Christmas Browser 97 Leads Wave of Custom Browsers

Posted on December 9, 1997

Maximized Software, Inc., released Christmas Browser 97, a fully customized web browser that provides a festive holiday user interface for surfing the World Wide Web.

Christmas Browser 97 builds a custom user interface on top of the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and offers numerous enhancements over a traditional browser. For example, the user desktop shows a holiday scene, while snow gently falls. Browsing session history is represented by a string of bulbs around the embedded browser window, allowing the user to quickly see a history of their session and to jump to any other page. The program also comes with a range of seasonal songs, in the popular MIDI format. Users can easily add new songs to Christmas Browser by dragging and dropping a MIDI file directly from a web page.

In addition, Christmas Browser 97 is one of the first major applications to license Agent technology from Microsoft. "We wanted to use Agent in Christmas Browser 97 because we felt that it would add to the user experience," said Ken Spreitzer, President of Maximized Software. Christmas Browser makes use of Agent technology to provide audible feedback when web pages are fully loaded, as well as other useful hints. Spreitzer observed, "Users love it!"

Christmas Browser 97 is available for immediate download from the Maximized Software web site. Shareware registration is $20. Registered users obtain additional Agent characters, music files, and other program options.