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Google Chrome, Firefox To Have A Metro Version For Windows 8
Opera looking into it.
Although it was previously known that Firefox will include a Metro like UI, the team behind Mozilla’s web browser only recently started the development. However, turns out, Google is also developing a Google Chrome Metro version, which will be available for the Windows 8 consumers.
In addition to Google’s announcement, the search giant has also confirmed that they will work on a touch optimized version of Google Chrome for the desktop.
What about other web browsers? Safari remains silent, however, ArsTehnica contacted Opera Software and received the following statement, “Unfortunately we can’t comment on any specifics yet, other than we are currently looking into Windows 8. The new OS and the Metro UI offers an interesting new platform and we know users will want to run Opera on it.”
We are curious to find out, how exactly will Google Chrome and Firefox differentiate themselves from the IE10 Metro, UI wise.
Google Chrome Pwn2Own Vulnerability Patched
From left to right Jim Hebert, Cris Necker, Justin Schuh
Just 24 hours after reporting the critical vulnerability in Google’s Chrome web browser, the search giant has already released a patch to address the issue.
Identified as a bug CVE-2011-3046, discovered vulnerability is described as “UXSS and bad history navigation”, with no additional details revealed.
Having said that, the latest stable build of Google Chrome (17.0.963.78) also fixes earlier reported issues with the Flash games and videos.
Hackers Rejoice, Google Chrome Fails Twice
Security contests prove to be useful.
Just as some might have thought that Google’s Chrome sandboxing feature is bullet proof, Sergey Glazunov, a security researcher who have found quite a few vulnerabilities in the fast, has enriched his life with a $60k reward, received for a “Full Chrome” exploit, which bypassed the sandbox feature. Although Google Chrome was previously known to withstand various attacks in Pwn2Own and similar contests, this time it was the first to fail.
Justin Schuh, Chrome’s security team member said, “It was an impressive exploit. It required a deep understanding of how Chrome works. This is not a trivial thing to do. It’s a very difficult and that’s why we’re paying $60,000.”
The second exploit was executed by a team from VuPen Security, which took about 6 weeks to write and test. According to Chaouki Bekrar, the co-founder of VuPen Security, they wanted to demonstrate that Chrome not as unbreakable as some might have though.
While details about exploits were not revealed, he said, “We had to use two vulnerabilities. The first one was to bypass DEP and ASLR on Windows and a second one to break out of the Chrome sandbox. It was a use-after-free vulnerability in the default installation of Chrome [which] worked against the default installation so it really doesn’t matter if it’s third-party code anyway.”
February, 2011: Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera, Safari Share Up; Firefox – Down
After last month’s interesting results, it’s time to see how did the February turned out for your favorite web browser.
For the second month in a row, Internet Explorer continues to increase its market share and is now up by 0.76 point, from 48.16% to 48.92%.
Surpassing the 20% mark, Firefox has no intentions of changing the trend, down from 19.35% to 18.97%, 0.38 point decrease.
After last month’s drop, Google Chrome has pretty much recovered from the drop, up from 17.20% to 17.48%, 0.2 point increase.
Slowly edging towards the 10% market, Safari’s market share has increased by a 0.01 point, up from 9.27% to 9.28%.
After some consolidation, Opera’s market share went up from 1.54% to 1.60%, reaching the level last seen on July 2011 (0.06 point increase).
Benchmarks: Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) vs. Google Chrome 18 vs. Firefox 11 vs. Opera 12
After the previous benchmark results that tested the latest stable versions of web browsers, people expressed their interest in the beta or alpha build results as well. Well, today is your lucky day, folks.
Tested web browsers
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Platform Preview
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Metro Platform Preview
Google Chrome 18 Beta
Firefox 11 Beta 5
Opera 12 Alpha
What’s the difference between Metro and Desktop IE? As mentioned earlier, “IE Metro (aka Immersive web browser) uses the 64 bit libraries by default.”
Benchmark results
Google Will Pay Up To $1 Million To The Google Chrome Hackers
The keyword here is “up to”.
As if the Pwn2Own contest was not enough, Google will be holding its own competition at the CanSecWest security conference.
Called Pwnium, contest attendees will be asked to exploit the Google Chrome web browser and in return, will be rewarded as follows:
$60,000 – “Full Chrome exploit”
$40,000 – “Partial Chrome exploit”
$20,000 – “Consolation reward, Flash / Windows / other”
So where does this $1 million reward come from? Well, Google will be giving away money not for the first two or three hackers, but for pretty much everyone, who manages to compromise their web browsers security.
As simple as that.
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) vs. Google Chrome 17 vs. Firefox 10 vs. Opera 11.60
With the release of Windows 8 Consumer Preview, guys at Neowin have managed to benchmark the latest version of IE10, which is Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5, running in both desktop and Metro modes.
What’s the difference between IE10 Metro and Desktop? IE Metro (aka Immersive web browser) uses the 64 bit libraries by default.
Tested browsers
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) PP5
Google Chrome 17
Firefox 10
Opera 11.60
Benchmark results
Google Chrome Will Support Do Not Track
With all the privacy and tracking talks going on, it looks like Google will finally be joining the ranks of other web browsers who support Do Not Track feature.
Introduced years ago, Do Not Track allows users to opt out of tracking by advertising, social and other web sites that enjoy such data.
However, it’s not coming anytime soon, according to the report, Google Chrome is likely to introduce Do Not Track feature by the end of this year, which is 8-10 months away.
Susan Wojcicki, Google’s senior vice president said, “This agreement will not solve all the privacy issues users face on the Web today. However, it represents a meaningful step forward in privacy controls for users. We look forward to making this happen.”
Download Google Chrome 17 Final
Google Chrome 17.0.963.46 Stable
Following the release of Google Chrome for Android, the search giant has pushed a long awaited updated to the Stable Channel, tagged as version 17.
As reported earlier, the following build introduces a couple of new features that will improve the overall browsing experience.
Google Chrome 17 Changelog
First of all, it will pre-load the web sites that you are likely to visit when typing them in the URL bar before even hitting the Enter button.
Finally, am improved feature from the Google Chrome 12 will protect you from the malicious downloads with a simple notification.
However, those are not the only changes, Google Chrome 17 also includes a new Extensions APIs and about 20 security bug fixes.
Download
Download Google Chrome For Android 4.0
That delicious Ice Cream Sandwich.
As it was just a matter of time anyway, Google has finally launched the Beta version of Google Chrome for Android, which is currently compatible with the 4.0 version only.
So what does it bring to the table?
Well, just like with its competitors, you can synchronize your tabs and bookmarks between your PC and a handheld device, but it also includes few features that are not yet widely available.
First of all, you can swipe between the opened tabs just like a deck of cards, which, depending on the number of opened tabs, can be quite useful.
Secondly, incognito mode has made its way to the Android version as well, providing an extra layer of privacy for those in need.
Least but not last is a superb feature called Link Preview. As you might know, clicking on small links can be quite painful, especially in the winter period when you are wearing gloves and can’t be bothered to take them off. Thankfully, Link Preview will automatically zoom in the links, making them easier to click on.
Google Chrome for Android 4.0 also includes search suggestions that can be personalized, omnibox and few other goodies.