Dolphin Browser is a

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

for the

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

operating systems developed by MoboTap Inc. It was one of the first alternative browsers for the Android platform that introduced support for

multi-touch In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...

gestures. Dolphin Browser uses its native platform's default

browser engine A browser engine (#Name and scope, also known as a layout engine or rendering engine) is a core software component of every major web browser. The primary job of a browser engine is to transform HTML documents and other resources of a web page in ...

Features

Being a WebKit-based browser, Dolphin Browser supports most web standards. It also supports tabbed browsing, the ability to open and switch between multiple web pages at the same time. Another main component of the user interface are voice controls and gestures. It is able to cache web content for offline use, and synchronise data across devices. Add-ons are applications that can be used to extend Dolphin Browser's capabilities, and can be installed from within the browser.

Versions

Both iOS and Android versions are

proprietary software Proprietary software is software that is deemed within the free and open-source software to be non-free because its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner exercises a legal monopoly afforded by modern copyright and int ...

and are distributed for free. There is an advanced version called ''Dolphin Browser'' for Android 2.0 or later. Dolphin Browser Beta was released in May 2012 with the in-house

HTML5 HTML5 is a markup language used for structuring and presenting content on the World Wide Web. It is the fifth and final major HTML version that is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommendation. The current specification is known as the HTML ...

engine Jetpack. In December 2013, Dolphin Zero, a privacy-focused version, was released.

Privacy concerns

In October 2011, privacy concerns were raised about Dolphin browser after it was discovered that all

URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL), colloquially termed as a web address, is a reference to a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network and a mechanism for retrieving it. A URL is a specific type of Uniform Resource Identifie ...

s loaded in Dolphin HD were being relayed as plain text to a remote server, a process described by

Ars Technica ''Ars Technica'' is a website covering news and opinions in technology, science, politics, and society, created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews, and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, sci ...

as "an unambiguous

breach of privacy Privacy law is the body of law that deals with the regulating, storing, and using of personally identifiable information, personal healthcare information, and financial information of individuals, which can be collected by governments, public o ...

". This breach was patched in the next update.

Reception

The Android and iOS versions have been lauded for their gesture-based functionality, speed and ease-of-use. ''

Business Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German publ ...

'' claims "Dolphin Browser blows Safari out of the water." As of December 2021, the browser holds an approval rate of 78% on rating aggregator site Rouvou. In 2011, it was ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

''s best free iPhone and iPad Apps of 2011, also mentioned in the

CNET ''CNET'' (short for "Computer Network") is an American media website that publishes reviews, news, articles, blogs, podcasts, and videos on technology and consumer electronics globally. ''CNET'' originally produced content for radio and televi ...

100, a ''PC Magazine'' Editors Choice in 2012.

References

External links

* {{Web browsers, mobile Mobile web browsers Android web browsers iOS web browsers Software based on WebKit 2011 software Android (operating system) software