browser

Microsoft has confirmed Edge will now use the same code as Chrome . It's also said it plans to support Chrome extensions on Edge. The news bears out previous reports, though notably it appears Microsoft will stick with the Edge name for the revamped ... browser. That may be because it put so much effort into branding Edge as the replacement of Internet Explorer. It's all to do with rendering engines, the part of a web browser that actually turns the code of a web page into what the users sees on screen. Microsoft is ditching its own EdgeHTML and adopting "Chromium," an open source ... (view more)

Sources close to Microsoft suggest that the company may ditch its Edge browser as the default option in Windows 10. Its replacement would run on the same underlying code as Google's Chrome. While Edge has failed to win the hearts of most users, it ... appears the main reason behind the move is that site developers are tired of having to do extra work to make their sites work on the browser. The most recent statistics show Chrome dominating the browser market, being used on more than 70 per cent of computers, compared with just four percent running Edge. Given that Edge is the default option on ... (view more)

Security researchers have warned that nearly half of all phishing sites falsely display the browser padlock symbol commonly associated with secure websites. It's a reminder that the browser padlock symbol only covers one aspect of security. Most ... major browsers display the padlock symbol when a website uses a technology, most commonly Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to encrypt data as it passes between the user's computer and the website, or vice versa. Such sites have an address starting "https://" rather than "http://". The purpose of the padlock symbol is to indicate to the user that the ... (view more)

Google is taking several more steps to make browser extensions safer. It's giving users more control and cracking down on some common rogue practices. The changes are to Chrome's extensions. Also known as add-ons with some browsers, extensions are ... third-party tools designed to improve the online experience using a web browser. For example, an Amazon extension lets users send text on a web page (such as a lengthy article) straight to their Kindle e-reader as a document with one click. By nature, extensions need some degree of access to and control over Chrome itself, which sometimes means the ... (view more)

A security researcher has found a way to crash the Firefox browser and even Windows itself. Sabri Haddouche has demonstrated the technique to highlight the risk that it could be misused. The bug is shown off at Haddouche's site Browser Reaper, which ... he created to chart his interest in denial of service attacks. Normally such attacks involve flooding a website with bogus visits until it is overloaded and becomes unavailable to ordinary users. However, Haddouche has been exploring the technique from the other perspective: forcing a browser to deal with so much traffic that it crashes. Epic Name ... (view more)

Microsoft is asking users to think twice before installing browsers such as Firefox and Chrome. A "warning message" is being tested in Windows 10. The message has been spotted by people in the Windows Insider program that lets them get early access ... to new features. The idea is to test the features on computers being used out in the 'real world' rather than in Microsoft labs. One such user has posted a screenshot of a message that appeared when they attempted to install Mozilla's Firefox browser. It reads "You already have Microsoft Edge - the safer, faster browser for Windows 10." ... (view more)

Google is updating the Chrome browser to give it better defenses against major security threats. It comes at the price of reduced performance and a larger memory footprint. The changes are to address two security bugs labeled Meltdown and Spectre by ... researchers. They take advantage of a flaw in almost every computer processor built since 1995, which is (as of this day) 100% of all computers, tablets, smartphones, laptops - and anything else that uses a processor. The flaw is in regard to a processor feature, which is designed to speed up a computer's response time. It works by using spare ... (view more)

A security firm says efforts to make the Internet truly global could make scams easier. It also says a program for registering domain names in numerous languages can be abused for scam purposes. The issue involves the Internationalized Domain Name ... (IDN) system. This builds on the original Domain Name System (DNS) that helps 'translate' a web site name (such as www.infopackets.com ) into an IP address. These numbers then identify the location of the server, which then allows communication between the server and client machines (such as a web browser) to take place. The basic Domain Name System ... (view more)

Google is being sued for a potential $4 billion over claims it intentionally bypassed security settings on iPhones. It's likely to succeed following similar cases in the past. The case has been filed in the UK by a group called 'Google You Owe Us'. ... They are seeking "representative action" status, which is similar to class action status in the United States. If that's granted, any settlement or damages in the case could apply to as many as 4.4 million people. (Source: theguardian.com ) Claims May Sound Familiar On the face of it, the case looks bad for Google as it covers the same issue ... (view more)

The Firefox browser will soon incorporate paid advertising on its new tab page. It will be personalized to a degree, though developers Mozilla say it won't compromise privacy. The ads will appear in the form of links to pages. These links will ... appear whenever a user opens a new tab in the browser, before they type in an address. They won't appear on the home page that shows up when users first open Firefox itself. The new tab page will contain a list of recommended links to pages the user might find interesting. Some of these will be "sponsored" results while others will be included without ... (view more)