Articles about Browser

With more and more people expressing concern about privacy and security online, companies have had to start to take notice and deliver tools to help. This is particularly noticeable in the browser market, and with the latest version of Chrome, Google has doubled down on security.

Having tested DNS over HTTPS (DoH) for some time, Google has added enhanced support for DNS lookups over an encrypted HTTPS connection to Chrome 83.  In the Windows, macOS and Linux versions of the browser, Google's implementation of the security feature is called Secure DNS; here's how to use it.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 76.0 for Windows, macOS and Linux, the latest in its long line of major updates to the venerable open source browser.

The chief focus in this new release is the further development of Mozilla’s Lockwise password manager. Users gain several enhancements including alerts of website breaches with prompts to update all online accounts that share the same password.

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It’s a day of double celebration for fans of the Vivaldi web browser. Not only does Vivaldi 3.0 get released for Windows, Mac and Linux, but the company -- led by Opera co-founder Jon S von Tetzchner -- unveils the first stable release of Vivaldi for Android.

Both releases come with a brand new feature in the guise of built-in ad and tracker blockers. The desktop release also unveils a new clock for its status bar, plus improvements to its pop-out video feature.

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Avast has launched an Android version of its security- and privacy-focused web browser. Avast Secure Browser features various DNS options and a built-in VPN to calm the fears of those concerned about their privacy.

This is not all the browser has to offer. There's also anti-tracking technology and complete data encryption to take care of the security side of things as well.

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Google Chrome is still the leader of the pack, but there's a different rival tailing it. New figures show that Microsoft Edge is now the second most used browser in the world, pushing Firefox down into third place.

The silver medal now belongs to the Chromium-based version of Edge on the desktop which has seen a great increase in popularity, even though it has only been available for a matter of months.

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Websites are, on the whole, vertical experiences, whereas laptop screens and desktop monitors are, in most cases, horizontal ones. Despite the relatively limited amount of vertical space available, browsers tend to further reduce this by placing tabs, menus, toolbars and more at the top of the screen. But Microsoft is ready to try something different.

The company has announced a number of new features that are coming to the new Chromium-based version of Microsoft Edge. Among these features are vertical tabs which make more efficient use of screen space.

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Google's decision to hide the start of website URLs from Chrome's omnibox was a little controversial. While replacing https://www. and http://www. with icons indicating whether the site was secure or not, many people preferred being about to see that the HTTPS protocol is being used through the presence of those five letters.

If you're one of these people, there's some good news: Google seems to have been listening. Having previously implemented an experimental option to show full URLs on a one-off basis, preview builds of Chrome for macOS, Windows and Linux have a new "Always show full URLs" option.

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Avast-owned Piriform is best known for its CCleaner software, a tool designed to help you clear out the crap from your computer. Now, after a preview period, the company has launched the Chromium-based CCleaner Browser 80.0.

Promising "no ads, no tracking, no junk[and] built-in security" CCleaner Browser is billed as a fast browser that gives users easy-to-use privacy tools that help to reduce digital footprints.

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Mozilla has released Firefox 74.0 for desktop, along with Firefox for Android 68.6.0 and Firefox ESR 68.6.0.

Firefox 74.0 ships with several new features, none of which are jaw-dropping, but all of which serve to further improve the browser’s privacy, security and usability. In addition, the Facebook Container add-on now gives users control over which sites are blocked from reporting back to Facebook.

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Microsoft may be making great claims about the speed and security of Edge, but a recent study found that the browser is one of the least private. Douglas J Leith from the School of Computer Science & Statistics at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, tested six web browsers to determine how often they phoned home, and what data they were sharing.

He pitted Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Brave Browser, Microsoft Edge and Yandex Browser against each other, and the results were rather damning of Edge. Among the findings was the disturbing fact that all URLs typed into Edge are shared with multiple Microsoft sites, as are unique hardware identifiers, opening up the possibility of history tracking.

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Since switching to the Chromium engine, Microsoft Edge just became a whole lot more interesting -- and development has sped up dramatically.

As well as speeding up Edge, Microsoft has been busy adding new features such as a Potentially Unwanted Apps blocker, support for Chrome extensions and more. One of the latest changes does nothing to add new features, but it is important for anyone concerned with aesthetics; there is now support for Chrome themes to change the look of the browser.

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Microsoft ended support for Internet Explorer 10 -- the default browser of Windows 8 when it was initially released -- in Windows Server 2012 and Windows Embedded 8 Standard in February 2020.

Microsoft notes that "all updates, paid assisted support options, and technical content updates for Internet Explorer 10" are discontinued as of February 11, 2020; this means that Microsoft won't release security updates for Internet Explorer 10 on the March 10, 2020 Patch Tuesday.

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Opera Software has released Opera 67.0 (also known as Opera R2020), the latest major update to its Chromium-based web browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android. The new release focuses on improving user experience.

The headline feature is the introduction of workspaces to help users keep their browser tidy and organized. This is accompanied by the addition of a new Sidebar Setup panel, plus two new tab management tools.

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The new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge web browser shares many features with other Chromium-based browsers such as Google Chrome, Vivaldi and Opera.

Google started to integrate native lazy loading support in Google Chrome recently (in Chrome 76 to be precise), and it appears that Microsoft added these capabilities to Microsoft Edge as well.

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Users of the new Microsoft Edge web browser may soon be able to synchronize extensions and collections using the web browser's built-in sync functionality.

Microsoft started the rollout of the feature in the latest Microsoft Edge Canary version, currently at version 82.0.425.0. While it is not available for all Canary users yet, it is expected that the number will increase in the coming weeks and that the options will be pushed to the Beta and Stable channels of Microsoft Edge eventually.

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