HitChrome

For all my weekly musings on the Internet and its many offerings, I’m tame when it comes to actually surfing the Web. My cyber-forays are pretty much limited to news sites, my bank and various other housekeeping-related functions.

So, for me, sneaking around the Web anonymously has never really been much of an issue. Maybe I’m being naïve about the threat of identity theft or maybe I’m just lazy. (My bet is on lazy.)

For some people, however, protecting their identity is of utmost concern. That’s why several of the major browsers - Apple’s Safari, Google and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer - offer Web browsing tools that let you be the proverbial fly on the wall.

It’s called incognito browsing.

Google’s version is called Chrome. At Apple, it’s Private Browsing. Microsoft’s entry to this market is called In Private.

Though they go by different names, these browsers more or less offer the same thing: They erase your footprints. Read the rest of this entry »

How did Internet Explorer become the number one browser in the world? Simple - it came with every new computer you purchased, pre-installed and ready to go. Now it seems Google is contemplating doing the same with their browser, Google Chrome. According to Google VP, Product Management, Sundar Pichai, the browser’s beta period will end in January and then they “will probably do distribution deals,” he says.

In an article that ran in yesterday’s The Times, Pichai revealed details on what he called Google’s plans to make Chrome the browser of choice for the everyday user. A big part of that plan includes distribution deals with computer manufacturers.

“We could work with an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) and have them ship computers with Chrome pre-installed,” he was quoted as saying. Thanks to the anti-trust rulings that came out of the IE / Netscape battle back in the 1990’s, there’s nothing to prevent Google from doing deals of their own with computer makers, if they desire.

Once Google has a glitch-free version of Chrome sometime early next year, “we will throw our weight behind it,” said Pinchai. “We’ve been conservative because its still in beta, but once we get it out of beta we will work hard at getting the word out, promoting to users, and marketing will be a part of that.” (A link on Google’s homepage might help with those marketing efforts, but not as much as we previously thought). Read the rest of this entry »

And I thought Woodpecker was another introduction in the Browser world.

But mind you, it’s a pretty impressive name for a browser after Firefox of course.

What do you say guys? A name does matter, right? Let’s talk, your turn now…

The short-lived Google Lively web world project will be closing down at the end of the year so the search giant can focus on its core projects.

Lasting a brief five months following a two-year development, Google’s Lively online world is the latest victim of the economic troubles coming to the pioneering internet firm.

In an post on the official Google Blog, Google solemnly states, “Despite all the virtual high fives and creative rooms everyone has enjoyed in the last four and a half months, we’ve decided to shut Lively down at the end of the year.”

The move is mostly a survival tactic, allowing the company to “prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business.”

A combination of flat user growth and a seeming lack of interest (Lively wasn’t even compatible with Google’s heavily-pushed Chrome browser) attributed to its death.

Sad news for the few thousand users Lively had retained after the launch hype wore off during the summer. To those who enjoyed the service, Google encourages them “to capture your hard work by taking videos and screenshots of your rooms.”

Google is actively expanding the functionality of its open source Chrome browser, which launched earlier this year. The latest features under active development are made available through the developer update channel prior to public release.

The latest developer channel builds include a full bookmark manager with a built-in search feature and support for organizing bookmarks into nested folders. I tested this feature by importing my Firefox bookmarks. The new bookmark manager appears to be loosely modeled after the one in Firefox. Like the rest of Chrome, it is still relatively minimalistic but it gets the job done. The sidebar displays the expandable folder heirarchy and the main pane shows a list of all of the bookmarks in the selected folder. Unlike Firefox, Chrome’s bookmark manager does not have an editing panel. You can modify a bookmark through the bookmark manager by right-clicking and selecting edit.

Chrome users who want to help test and get an early look at new improvements can use the Chrome channel chooser to select the developer channel. Instructions on how to do this are available at the Chromium documentation web site. For more information about the latest features and bugs, see the developer release at the Chrome release blog. Keep in mind that the developer channel versions are unstable testing builds and aren’t intended to be as robust as official releases.

Firefox’s extensibility is the primary reason why I have stuck with it. The browser extensions I’ve installed do what I want and significantly improve my Internet experience. The folks at Mozilla are playing to that strength with a new browser customization Web site called “Fashion Your Firefox.”

The site simplifies Firefox add-on discovery by having users select from a menu of nine categories that are geared toward various browsing scenarios such as “Shutterbug” for photo aficionados and “Rock Star” for music lovers. Users simply check the box next to add-ons that interest them, and install them as a batch.

For Firefox, add-ons are a good hedge against a reinvigorated Microsoft Internet Explorer and new competition from Google Chome. (I was tempted to switch to Google’s Chrome browser to get a good feel for it, but found myself missing my add-ons.)

Microsoft has revamped its own add-on Web site to coincide with the launch of IE 8, but I do not know anyone that uses IE for its add-ons. Google also supports some add-ons, but like Microsoft, it lacks the depth of choices that Firefox has to offer.

The Mozilla Foundation is wise to showcase its add-ons to differentiate Firefox. In doing so, it also keeps its base of developers happy and firmly in its camp.

Consumer Watchdog warned Tuesday that Google Web browsing and e-mail services may not be private and secure. If fact, the consumer group says national security could be at risk.

All e-mail services, not just Google, can have security issues if the user doesn’t take the proper precautions. But Tuesday, Consumer Watchdog pointed out some specific issues with Google.

Consumer Watchdog is a consumer advocacy group that believes Google’s e-mail service, called Gmail, is not private or secure. And Consumer Watchdog says the security problem is not only with Gmail users, but also with those who may not have Gmail but correspond with Gmail users.

Consumer Watchdog said Tuesday that members of Congress have been solicited by Google to use their Gmail service and Google’s browser, called Chrome, but that could put the nation’s security at risk.

But in talking to Google, the company said it is comfortable with its security but it is willing to make some changes. Here is a statement from a Google spokesperson:

“We build strong privacy and security protections into all Google products, and users can control their privacy settings, such as turning on encryption in Gmail or going ‘off the record’ in Google Talk, or even using some services anonymously. Our team has spoken with Consumer Watchdog, and we welcome feedback from users and consumer advocates on potential new features and privacy controls.”

According to Google, users can add security to their Gmail accounts by simply going into “settings” and turning on the “secure sockets layer,” also known as SSL. And when using their browser called Chrome, users can open the Incognito window to hide their activity on the Internet.

Battle of the Browsers postings are nothing new, but usually are based upon the opinion of a single reviewer. However, if there were cash prizes to uncover bugs in Chrome, FireFox 3.1 and IE8 you might get a broader and more interesting view. Welcome to the Browser Bug Battle…

No browser is perfect, especially those at the cutting edge of web exploration that carry the Beta mark of distinction. Google Chrome will probably be in Beta forever and early adopters will race to get the latest Firefox builds and early peeks at IE8.

Google Chrome has already been patched for a security fix; Firefox recently ran into trouble with Norton users and IE8 is either full of exciting new functionality or a web browser for wankers depending upon your viewpoint.

Now community based software testing outfit uTest has launched a Battle of the Browsers competition, not to find out which is the best but rather which has the most bugs.

Running from November 5th until 12th, the competition has already got off to a good start.

In just the first 12 hours, more than 500 entrants have uncovered a total of 248 new and previously unreported bugs in the three browsers. Read the rest of this entry »

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang says he is willing to sell his company to Microsoft if the software maker returns to the bargaining table.

“To this day, I believe the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,” Yang said Wednesday evening at the Web 2.0 summit in San Francisco.

Yang remarks came on the same day Google backed out of an Internet advertising partnership that Yahoo had been counting on to accelerate its revenue growth and placate investors still upset with Yang’s rejection of a $47.5 billion takeover bid from Microsoft.

Yahoo’s stock price ended Wednesday at $13.92, far below the $33 per share that Microsoft offered in May. Microsoft withdrew the bid after Yang asked for more.

Firefox surpassed a 20% share of the browser market last month, breaking its own records.

The figures, reported by web metrics firm Net Applications, reveal that for two weeks in October the company accounted for 20.6% of all monitored browser traffic.

Despite this, Firefox closed the month with an average traffic share of 19.97%, falling just short of the magic number.

The report will come as good news to Mozilla, which has seen its share bounce back following a half percentage point fall in September, due to the introduction of Google’s Chrome browser.

At the contrasting ending of the scale, dominant browser Internet Explorer has seen its share fall 71.52% to 71.27%. The fall marks it out as the browser with the fastest declining market share.

Chrome was also hit by Firefox’s gain, with the buzz surrounding its September launch fading, resulting in its share falling to 0.74% from 0.78%.

Indeed the only other browser to to gain during October was Opera, which jumped from 0.69% to 0.75%.