Author Archive: Armin Seuchter
Being passionate about software, Armin joined FavBrowser.com in early 2011 and has been actively writing ever since. Having accepted the challenge, he also enjoys watching anime, indulging in good books, staying fit and healthy, and trying new things.
Google’s Fast Web Protocol Makes Chrome Even Faster
According to acceleration company Strangeloop, utilizing Google Chrome reduces webpage download times by 10% to 20% if the sites use Google’s fast Web protocol.
Support for Google’s SPDY has been added to Strangeloop’s Site Optimizer appliances as well as its Web acceleration service, making download times even faster than they are with Site Optimizer alone. – Strangeloop President Joshua Bixby.
Mozilla To Tackle Firefox Memory Leaks
As FavBrowser recently reported, there are ways to get around memory leaks in Firefox. Nevertheless, the problem appears to be serious enough for Mozilla itself to finally want to get it out of the way.
It’s become increasingly clear over the last several months that we have a pretty pressing need to deal with increases in memory usage in Firefox. Since we released Firefox 4 (and before, too), we’ve seen lots of reports about Firefox memory usage being higher than in older versions, and that Firefox memory usage is growing over time. – Johnny Stenback, a developer who works for Mozilla.
Channel Switcher Dropped From Firefox
Going by what Mozilla has to say, the channel switcher will be removed from Firefox. Why? While the channel switcher seemed like a good idea at first, it was only really useful as a springboard it appears. This conclusion came to light due to the fact that the feature was rarely utilized once users made the switch to a particular channel.
As it turns out, users of Firefox are much more interested in running different versions of the browser alongside each other, and so Mozilla has declared that its efforts are best directed elsewhere. You will still be able to switch back and forth between the Aurora and Beta channels, of course. Simply visit the Future of Firefox page to obtain them.
Firefox Gets about:permissions For More Privacy Control
The nightly builds of Firefox have received a new tool in the form of about:permissions. Typing about:permissions into the address bar welcomes one with a dashboard that lets you configure cookies, geolocation, pop ups, password keeping, and offline storage access on a per site basis.
If passwords have previously been set for a specific site, about:permissions will permit the viewing and removal of these passwords. One can also administer and get rid of cookies that sites have cached on the system or forget a site completely, eradicating it from Firefox’s memory.
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Offline Support For Gmail In Chrome Stops Today
As of today, offline access to Gmail is no longer possible in Chrome. Gears, the software previously used in Chrome, was developed by Google and enables more powerful web applications by adding new features to a browser such as allowing some online files to be used offline. It is still available in Firefox 3.6 and Internet Explorer 8, but using outdated browsers to utilize an outdated plug in is not recommended.
Offline support for Gmail is set to return via the Chrome Web Store this summer in the form of a Gmail application. More information on the matter can be found here.
Google And Mozilla Start Debate Over Address Bar
With Google allowing users to hide the address bar in canary builds of Chrome 13, Mozilla has decided to release the LessChrome HD extension which pretty much does the same thing. This has seemingly sparked a bit of a debate in the browser industry, as the address bar has always been an integral part of the web browser.
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Firefox 3.5 To Be Killed Off Soon
Firefox 3.5, currently boasting 12 million users according to Mozilla, will be updated to a newer version next month through an automatic upgrade. Makes sense that Mozilla wants to upgrade its users, for Firefox 3.5 received its last security patch approximately three weeks ago.
Mozilla started offering an upgrade to Firefox 4 to people running Firefox 3.5 and Firefox 3.6 last week. According to Christian Legnitto, the Firefox release manager, Mozilla will force 3.6 on 3.5 stragglers not choosing to update to Firefox 4 or 3.6. However, Legnitto later said that his choice of the word “force” was poor, and noted that only Firefox 3.5 users who had left the default automatic updates setting enabled would be moved to Firefox 3.6 automatically.
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Who Here Is Getting A Chromebook?
Loading ...I am rather curious about this matter. Although Google Chrome OS is an operating system, it is an operating system that consists of only a web browser. It boots you into an enhanced version of Google Chrome and you do what you need to do from there. It has never been done before to my knowledge, and since major browser vendor Google is pushing this project with all that it’s got, Google Chrome OS may very well be here to stay. Who knows, perhaps Opera, Mozilla, or even Microsoft will follow?
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Firefox about:config Preferences Explained
Remember How To Save And Quit In Firefox 4 and How To Activate Autocomplete In Firefox 4? Neat, little instructions, no? You did notice all the other options that were available when browsing the about:config page in Firefox but don’t have a clue with regards to what they do, right? Neither do I! Firefox is full of customization options you won’t find in your browser options screens but it’s not always easy to know what effect changing an about:config setting will have on your browser.
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Chrome Hack Denied By Google Engineers
As reported previously by FavBrowser, Google Chrome’s sandbox has allegedly been hacked. Nevertheless, several security engineers over at Google have now denied this, countering claims that a security company discovered a vulnerability in Chrome that could let attackers hijack Windows PCs running the browser.
The bug that security company Vupen exploited to hack Chrome was in Adobe’s Flash which comes bundled with Chrome, not in Chrome itself, said the engineers. A Google spokesman said that investigation was still ongoing, but the engineers decided to make themselves heard.
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