Tag Archives: browsing
Google shows the web is a lot more secure than it was a year ago
Google’s redefined privacy policy lets ads follow you everywhere
MIT has a way to speed up web browsing by 34 percent
Google keeps you safe from sneaky download buttons on the web
Chrome for Android slims down the internet when speeds are slow
Google’s AdID, an anonymous identifier for advertising, could replace the aging cookie
You know the drill: accept the cookie, delete the cookie, empty the cookie bin, and so on. Mostly, it's an exercise used when attempting to get your mum's PC to run a wee bit faster, but if you think about it, the cookie is one of the most archaic pieces of the world wide web that's still in use today. Naturally, Google is swooping in in a bid to change the status quo, according to a new report from USA Today.
Essentially, the search giant is building an "anonymous identifier for advertising, or AdID, that would replace third-party cookies as the way advertisers track people's internet browsing activity for marketing purposes." Perhaps astoundingly, it sounds as if the project could benefit both consumers (by shielding true identities) and advertisers at the same time. Of course, pundits are concerned about the global leader in online advertising controlling the technology that tracks movements on the web, but to us, it sounds as if end users will get far more power over who sees what when compared to today's cookies.
Via: Slashgear
Source: USA Today
This is the Modem World: The day Google died
Each week Joshua Fruhlinger contributes This is the Modem World, a column dedicated to exploring the culture of consumer technology.
One day, Google will not be the technology giant that it is today. Consider the following:
In 1968, the Pontiac GTO was Motor Trend's Car of the Year. Today, Pontiac is a historical footnote of General Motors.
In 1981, IBM launched the PC, which became the de facto standard of personal computers, spawning hundreds of PC clones and dominating the computing market to this day. In 2005, the IBM PC business was acquired by Lenovo, and the IBM PC is no more.
Opera 15 Chromium-based browser officially launched for PC and Mac
While the non-final build of Opera's new browser for PC and Mac was simply called "Next," today it's chosen the more formal title of Opera 15 for its official release. There aren't any features of note that we hadn't seen in the desktop preview of the WebKit-based software (or should we call it Blink-based?), but to jog your memory, it sports a fresh design, a Discover feature for catching up on the latest news and a tweaked Speed Dial menu for quick access to your favorite corners of the internet. Also, the web-clipping Stash feature, predictive address-cum-search bar, new download manager and "Off-Road mode" for extra compression on lousy connections are all included in the final version. We ran a quick SunSpider benchmark on the Mac build of Opera 15, in which it scored 167ms, compared with 171ms in Chrome. If you're not already allied to one of the many competing browsers and feel like giving Opera 15 a try, head to the source below for the download links.
Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Internet, Software
Via: SlashGear
Source: Opera (1) (download), (2)
Opera desktop preview brings web clipping and other tools, splits from Opera Mail
Opera for desktops may be a couple of steps behind the recently finalized Android version, but it's coming along nicely. A preview build of the now WebKit-based browser (or, technically, Blink-based) is available to try on Windows and Mac with a bunch of features which in some ways look similar to other browsers and add-ons, but which also do things a bit differently:
- Speed Dial -- a home tab that brings large tiles and folders for quick access to favorite sites
- Stash -- a web clipping tool that follows a similar big-tile aesthetic (shown above)
- Smartbox -- a search box that not only predicts what you're looking for but also offers to hunt for it on different search engines, such as Google or Twitter.
Filed under: Desktops, Internet, Software
Source: Opera Next for Windows, Opera Next for Mac, Opera Mail