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.\"
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....
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http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,57393,00.htmlHe is only two years older than me.... Maybe people that are younger than you are smarter than you. :O
