Browser | Technology Blog

Firefox URLBar Extension

October 3rd, 2008

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UrlbarExt is an experimental Firefox add-on that adds a few interesting functions to the Firefox location bar. Experimental meaning that users have to log into an account at the Mozilla website to download and install the add-on. It is usually not an indicator of a “not yet ready” add-on. Users who do not have an account but would like to install the add-on could use one of the available logins from Bugmenot instead.

Back to the Firefox extension. It adds six new icons to the right side of the Firefox location bar which look a lot like the icons that the Tagmarks extension is adding in that place. Users with the Tagmarks extension enabled might run into troubles. This has not been tested and is just an assumption.

The icons provide easy access to the following functions:

Copy URL
Create Tiny URL
Search Site
Up One Directory Level, Double-click for Root
Tags
Anonymous Surfing

Google Chrome Password Manager

September 28th, 2008

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Most modern web browsers make use of a password manager that stores usernames and passwords of websites and services in the browser so that the user does not have to enter them over and over again. Mozilla Firefox and Opera provide access to a password manager in the browser that can be used to manage passwords in the browser.

ChromePass is a new software program by Nirsoft that can display the most relevant information that have been saved in Google Chrome. The browser provides a basic password manager. The Google Chrome password manager displays the url of the website and the username by default and provides a Show Password button to display the password as well.

The data cannot be copied which is one of the major disadvantages of the Chrome password manager. Chromepass displays the data that has been stored in Google Chrome. The application displays additional parameters like the action url, data and the names of the user and password fields.

Chromium Iron

September 25th, 2008

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The release of Google Chrome and its Open Source counterpart Chromium put Google for the first time in the position that Microsoft was in for the last ten years or so. Users are looking at Microsoft products with suspicion suspecting privacy breaches and data collection on large scales. This is especially apparent in Microsoft operating systems where tools have been developed that turn off features that communicate with Microsoft servers.

It is a known fact that Google is collecting a massive amount of data. The main part stems from searches conducted on the search engine but other tools like the Google Toolbar add to that. Google on the other hand did not release a software until now that became such a center of criticism. Privacy advocates focused their criticism on two aspects of the Google Chrome browser.

The first was the unique user Id that was generated which could theoretically identify a user. The second that everything that was entered in the browser’s address bar was transmitted to Google even if the user never submitted the text to the search engine.

Firefox 3.02 Final

September 23rd, 2008

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Mozilla started distributing the final version of Firefox 3.02 to various major and minor mirror sites. This is the usual process before they release the notification on the homepage about the new version. The Check for Updates feature will show the new version usually 0-24 hours later.

Firefox users who cannot wait can head straight to the main list of Firefox mirror sites and pick a mirror next to their location to download the latest official version of Firefox.

Download Squad reported that it is a beta release that got released today but this is obviously not true since Firefox 3.02 is available in the Firefox release directory of the Mozilla ftp site which indicates that this is the final version and not a beta release.

Users who cannot find the download need to follow the path firefox/releases/3.0.2/ on the ftp mirrors to find the release that they can download. The download is available for all supported operating systems and in all languages.

Google Chrome Anonymizer

September 7th, 2008

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Google Chrome is using a client id variable in the file Local State which can be found in the user data folder of the chrome installation which is unique for every Chrome user. Privacy advocates are already warning users that the id can be used to create exact user profiles of a user’s actions while using Google Chrome.

It did not take long though before some users figured out ways to remove or alter the client id so that the collected data was useless for Google. This article is going to show three different methods of editing or removing the Google Chome user id to make sure that no permanent data can be collected when using Google Chrome.

Users can check if the following methods work by viewing the contents of the Local State file when Google Chrome is running. The client id should not be visible in the file if a program has been used to remove it.

Chromatose

September 3rd, 2008

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Josh is a blogger. Have you heard of him? If not… check out his blog over at Extendably. It’s totally as good as TechCrunch but with less ego… and traffic.

Let’s talk about Google Chrome. Why not? Everyone else is.

I would be willing to bet anyone reading this article has already downloaded the Windows beta and is probably using it right now so I’m not going to go through the feature list or anything like that, besides, Martin’s already taken a look at that side of Chrome.

I downloaded it this morning as well… and I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised. Personally when I saw the screenshots yesterday my first thoughts where; ‘it looks like Opera 9’ and then, ‘it looks ugly’. I find that the Google minimalist style works great on the web, but in conventional software it simply looks tacky.

However I was wrong. Trying out the product in reality and it’s actually truly nice in terms of user interface, visual effects and functionality. The typical Google design ‘quirks’ which look out of place in a screenshot make perfect sense when you actually use the product.