Articles about Browser

Copyfish is a free Chrome extension for extracting and translating text from images, videos, PDFs and more.

The package couldn’t be any easier to use. Click the Copyfish icon on your address bar, click and drag to draw a rectangle around your text, and wait: the OCR result is displayed in a few seconds, along with a translated version.

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Microsoft should not be surprised to see Windows 10 users ignoring its Edge browser, or other stock programs for that matter. People will do that, especially when there is an alternative that better suits their needs. But, as a new leaked build shows, Microsoft does not want to give up the fight just yet.

Windows 10 users who want to switch away Microsoft Edge (or some of the stock apps) might soon get a prompt, asking them to give the program a chance while listing some of its main features. But, at this point, this feels like a terrible idea, one that will surely annoy users and make them ignore Microsoft's efforts in the future, no matter how good its software might be.

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Mozilla will kill "most" NPAPI plugins in Firefox almost two years after Google took the same action with Chrome. Back in September 2014, Google announced that NPAPI support would be removed starting in January 2015. Mozilla is now playing catch-up, and plans to end NPAPI support by the end of 2016.

When Google announced its decision, speed, stability, and security were cited as reasons for ditching plugins, and Mozilla is taking much the same line. The company also points out that many features and functions that only used to be possible through the use of NPAPI plugins can now be achieved through native web APIs. But what is this going to mean for users?

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Launching a new web browser was always going to be a risk. Microsoft used Windows 10 as a launch pad for Edge, shedding the shackles of Internet Explorer in a bid to take on the likes of Chrome and Firefox.

Sadly for Microsoft, new figures show that Edge is failing to make inroads into Google's and Mozilla's market shares. Analysis performed by Quantcast shows that in the US just 12 percent of Windows 10 users are using Edge, while Chrome is sitting pretty with a greater than 70 percent share.

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Reviews can be an important factor in deciding which app or extension to install. The idea of user reviews is something that has been adopted by Apple in its App Store, and is also used by Microsoft and in Google Play. The Chrome Web Store also features reviews, and a new feature has just been added that could make them more useful than ever -- the ability for developers to respond.

This is an important change as it gives developers the right of reply. When reading a review written by someone you almost certainly don't know, it can be hard to tell if their opinion should be trusted. Did they rate the app or extension poorly because there is a problem with it, or did they not understand how to do something. Giving developers the chance to reply to reviews allows for greater transparency and allows others to see that the developer in question is reading feedback -- but it may not all be good news.

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Bing may now be the default search engine in Microsoft Edge, but that is about to change for Windows 10 users in China. Microsoft has announced that it will replace Bing with a local alternative, making its new browser a more attractive option to Windows 10 users in the country.

The new default search engine -- and homepage -- in Microsoft Edge will be Baidu, which Microsoft says has over 600 million active users. In turn, according to Microsoft, Baidu's "'Windows 10 Express' will make it easy for Chinese Internet users to download an official Windows 10 experience".

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Skype has announced that Microsoft’s new web browser, Edge, will soon support Skype voice and video calls without the need for a plugin.

This will work for new versions of both Skype for Web and Skype for Outlook.com, and should be implemented "later this year". Considering that this year has just over three months to go, it’s safe to assume it will come pretty fast.

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Browser stability is a big issue, and it's something that can very easily sway choices. A bug has been discovered in Chrome which crashes the browser if a user visits a particular URL -- 16 characters is all it takes to kill Google's web browser.

The problem is reported as affecting Chrome 45 and older, although it also seems to all kill version 47 on the Dev channel. The issue stems from the inclusion of a NULL character in the URL and has already been reported to Google.

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Ad-blockers are proving to be extremely popular with the early adopters of iOS 9. Shortly after the operating system's debut, Peace skyrocketed to the top of the paid apps chart on Apple's App Store, taking Minecraft: Pocket Edition's place on the podium, while rival Purify Blocker has risen to fourth place.

Current leader Peace is the work of iOS developer Marco Arment, best known for the popular read-it-later app Instapaper. Since Peace will surely get the attention of many more users, let's take a look at what it has to offer.

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Opera Software has unveiled Opera 32 FINAL, a new release of its desktop browser for Windows, Mac and Linux, with an Android update due to follow.

Version 32 is another build light on major new features, with the company keen to promote its recent acquisition of the SurfEasy VPN service. What has been added is password sync, a new view for bookmarks and support for animated background themes.

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Chrome has long been maligned as a huge drain on system resources. Open more than a few tabs and you'll notice that memory usage skyrockets, and performance can slow to a crawl. Run Chrome on a laptop that's not connected to mains power, and you've probably seen the battery meter plummet whenever you use the browser.

Now -- at long, long last -- Google is doing something about it. The latest version of Chrome boasts a number of improvements designed to reduce the browser's footprint, including a new intelligent tab restoration system that keeps the least viewed tabs suspended in the background until needed. Chrome 45 is also far more aggressive at actively cleaning up memory.

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Android developers looking to include web content in their apps have a new option available to them that will help to greatly improve performance. The new (for the stable branch, at least) 'custom tabs' feature makes it possible to pre-load pages in the background resulting in load times that are a fraction of using WebView or firing up Chrome separately.

The feature can be used by developers to use their own app to change the way Chrome looks and feels, effectively blurring the move from app to the web. In addition to the speed advantages, custom tabs also bring improved security to apps, and provide users with a more familiar browsing experience.

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Google has come a long way over the years, but one thing has remain remarkably simple: its logo. There have been various designs for the six, colorful letters and today the company has taken the wraps off the latest version... complete with an uppercase G!

It's going to take a while for some people to get used to, but the clean, sans serif look of the new logo is simultaneously modern and retro. But today's announcement is about more than the main logo -- this is the launch of a new 'identity family'. In addition to the main logo, there's also a new four-color G icon, as well as similarly-colored imagery for other elements.

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You've found a great new Chrome extension. Installing it only takes a click, but if you're not quite sure what it's doing, whether it's safe, you might want to take a look at its source code, first.

Chrome Extension Source Viewer (CSEV) is a free extension which makes it easy to inspect the innards of other Chrome add-ons.

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The writing has been on the wall for Flash for some time now. A web technology loathed for countless reasons -- not least the security issues -- the death knell is now tolling loudly as HTML5 is more widely embraced.

Back in June, Google announced that Chrome would pause Flash ads in its browser by default, helping to eliminate a major online annoyance. Now the company has outlined when this will happen -- and there are only a few days to wait.

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