I’ve joined Vivaldi Technologies
Back in November, I began my new job as a Quality Assurance (QA) Tester at Vivaldi Technologies. Vivaldi is the productivity super-app of web browsers.
Web Browsers
I’ve always been interested in web browsers — the most important piece of software on your computer — and what makes them tick. I worked for the browser vendor Opera Software from 2008–2015.
On-device browser translations with Firefox Translations
Firefox can now do offline and privacy-preserving translation of eight languages with more on the way. Powered by open-source and machine-learning.
The Current Version of Popular Browsers API (powered by Wikidata)
Need an API to get the current version numbers for the stable and extended support releases of Firefox, Google Chrome, and Safari? Wikidata got your back.
Samsung devices incorrectly handle CSS @media hover queries
The CSS @media hover query detects hover-capable input devices. Samsung touchscreens on Android gives unexpected results by pretending to be a computer touchpad.
The web is overrun by pop-ups and blockers haven’t worked in years
You can now expect every website to inundate you with pop-ups for email lists, promotions, and privacy theater. (No, the GDPR isn’t to blame.) Enough is enough.
Windows now blocks Edge browser competitors from opening links
Microsoft doubles-down on its user-choice hostile web browser behavior; blocks competitors from opening links from many Windows apps and web experiences.
Brave and Firefox to intercept links that force-open in Microsoft Edge
Brave and Firefox implement support for the microsoft-edge: URL scheme. Brave to hijack Bing search links. Plus, the history of all this anti-competitive crap.
Brave reduces the page load performance cost of its adblocker
The Brave browser has significantly cut the page load time overhead of its adblocker. Brave loaded pages slower than competing browsers without adblockers.
Google’s unfair performance advantage in Chrome
Google Chrome gives Google Search (when set as the default search engine) a network performance-boost over competing search engines.
A deeper dive into Chrome WebFeed
Google hasn’t turned Chrome into a feed reader, but it does use Atom and RSS feeds to let visitors follow any website. Here are more details on how it works.
Chrome experiment lets you Follow news and website updates
A brief history of where news/syndication feeds (“RSS“) went wrong, and how Google Chrome might just have found the right place for it in the Chrome web browser.
EdgeDeflector 1.2 addresses installation woes
The new EdgeDeflector version 1.2 introduces a new installation flow to accommodate Windows 10 further locking down user file and protocol association settings.
The built-in Windows 10 web browser you’ve never heard about
Windows 10 has a built-in program called Internet Browser (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) that helps you open link files in your preferred web browser.
Why Firefox for Android logs you out of everything all the time
Firefox for Android “forgets” to send SameSite=Strict cookies to websites, causing them to log you out and forgot you ever visited them in the past.
Brave adds support for IPFS distributed P2P websites
The Brave browser beta has added support for the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a peer-to-peer protocol alternative to the traditional centralized web server.
What is Brave browser’s market share
The Brave browsers blocks the scripts that usually tracks web browser market share trends. I’ve independently measured Brave’s market share among readers.
How to get Microsoft Edge back into your Windows Timeline
The new Microsoft Edge doesn’t currently support Windows Timeline. Here’s an extension that reintegrates the browser with Windows Timeline/Task View.
What happened to BitTorrent’s Project Maelstrom web browser?
In 2015, BitTorrent Inc introduced a P2P-revolution for website distribution. But it got side-tracked by investors ogling the “content” business along the way.
Review of Firefox “Daylight” for Android
The new Firefox version for Android comes with big changes under the hood, but also drops support for thousands of extensions, and is less configurable.