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.
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.
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.
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.
Promote your Onion site with the Onion-Location HTTP header
A new HTTP header enables websites to redirect their visitors using the Tor Browser to their more secure Onion site.
Everything you need to know about Night mode in Samsung Internet
Night mode in Samsung browser explained. How it breaks page contrast and accessibility, pastelify SVG colors, and why web developers can’t do anything about it.
Lessons learned maintaining EdgeDeflector for Windows 10
A 3-years retrospective of EdgeDeflector. The tiny utility program that lets you take back control over the default web browser setting in Windows 10.
Opera Unite tried decentralizing the web ten years ago
A decade ago, the Opera web browser shipped a virtual fridge and a built-in web server right inside its web browser. Why did it fail to decentralize the web?
Mitigate “tabnabbing” without breaking window.open() features
Windows opened from your website can redirect the opening tab to a new destination. Mitigations break window.open() functionality like sizing and positioning.
How quickly do Firefox derived browsers receive security updates
A case study in how timely Firefox derived web browsers (Waterfox, Cliqz, Pale Moon, and Tor) ship critical security updates.
Safari’s Beacon API problems
You must implement the Beacon API the way WebKit deems to be “the right way” to make it work on iOS, Safari, and WebKit browsers.
My thoughts on Firefox blocking tracking/ad cookies by default
A small Google AdSense publishers’ perspective on Firefox’s new cookie-blocking policy change. It can be good for the open web ecosystem in the long run.
Four interesting Firefox-derived web browsers
Stave off the looming Chromium monoculture with a Firefox-based web browser. Here’s a look at four of them: Cliqz, Tor Browser, Pale Moon, and Waterfox.