‘Web Browsers’ articles from Ctrl blog

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.

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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.

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.