Articles about Browser

You’re browsing with Chrome, and have found a great video. Ideally you’d watch it all, uninterrupted, but there’s other work to do, and so you have to resize all your various windows to fit.

ScreenOut is a Chrome extension which gives you another option. Click an address bar button and the video opens in a floating, always-on-top pane. Then you can switch to some other application while still watching the clip.

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The Internet Explorer replacement Microsoft Edge is one of the headline features of Windows 10. With security at the heart of Microsoft's latest operating system, and the general concern about online safety, it makes sense to put the web browser under the microscope to see how it fares against the competition.

This is exactly what security analysts at Trend Labs have done. While the team concedes that Microsoft Edge beats Firefox's security and roughly draws level with Chrome's, the new web browser also introduces new security problems and threat vectors.

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Customer identity management firm Gigya has released its Q2 "landscape of customer identity" figures, showing how consumers are using third party identity providers such as Facebook and Google+ to log into other websites.

Facebook continued its dominance, now controlling two-thirds of all social logins, followed by Google+ (20 percent), Twitter (six percent) and Yahoo (four percent).

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Obviously Microsoft’s Edge browser is the new default choice in Windows 10, and it’s definitely worth giving it a try. I’ve found it to be speedy and surprisingly good. Persevere long enough and you might grow to like it as I have.

That said, if you prefer to use Chrome or Firefox, with all the add-ons and customizations in place, I really couldn’t blame you. Edge isn’t (yet) as flexible, and if you already use Google or Mozilla’s browser for syncing content between devices, then it makes sense to use the same browser in Windows 10. Here’s how to setup a rival browser as the default option.

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Following the release of the Undo Send option last month, Gmail users can now also delete sent emails.

Through a new Chrome extension called Dmail, users will be able to use a self-destruct option, which deletes sent mails after a stipulated period of time.

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With the current concerns about surveillance and privacy, more and more people are turning to anonymizing tools. The existence of unknown numbers of spying tools means that increasing numbers of people are turning to the likes of Tor to keep their online activities private.

But encryption systems such as those used by The Onion Relay have a horrible tendency to slow things down. A new encryption system called HORNET could be a solution. Its creators say that data transfer speeds of up to 93GBps are possible, with much of the acceleration coming from a reduction in the number of hops data has to make around the network.

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Google has had enough of websites that present viewers with annoying adverts that try to trick users into downloading downright ridiculous tools on their computers. The Mountain View-based giant announces today that it will now more aggressively block unwanted software (UwS) over the coming weeks in Chrome.

Over the years, these unwanted tools have aggressively grown on the web, especially on shady websites. The fraudsters behind these tools use misleading adverts to trick users into downloading and installing their bogus applications.

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Chrome users who download torrents may be thinking about switching to a different browser. Google's web browser is now blocking access to a number of big name torrent sites. This is not a case of Google taking the moral high ground about the rights and wrongs of torrenting, but part of the search giant's security program to protect users from "harmful programs".

Starting yesterday, downloaders found that access was blocked to ExtraTorrent and KickassTorrents, although the block was later lifted. The block remains in place for other torrent sites including kat.cr. Upon attempting to visit an affected site, would-be torrenters are greeted by a red, full-screen security warning that advises of the potential danger of the site in question.

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Firefox is set to introduce a host of new features in an attempt to win back users. The web browser, developed by Mozilla, has seen its usage share fall steadily since 2010 as other browsers, notable Google Chrome, have become more popular.

In an email to Firefox developers, the browser’s director of engineering Dave Camp outlined the Three Pillars of the new Firefox, features that he hopes will ensure that the next release is the best it can possibly be.

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Mozilla has unveiled the latest version of Firefox, 39.0 for Windows, OS X and Linux PCs, along with Firefox for Android 39.0.

The new desktop build adds a social invite tool for its Firefox Hello chat feature while implementing a number of improvements and security features for Mac OS X and Linux.

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Facebook has added security firm Kaspersky Lab to its roster of antivirus companies protecting its users from malicious software, the social media site has announced.

In a blog post by Facebook Security, the company said it is keeping users’ computers safe just by using Facebook, in the way that Kaspersky Lab, together with the likes of ESET, F-Secure and Trend Micro, runs a clean-up tool in the background while you use the social network.

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Google has removed an extension from its open source browser Chromium after people complained that it had been downloaded without permission and then listened to users through their microphones. The Chrome Hotword extension was used by Chromium to offer "OK, Google" voice activation to the browser.

Privacy advocates were concerned about the potential for eavesdropping, particularly in light of the fact that users were not warned of the presence of the extension. There was also concern that the extension is not open source, so it was not possible to see exactly what it was doing. In response to complaints, Chrome Hotword has now been made an optional component.

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It seems as Google’s software, with the ability to listen everything being said in a room, was being installed on computers without the owners’ consent, and everyone’s freaking out about it.

It was first spotted by open-source developers who noticed that Chromium (open-source basis of Chrome) began remotely installing audio-snooping code that was capable of listening to users, The Guardian wrote in a report.

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It’s no secret that Chrome for Mac hogs more resources than Safari. The browser by Google has been receiving heat from experts and users alike for shortening their laptop's battery life by 2-3 hours. The good news is that the company finally seems committed to resolving these glitches.

Earlier this month the Mountain View-based giant took its first major step at bringing improvements to its browser when it announced that Chrome will begin to automatically pause flash content on web-pages if a user hasn’t looked at it in a while. The company is now sharing other efforts it is making to improve Chrome.

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The next update to Apple’s mobile web browser Safari will include a way to block annoying ads, working similar to AdBlock Plus on desktop browsers.

Under the banner of user experience, Apple promoted the new loading system capable of blocking JavaScript, cookies and even images from displaying. The system came to the desktop version of Safari first. Users will be able to opt-in to this experience on iOS 9.

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