It often amuses me when people say one browser is greater than another. In truth, some browsers are without a doubt better than others: pretty much everything is better than Internet Explorer 6&7, and its pretty easy to argue Internet Explorer 8 as well. The latest browsers, however, do have some interesting things to offer. In VRIM, no one browser can utilize every bonus feature included. More fuel to the fire? Why not!

Internet Explorer 9 API

Internet Explorer 9 makes excellent use of the Windows 7 Taskbar APIs. As a Linux user, I must say I'd rather like to see another browser do this cross-platform (c'mon KDE, add your own API). In the meantime, IE9's propertiary API does shine. If you make VRIM an IE9 application, both the main tasks and all favourited rooms will be shown on right click. The icon also glows when you receive a new message =D

Works In: Internet Explorer 9

Bing Bing
Ah, how I love spring. ...And its winter. Oh well, whenever a new message is received in VRIM and you're not there to see it, the wonderful sound of a raindroplet can be heard. It can also be easily muted using the speaker icon, and turned down/up via controls offered through Windows Vista/7 and most recent variants of Linux. (Not sure about Mac)

Works In: Firefox, Chrome, Opera

Flashy Flashy
The bing is good, but you can never tell what room it comes from. In supported browsers, the icon will also flash telling you of new messages. Of course, this only really helps when you have the browser open, but at t

Works In: Chrome

Upload Previews
When you upload a file to VRIM, a variety of browser-specific features are used to both give you a preview and determine if the file is too large for the server. These save time and help to avoid any extra strain on bandwidth.

Works In: Firefox, Chrome




A few other features were also sprinkled throughout that only work on certain browsers. Many of the features listed will be coming to other browsers in time most likely (such as the file previews), but enough others won't: IE and Safari refuse to implement Ogg Theora audio for the bing effect (and the former doesn't support the HTML5 Audio APIs).

In the end, its just having fun with certain "bonus" features. Chrome, amusingly, supports the most.