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What Was in “A Smattering of Selenium” #95? A 2012 Retrospective

Adam Goucher’s A Smattering of Selenium #95 was a June 2012 link roundup—not Selenium version 95. Here are its ten topics and their historical context.
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“Selenium 95” was not a Selenium software version. It was the 95th installment of Adam Goucher’s A Smattering of Selenium, published June 26, 2012. The post gathered ten links spanning browser testing, cloud execution, proxy debugging, and subjects outside browser automation.

What was in A Smattering of Selenium #95?

Goucher opened the post: “Ok twitterverse. After 2 weeks of very few links a day you explode.” The resulting roundup reflected a broad stream of testing and engineering links circulating in 2012. Its ten items, described here in the context of the original post, were:

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  1. Testing JSF with Arquillian and Selenium: A presentation about testing JavaServer Faces applications. Goucher joked that it “apparently will save the world.”
  2. GhostDriver: almost 50%: An update on GhostDriver, which the post said had gained momentum at SeleniumConf 2012. “Almost 50%” is wording from that linked item’s title, not a verified measurement established by the roundup.
  3. Building and profiling high performance systems with Iago: A Twitter Engineering link. Goucher pointed out that Iago was not browser-based and that the systems it served did not need browsers.
  4. Testing geolocation with Capybara + Selenium + Firefox: A geolocation-testing technique that Goucher said he had not previously considered.
  5. Run your Selenium tests in the cloud with TestingBot: A Java-oriented tutorial illustrating cloud browser-test execution as it was discussed then.
  6. Taming the Mobile Beast: A presentation deck, which Goucher tentatively associated with Velocity.
  7. Netflix open sources Asgard cloud deployment smarts: A link about Netflix cloud-deployment tooling, rather than a Selenium testing technique.
  8. django-skel: A Django project scaffold presented as one way to get a new project started.
  9. Debugging with Fiddler: A link about proxy-based debugging. Goucher called BrowserMob Proxy a then-common Selenium proxy and observed that Fiddler was becoming more common in manual testing.
  10. SQL Fiddle: A web tool for constructing SQL schemas. Goucher raised a caution about letting a web app construct a schema.

What the roundup says about Selenium testing in 2012

Browser testing was only one part of the conversation

JSF testing, geolocation, and cloud execution connect directly to browser automation. The other links range into mobile presentations, deployment, Django scaffolding, proxy debugging, and SQL. Iago is the clearest reminder that the roundup was a general engineering link list, not a catalogue of Selenium features.

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Cloud execution was already a practical topic

The TestingBot link is a historical example of a tutorial on running Selenium tests in the cloud. The post does not establish the service’s present availability, current features, pricing, or suitability. Treat the link as evidence of what developers were discussing in 2012, not a current recommendation.

Proxy debugging crossed testing contexts

The Fiddler item touched both Selenium-related proxy use and manual testing. The roundup’s brief comparison does not establish feature parity, reliability, or present-day maintenance for Fiddler or BrowserMob Proxy.

How to read the links today

  • Use them as a historical snapshot: The original descriptions capture the author’s framing in June 2012, not a current assessment of the linked tools.
  • Do not infer present support: The roundup does not verify whether a third-party project or service remains available, maintained, secure, or compatible with current browsers.
  • Verify current Selenium releases separately: Release information changes independently of this post. Consult the Selenium downloads page and the Selenium releases page for current project information.

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