Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Multi-browser

Browser which can launch other browsers...without making separate windows
 
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A few web browsers provide support for opening specific pages using other web browsers, often as a plug-in. However, this does not go far enough, because it means one is using separate windows for the different browsers.

I propose a specialized browser which converts the new windows produced by other browsers into tabs within its own program. Such a trick is probably not so simple, but it should be doable, especially if only a few browsers are supported. The browser would provide support for viewing pages in other browsers, and would probably ideally provide plugins for each browser to enable them to launch pages by calling the overall browser (or the overall browser could examine the resources of the browser running in it, hide the address bar from that browser, and stick use its own address bar.

The basic ideal is to be able to transparently open pages in different browsers without feeling like one is running multiple browsers. One could also go a step further by giving the program multiple rendering engines which it could use as the user wished, though of course the footprint would grow when using multiple engines at once.

aguydude, Mar 18 2008

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       So you have halfbakery.com open in a Firefox window, and you open this idea in a new tab which shows an Opera window? Why? Are you charged per inch for using the space on your taskbar?
angel, Mar 18 2008
  

       I remember when I was using Konqueror I could set up the browser identification string to different things based on domain name. For a while I had it telling halfbakery.com that I was using wget. So it didn't do what you are asking for, but it lied and said it was.
lurch, Mar 18 2008
  

       Firefox has an extension allowing IE to be used in a tab. To me, that sounds more or less the same as what you want. There's also a Lynx-lookalike plug-in, and Opera can emulate a text browser (though not Lynx for some reason).
nineteenthly, Mar 18 2008
  

       This is an absurd workaround for browser incompatibility - if you're going so far as to fix your browser to embed other browsers, you could fix the incompatibility that was causing the problems!
DrCurry, Mar 18 2008
  

       It isn't ideal, but there are reasons for doing this. If a site through which you want to or have to make a payment will only work with IE, for instance, there may be no option, but rather than going all the way and using IE, and consequently crashing your computer while making a crucial transaction, or being forced to use a current version of Windows when one can't afford to buy a new computer or wants to do one's bit for the environment by using an older one, one might want to emulate IE. However, it's also encumbent on someone else to make it more accessible.
nineteenthly, Mar 18 2008
  

       //you could fix the incompatibility that was causing the problems!// [DrCurry], how 'bout you post that as an idea so that we can [m-f-d]-WIBNI the heck out of it.
lurch, Mar 18 2008
  

       Another bake, from back around when this was posted: Chrome Frame for Internet Explorer.
notexactly, Mar 18 2018
  

       [+] How bout an IE frame for Firefox.
FlyingToaster, Mar 18 2018
  
      
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