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.
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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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 in the browser.
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 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 AdSense publishers’ perspective on Firefox’s new cookie-blocking policy change.
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.
Your web browsers are slowing down your Time Machine backups
Third-party web browsers like Firefox and Google Chrome slows down your Mac’s Time Machine backups by dumping their files in all the wrong places.
WebP image file sizes compared to equivalent Guetzli and Zopfli
Modern lossless compression reduces the gap between new WebP image format, and JPEG and PNG images.
Safari’s default media controls get blocked when CSP is applied
Any HTTP Content-Security-Policy blocks the default <audio>/<video> controls in Safari unless you deliberately make it less secure.
WebP images won’t load in Microsoft Edge with Application Guard
A Windows 10 security feature blocks WebP image files from loading in Microsoft Edge and modern apps.
Changes to how Mozilla Readability extract metadata in Firefox 63
Firefox Reading Mode now prefers Dublin Core and Open Graph Protocol metadata when available.
Web Reading Mode: A bad reading experience
Browser reading modes are inconsistent and you never know what you’ll get when you click on the Reading Mode button.
Web Reading Mode: Title, author, and date metadata extraction
How do browser reading modes detect metadata like the article title, publication date, and author?
Web Reading Mode: Determining the main page content
How do browser reading modes determine what is the main page content?
Web Reading Mode: The non-standard rendering mode
Browser reading modes use a completely non-standard rendering mode and implementations vary greatly from browser to browser.
Firefox, Security Keys, U2F, and Google Advanced Protection
How to use U2F security keys with Firefox and Google’s Advanced Account Protection.
How to detect Brave despite it not having a unique User-Agent
Brave browser pretends to be Google Chrome to avoid being blocked. You can, however, still detect it by analyzing its uniqueness.
New AdSense APIs for gathering user-consent
A look at the new Google AdSense APIs for obtaining GDPR and ePrivacy consent with custom-built data-sharing consent-screens.
Google Chrome finally includes a Reader Mode but only on Android
Chrome goes against Google’s ad-business-interests and introduces a distraction/ad-free reading mode experience in Chrome for Android.
What breaks if you use First-Party Isolation in Firefox
Firefox’s FPI system keeps websites from tracking your movements across websites. This gives excellent privacy protections but at a cost of web compatibility.
How to limit tracking in software downloads
Here is what you can do to protect yourself against websites injecting tracking-code into the software installers you download.
Software downloads now contain unique tracking identifiers
Popular software vendors inject unique tracking identifiers when you download their installers to track you all the from the web and onto the desktop.
Firefox to reintroduce OpenSearch discovery and install in Firefox 61
Firefox removed the ability to add new search engines with OpenSearch when it removed the separate search field. It has now restored OpenSearch discovery support.
Should web browsers adopt Google’s new selective ad-blocking tech?
Firefox and Safari already integrate with the Google Safe Browsing fraud/malware protection service. Should they also adopt its new bad-ads blocking system?
Here’s how Chrome’s new ad-blocker works
Get all the details on how Google Chrome’s new ad-blocking system works.
Firefox 57 with a new and more distracting New Tab experience
The latest Firefox update presents tons of distractions every time you open up a new browser tab.
Native content blocking in Firefox without installing any extensions
Firefox has a built-in content blocker but you’ll need external tools to make it work.
Reduce the max cookie lifetime from decades to days in Firefox
Improve your privacy by reducing how long Firefox retains cookies. Who needs to store them for decades? Firefox can cap it at a custom interval.
How to report a false-positive in Microsoft SmartScreen
Report Windows SmartScreen false-positives to Microsoft when the security suite gets your software wrong.
Mozilla celebrates 1M new non-Gecko users
Firefox Focus browser, built on WebKit, for Android has been downloaded 1 million times in a month. Whatever happen to Mozilla’s commitment to GeckoView?
EdgeDeflector 1.1.1.0 updated for Windows 10
Update to the latest version of EdgeDeflector for compatibility with Windows 10 build 16241 onwards.
How to get Firefox to check for extension updates more often
Configure Firefox to check for extension updates more often than once per day.
Navigate around dead links with the Wayback Machine browser extension
Experimental browser extension from Mozilla and the Internet Archive helps you find archived copies of dead links as you browse with Firefox.
EdgeDeflector gets Windows 10 to respect your default browser setting
EdgeDeflector stops Windows 10 from forces-opening links in Microsoft Edge, and makes Windows respect the system-wide default web browser setting instead.
Brave micro-payments still not a hit with publishers yet
Brave Software has only attracted 120 publishers to join their Rewards program that gets rid of all ads.
Brave browser may incentivize publishers to fix slow and bloated sites
The new Brave browser rewards websites that load quickly at the detriment of slower websites.
Strip out the ads and pay websites directly with Brave browser
Newcomer to the browser market Brave wants people to pay creators and websites directly. Removes most ads in the process.
BriskBard engine: A new web layout engine for Windows
BriskBard is a new proprietary web layout engine with a near-perfect Acid2-test score. Can it reignite the web browser engine wars?
Most of alternate web browsers don’t have fraud and malware protection
All the leading web browsers protect you against web fraud and websites known to distribute malware. You don’t get this protection with the smaller browsers.
Provide icons for web apps in GNOME Web (Epiphany)
Get the details on how GNMOE Web (formerly Epiphany) uses favicons and other website assets when installing websites as web apps on the Linux desktop.
Netcraft anti-phishing toolbar breaks on IPv6 enabled networks
IPv6-capable websites can break the website security information displayed in the Netcraft anti-phishing toolbar for Firefox and Chrome.
Web browsers bring personalized news to their New Tab pages
New tabs in web browsers used to be just blank. Now there’s a rush to bring you news on the new tab.
Sleipnir browser focuses on news with Site Updates on New Tab page
Sleipnir auto-discovers RSS feeds from your most visited websites and curates a personal news feed on its New Tab page.
All about icons for Microsoft Edge
How Microsoft Edge detects and uses favicons, colors, and other website assets for use on its new tab page.
The many URI schemas used by the browsers’ “Reader Views”
Reading modes are non-standard and browser vendors can’t even agree on what URI schema to use for it.
Integrate your website as a search provider in Microsoft Edge
Make your website appear as a suggested search engine in Microsoft Edge using a OpenSearch auto-discovery.
Get rid of aggressive Safari promotions in macOS
Apple wants you to use Safari real bad and send aggressive marketing notifications if you’re using a third-party web browser.
New default browser setting protection in macOS
Apple knows malicious software will try to change your default web browser. However, do the new settings-preserving protections go too far?
IE11 Preloading-feature sends browsing history to Microsoft
The new Preloading feature in Internet Explorer 11 is designed to speed up your web browsing. It also transmits a lot of information to Microsoft.
Become a search provider in Safari Quick Website Search
Here’s how to make your website appear as a suggested search provider in Safari’s new Quick Website Search feature.
Apple pushes to decentralize search engines in Safari
Safari 8 wants you to use more than one search engine. Its address field auto-discovers and installs OpenSearch providers to get you where you’re going quicker.
Opera returns to Linux desktops
Opera re-releases new builds for Linux desktop users after dropping support for one year during the Presto–Chromium transition.
Mac’s “Default Browser Helper” plug-in is injected into web browsers
macOS has a weird default browser plug-in that loads itself into all web browsers. Apple uses the plugin to monitor what web browsers people are using.
Location sharing policies and private browsing
I investigated how web browsers treat your configures location sharing permissions and policies in private browsing mode.