! and we're anxious to introduce it to the community. Moreover, we are eager to put the platform in front of you and get your feedback. Without this input, the evolution of BrowserPlus remains closed.

One of the restrictions of this release is that BrowserPlus can only run on sites operated by Yahoo! or its partners. Once we're confident that the system is safe for users when hosted on any site (even potentially malicious sites), and that users have all the proper controls over use of BrowserPlus on their computer - we'll open it up. The "sneak peek" is a way to balance the desire for openness and the risk of exposing users to a new dynamic web-enabled software model.

BrowserPlus is designed to be installed by the sites that use it. We encourage you to let one of our demos or the Service Explorer guide you through the process.

Currently we support these operating systems:

• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Mac OS X 10.4, Tiger (intel only)
• Mac OS X 10.5, Leopard (intel only)

On Mac we support Firefox 2 (or greater) and Safari 3

On Windows, we support Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 2 (or greater).

Extending the breadth of platform support in BrowserPlus is a key goal, and we will continue to extend it to run in more places.

Check the top right corner of this page. If BrowserPlus is installed, you'll see the current version number displayed under the search box.

The uninstallation process depends on your operating system.

For Mac OS X, run the script in your home folder. It is located at:

/Users/[your home]/Applications/Yahoo!/BrowserPlus/UninstallBrowserPlus

Under Windows (XP or Vista), there is an uninstaller located in your "My Documents" folder, under:

My Documents\Yahoo!\BrowserPlus

You can also remove BrowserPlus from Windows from the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel.

Regardless of the operating system, the uninstaller will remove every trace of BrowserPlus from your system, including previous versions and any settings or preferences that have been set while you've used BrowserPlus-powered sites.

Security is a major focus of BrowserPlus. Extending the browser is tricky business, and a lot of thought has gone into the set of restrictions that prevent websites from damaging your computer or accessing your files. To address security, we've followed the same web security precedent set by browser developers .

We've taken pains in building BrowserPlus to ensure that authorized sites may access data on your computer on your behalf while unauthorized sites may not. Protecting your privacy has been a primary goal throughout development.

This said, anytime you install a web browser plugin or an application on your computer, you are trusting that the authors of that software were diligent in protecting your privacy. We honor the trust that our users put in us and strive to uphold our end of the bargain.

Any BrowserPlus service (or even the system itself) can be restricted from use immediately by Yahoo! if a security risk is exposed. Better yet, because of the dynamic nature of the system, updates can be released and made available to users just as quickly. The result to you, the user, is that if a flaw is found you'll be required to approve an update the next time you use a site that might expose the flaw. The update experience will be just a seamless as the first time you activated services for that site.

First and foremost, most of BrowserPlus runs separately from your browser so we can minimize the impact and shut it down quickly when you don't need it. As an added bonus, that means BrowserPlus will rarely (and we hope never) affect the speed or stability of your day-to-day browsing.

In addition:

• If the sites you visit never use a particular BrowserPlus service, it will never be run. Only built-in services and those you approve in a Service Update can be run.
• A service starts running the moment that you visit a site that uses BrowserPlus, and shuts down when you leave.
• If you visit multiple sites that all use BrowserPlus we only start up one copy of the software, even across multiple browsers.

Don't just take our word for it - we encourage you to fire up Activity Monitor (Mac) or Task Manger (Windows) and let us know how we are doing. The background program you're looking for is called BrowserPlusCore.

During the "sneak peek," BrowserPlus can only used on sites owned by Yahoo! or its partners. Our first full public release will make BrowserPlus available for use by 3rd party developers.

At this point we assume you've already got a service in mind you want to use. Reviewing the code samples can also help you plan out how you would integrate use of our JavaScript library into your site. Still, if you are eager and interested in launching something, we are interested in working with early partners - just shoot us a note.

The main reason we're offering BrowserPlus to external developers, and why we're offering this preview today, is because we're committed to building an open platform that benefits the developer community. We will never charge developers for the use of the platform, and will to continue to incrementally open the platform for developers to use and extend.

BrowserPlus is currently restricted for use on Yahoo! sites. This includes security restrictions for running local files in the browser as well. We don't recommend you to change these security settings on your copy of BrowserPlus, but be advised that if you do, the security settings will be reset at regular intervals.