Student’s browser taps into success

HE invented the world’s fastest internet browser - now he looks set to become one of the country’s youngest millionaires.

Adnan Osmani, who was 17 on Monday, was named the Esat BT Young Scientist of the Year for his XWebs product. The commercial interest in his computer software could mean he will be set up for life before he gets the chance to vote.

The browser he spent two years developing is more than twice as fast as the best on the market - including Apple’s Safari or Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

“I’ve had interest from different companies, like Microsoft and Intel, but I won’t talk to them until September,” said Adnan, who is preparing for his Leaving Certificate this summer.

“Some are interested in partnership deals, and others want to buy the copyright for the product. I’m not sure what kind of money will be involved, but I’m sure it will be a seven-figure sum,” he said.

The student at St Finian’s College in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, picked up the Young Scientist prize in January, just a month after completing exams for a computer engineering place at Harvard University.

The software on his XWebs browser can load the heaviest of websites in less than 18 seconds, compared to over a minute on Internet Explorer. It also has an animated character who reads web pages, and a feature which translates foreign websites into English.

He now has a legal firm working on the copyright and patenting for his revolutionary work.

While he has tried to avoid the limelight in the run-up to his exams, his new-found fame has led to interviews with CNN, BBC, the Wall Street Journal and dozens of other international media groups in the last two months.

Adnan’s Pakistani father and Saudi Arabian mother are both doctors and he developed an interest in computers because all the moving around made it hard for him to make friends.

Since his success in January he is being stopped in the street for photographs and autographs. But he hasn’t let it all go to his head too much.

“I’ve tried to keep things normal as I can, especially when I’m studying for the Leaving. All I’ll say is, the attention is really nice.”