The web browser is a vital, but largely commoditised, part of IT infrastructure. But that could be about to change with the growth of enterprise browsers.

For the last two decades or more, businesses seem to have been happy enough with the default browser bundled with their operating system, or with Google Chrome.

Almost all browsers cost nothing to use. Netscape made its Navigator browser free (and open source) as far back as 1998. That, in turn, was in response to Microsoft bundling Internet Explorer with Windows.

And Chrome, with by far the largest current market share of any browser, is a free download.

Research by YouGov round that 58% of internet users in the United States use Chrome, with its nearest competitor, Apple’s Safari, on 15%. Statcounter, a tool that allows website users to monitor visitor statistics, puts Chrome’s UK market share a little lower, at 51.8% and Safari at 30.5%, across all device platforms.

Interest in other browsers remains low. Firefox, for example, registered just 1.9% of users in August this year, and Edge 8.6%, again according to Statcounter.

The majority of browsers in use today are, in any case, based on the open source Chromium technology. This includes Google’s Chrome, but also Microsoft Edge, and Opera; Apple’s Safari is the most widely-used exception.

These stats include both consumer and business usage – but the use of consumer-grade browsers within the enterprise is common. Increasingly, however, software vendors have launched new browsers aimed specifically at enterprise users, with added capabilities such as enhanced data security and access controls.

Gartner predicts that by 2028, 25% of organizations will deploy at least one enterprise browser in the pursuit of better security. Are enterprise browsers on the cusp of widespread adoption – and what are their chief benefits?

Enterprise browsers on the rise

The reasons for enterprise browsers are twofold.

First, the way businesses deploy and use enterprise applications has changed. Applications increasingly run in web browsers, so the browser is the front end for most day to day activities.

And organizations are increasingly concerned about security, privacy and data protection, not least because of the proliferation of generative AI tools.

The enterprise browser, its advocates argue, offers much more granular control over how users access data – enterprise browsers tie directly into data loss prevention and security tools. Unsurprisingly, some of the companies now offering enterprise browsers are, first and foremost, security vendors.

“Fundamentally, enterprise browsers offer deeper levels of security protection than the consumer grade ones used for casual web browsing,” Will Townsend, VP principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy tells ITPro. “This is an important consideration given the fact that generative AI applications use a browser as the interface.”

Townsend comments on the number of enterprise browsers on show at Black Hat USA earlier this year, and labels 2025 as “The Year Of The Enterprise Browser”. He flags Island, Google, with its enterprise versions of Chrome, Mammoth Cyber and Palo Alto Networks’ Prisma Browser, Palo Alto Networks' browser for enterprises, as technologies to watch.

What makes enterprise browsers stand out for Townsend is their control over data access and data leakage. “Many are architected with zero trust least privileged access constructs and deeper security provisions including identity access management and improved data observability,” he says.

But enterprises are not just using enterprise browsers to improve security. These applications are also being used as a cheaper, easier to manage alternative to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), especially where chief information officers (CIOs) need to manage third parties, such as contractors, on their networks. Island especially promises “virtualization-like functionality”, Townsend says.

No more VDI

This use case allows IT teams to manage just the browser, without all the other overheads of full-blown VDI, or the cost and inconvenience of issuing a physical, corporate device.

“In extreme examples, contractors would be shipped physical laptops that have the golden build on them,” Scott McKinnon, chief security officer for UK and Ireland at Palo Alto Networks, tells ITPro.

“That's obviously very, very expensive for the organization.

“Now, if you can effectively introduce a new level of abstraction and treat everybody the same from a platform perspective, you don't care whether they've got an HP or a Dell, or whether they use a Mac, or a tablet or a phone, or whether they are a contractor or an affiliate or a customer,” he says.

“You can have that kind of consistency, and treat everybody the same from that operational perspective, which streamlines things, reduces cost and helps business on the bottom line.”

At Palo Alto Networks, all company business is now done within Prisma Browser, though McKinnon adds he still uses Chrome for non-corporate tasks such as Gmail or LinkedIn.

Browsers, and plug ins

Palo Alto offers its Prisma Browser as a standalone product, controlled via a cloud portal. This allows IT and security teams to use isolated profiles and policies.

But the real benefit, McKinnon suggests, comes when enterprises steer all their web traffic from the browser to Palo Alto Networks’ secure access service edge (SASE) platform. This provides data loss prevention and data plane isolation in a way that is simply not practical with third-party browsers.

But standalone enterprise browsers face competition from enterprise versions of regular browsers, and from extensions that add security features to control how browsers handle data.

“From the enterprise browser standpoint, here, we've two elements,” explains Oliver Madden, an enterprise browser specialist at Google.

“One is a core element which allows you to manage some policies, configurations, and generate reports. And then we've the premium piece that allows you to set zero trust, access controls and threat intelligence directly into the browser.”

The advantage here is that users can continue with the browser they know, but IT teams can add additional controls. For example Paul Stringfellow, CTO at IT consultants Gardner Systems, tells ITPro that security teams looking to sandbox malware or malicious websites are turning to enterprise browsers.

“What I am seeing increasingly from cybersecurity vendors is the deployment of browser agents, which allow them to enforce granular controls on users accessing the internet. This ensures that users always have consistent controls applied to their devices.”

Whether enterprise browsers become mainstream will depend largely on whether those security and data access controls are enough to overcome the existing browsers’ vast installed base.

Poor website performance is costing businesses thousands per year – as much as 15% of annual revenue.

A survey of 206 businesses with an average annual revenue of $119,000 by Liquid Web found they lose an average of $20,172 per year because of poor website performance.

More than one in ten said they'd experienced website downtime in the last year, with more than a third saying they'd experienced slow website load times in the last year.

Two-thirds of the firms said they'd lost revenue as a result, and more than half said they'd missed key growth opportunities. More than four in ten said they'd suffered damage to their brand's reputation, and a third saw an increase in customer complaints.

On average, business owners reported losing 7.5% of their traffic because of poor website performance. One in ten said their bounce rates – where a user views only one page on a website and then leaves – were over 50%.

One in eight business owners reported losing revenue every month due to poor website performance. And 13% of ecommerce businesses reported revenue losses equating to an 11% annual shortfall on average.

And, warns Liquid Web, for companies that rely heavily on seasonal sales or new product releases, the impact of these performance issues on high-traffic days is probably much greater.

"Many business owners don't realize how much slow performance impacts customer experience," said Tiffany Bridge, product manager, ecommerce applications, security, and professional services at Liquid Web.

"When pages take too long to load, customers leave – sometimes for good – resulting in lost sales and damaged trust. Faster hosting provides a rock-solid foundation for better website performance, especially on a platform that includes site speed features automatically."

Beyond profitability, said Liquid Web, some business leaders also frequently worried that poor website performance could damage their brand's reputation or lead to missed business opportunities. More than a quarter felt that poor performance caused them to lag behind rivals with more reliable websites.

When trying to improve their websites, the research found, 38% have optimized images and code; 32% have reduced third-party scripts or plugins and 27% said they had switched to a high-performance hosting provider.

Nearly one in five has implemented caching strategies, and one in ten has added a content delivery network (CDN.)

The biggest obstacle to improvements, the research found, is cost - an issue for half the companies - with a lack of technical experience cited by 30%. Other barriers to upgrades include a lack of time, an unclear return on investment (ROI), and a general lack of resources.

Microsoft has revealed that users will be able to choose when they remove final Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) features from their devices. 

In an update this week, the tech giant said that IE11 visual references, including IE11 icons on the start menu and taskbar, will not be removed automatically in a forthcoming Windows update. 

Microsoft told users previously that an update scheduled for 23 May would remove all visual references as part of a security release. 

The backtrack means that users will be able to “maintain control” over when visual references will be removed, placing greater flexibility for this process in the hands of users. 

“Based on customer feedback, IE11 visual references, such as the IE11 icons on the Start Menu and taskbar, will no longer be removed by Windows update as previously communicated,” the firm said. 

“Organizations will continue to maintain control over determining the timing to remove IE11 visual references from their devices, if they have not already done so, by using the Disable IE policy.”

Changes to “exceptional scenarios” for Edge redirects

As part of its announcement, Microsoft also confirmed that it plans to implement changes preventing scenarios where IE11 is still accessible to the Edge browser. 

The move, expected to be made “over the next coming months”, will be explained fully in upcoming Windows and Edge release notes, Microsoft said. 

“Changes will be made over the next coming months to redirect a small subset of exceptional scenarios where IE11 is still accessible to Edge,” the firm said in its update. 

“This ensures users access a supported and more secure Microsoft browser. Details will be available in the Windows and Microsoft Edge release notes.”

Microsoft’s Edge push

Internet Explorer 11 has been officially out of support since June 2022 and was permanently disabled in a security update in February this year. 

Microsoft has been intent on pushing Microsoft Edge, the successor browser to IE for several years now, framing Edge as a browser that offers a “faster, more secure, and more modern web experience”.

IE11 still remains supported for some selected OS versions, including: 

• Windows 8.1 Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU)
• Windows Server SAC (all versions)
• Windows 10 IoT Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC) (all versions)
• Windows Server LTSC (all versions)
• Windows 10 client LTSC (all versions)
• Windows 10 China Government Edition

Developers that implement the Bing Search API could be set for major cost increases after Microsoft unveiled a range of pricing changes.

The changes represent a comprehensive overhaul of pricing tiers for the API. Microsoft told developers the increase will come into effect from 1 May this year and will apply “to all markets”.

“Starting 1 May 2023, you’ll be charged the new price for all Microsoft Bing APIs,” the company said.

“We periodically assess the value and pricing of our services to meet market demands and align the pricing of our products and services with customer consumption trends and preferences.”

This abrupt price hike appears to be directly related to recent tech investments made by the company, namely with the integration of ChatGPT in Bing.

“The new pricing model reflects more accurately the technology investments Bing continues to make to improve Search,” the company said.

Microsoft unveiled its new sharpened focus on Bing search earlier this month, sparking talk of a looming battle between the Redmond firm and Google in the browser, search, and generative AI spaces.

The firm said the inclusion of chatbot technology within the Bing search engine will enable it to deliver “better search, more complete answers, a new chat experience, and the ability to generate content”.

How will the Bing API price changes work?

Pricing changes for Bing search are split into several separate tiers based on the volume of transactions per second (TPS).

In the S1 tier, for example, which is based on an average of 250 TPS, customers are currently charged $7 per 1,000 transactions for Bing Web Search and $7 per 25,000 transactions for Bing Image Search.

Under the new pricing, this will change to $25 per 1,000 web search transactions and $25 per 25,000 image search transactions, marking a significant average increase for customers on this tier.

Customers on this tier opting for the Optional Bing Statistics Add-in will also see prices rising from $1 per 1,000 transactions to $10, pricing data showed.

This statistics add-on gathers usage details based on the volume of user queries and applies to all Bing search services such as web, image, and news search.

At present, customers that implement Bing search APIs are invoiced “based on number of transactions”, according to Microsoft.

These plans are pay-as-you-go and can incur penalties if the number of TPS is exceeded.

“If you happen to exceed the mentioned number of transactions per second, your usage will be throttled to be within the mentioned limit,” Microsoft says.

With the introduction of the new pricing plan, Microsoft said customers “do not need to take any action” as the changes will take effect “automatically and be reflected in the next billing cycle after the change is activated".

What providers use Bing search APIs?

Several major independent search providers use Bing APIs, including privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo and green search engine Ecosia. How these providers will be impacted by the pricing increase is unclear at present.

IT Pro has approached DuckDuckGo and Ecosia for comment on the matter.

Tightening grip on APIs

Microsoft’s price changes come as several major tech industry players tighten their grip on APIs. Twitter, for example, has been highly vocal about its intentions to overhaul the structuring of its API access.

At the beginning of February, the social media firm revealed it would no longer support free access to the Twitter API and planned to introduce a paid, tier-based system. This move sparked heavy criticism from the developer community.

The implementation of this change has been fraught with delays, however. On 13 February the company said it planned to delay the launch of its new API platform “by a few more days”.

Twitter is yet to reveal additional information on the launch of the new API platform.

You know those annoying messages that say "Press ESC at any time to exit fullscreen. Allow fullscreen?" Here's how to never, ever see those again.

Hide "allow fullscreen" messages in Chrome

To stop the messages, simply head to Google Chrome's "content settings" section of the settings tab, scroll down to Fullscreen and click "Manage exceptions". Or you can just copy chrome://settings/contentExceptions#fullscreen into your address bar, if you don't want to go rummaging through all the confusing settings.

Now, you're going to see a list of sites where you've already allowed fullscreen privileges. For some reason, since the introduction of HTML5 on many websites, this warning has been forced to appear on sites such as YouTube, Vimeo, and just about any site with video.

Now what you want to do is click on the name of one of those sites, and edit the name of it so that it applies to every site anywhere.

Change the name of the site to *://*/* and save the edit. You can see an illustration of this below.

The entry will now disappear from the list instantly - but don't worry! That means it has taken effect.

Congratulations! You'll never have to give your permission to watch a video again. Now, you will still see another message saying "You have gone full screen" whenever you expand a video. We know - we hate it too! But for now, that's going to sticking around until a later version of the browser comes along.

Almost half of Windows 10 machines will be affected by Microsoft killing off Internet Explorer 11.

An audit of more than nine million devices from 33,000 organisations by IT asset management firm Lansweeper found that 47% of PCs will need to upgrade to Microsoft Edge before the cut-off date, 15 June.

After the cut-off date, Internet Explorer 11 for the desktop will automatically redirect users to Microsoft Edge, which will have an 'Internet Explorer (IE) mode' which will be supported until 2029.

If users do not set up IE mode before it's retired, however, they will lose access to those legacy sites and experience "business disruption", Microsoft has warned. There will be an in-product banner notifying users of the end-of-life date, which has already been shown in the Windows 10 Jan 2022 C "preview".

Just 21% of the PC scanned are running the most up-to-date version of Windows 10 (version 21H2 - November 2021 update), according to the report. For corporate devices, version 2004 appears to be the most popular instalment of Windows 10, according to the report, despite there being three further releases since May 2020.

"From our perspective, it's not a complete surprise that only a fifth of the Windows 10 devices are on the latest version, or that Internet Explorer EOL will affect so many," said Roel Decneut, chief strategy officer at Lansweeper.

"There could be many reasons for organisations to delay upgrading, including being more conservative, having more pressing issues to deal with, or simply having no visibility into the version of operating systems they're running. Organisations will need an overview of each device they own when Internet Explorer 11 support finally ends. Without this data, they'll remain vulnerable."

Microsoft did note that it will only phase out Internet Explorer on Windows 10 20H2 and later, and that the end-of-life notice doesn't apply to users of Windows 8.1.

The CEO of web privacy company DuckDuckGo has spoken out to defend the platform after a researcher discovered that it kept its user-tracking agreement with Microsoft quiet.

Public criticism of DuckDuckGo started on Monday as privacy and data supply chain researcher Zach Edwards discovered that DuckDuckGo allowed user data to flow to Microsoft-owned products LinkedIn and Bing.

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused web browser that also has apps for iOS and Android - the two platforms which have been found to leak user data due to DuckDuckGo not blocking specific third-party trackers to Microsoft.

Both Apple App Store and Google Play Store pages for the DuckDuckGo apps claim to offer “seamless protections from third-party trackers while you search and browse”.

However, there is no mention of the agreement with Microsoft to stop loading Microsoft-owned tracking scripts on third-party websites. This means services like LinkedIn and Bing can still gather user browsing data when their trackers are loaded for DuckDuckGo users on other websites.

Gabriel Weinberg, CEO and co-founder of DuckDuckGo, addressed the situation in a lengthy Reddit post on Wednesday, admitting that its contract with Microsoft means the company’s “all-in-one privacy apps” cannot afford the same protections to users as they can from other companies like Google or Meta.

Weinberg said that DuckDuckGo imposes restrictions on all third-party tracking scripts, including Microsoft’s, relating to third-party cookie and fingerprint protection, and also adds an “above and beyond protection” that blocks third-party tracking scripts from loading on websites.

The CEO said this is something that most other browsers don’t attempt to do because blocking such scripts often leads to visited websites breaking.

The reason why DuckDuckGo has to permit Microsoft’s third-party trackers for Microsoft only is due to distribution requirements associated with its agreement to display some Bing search results in its browser.

“While a lot of what you see on our results page privately incorporates content from other sources, including our own indexes (e.g., Wikipedia, Local listings, Sports, etc.), we source most of our traditional links and images privately from Bing (though because of other search technology our link and image results still may look different),” said Weinberg.

“Really only two companies (Google and Microsoft) have a high-quality global web link index (because I believe it costs upwards of a billion dollars a year to do), and so literally every other global search engine needs to bootstrap with one or both of them to provide a mainstream search product.”

DuckDuckGo said it’s currently in ongoing talks with Microsoft to remove this limited restriction, but conceded that its “product is not perfect and never will be. Nothing can provide 100% protection”.

That said, it still believes it offers much greater privacy compared to other browsers and understands the confusion held by users given that it's ultimately a search syndication contract that is preventing DuckDuckGo from doing things unrelated to search.

Weinberg’s response was greeted warmly by users saying the comprehensive and technical explanation was “refreshing” and one user said it improved their perception of the company.

DuckDuckGo’s agreement with Microsoft has been disclosed before and in one article on the company’s help page, it informs users that Microsoft can see the full IP address of a user so it can properly charge advertisers when a user clicks on a Microsoft-provided advert.

“I hope this provides some helpful context,” said Weinberg. “Taking a step back, I know our product is not perfect and will never be. Nothing can provide 100% protection. And we face many constraints: platform constraints (we can't offer all protections on every platform due to limited APIs or other restrictions), limited contractual constraints (like in this case), breakage constraints (blocking some things totally breaks web experiences), and of course the evolving tracking arms race that we constantly work to keep ahead of.

“That's why we have always been extremely careful to never promise anonymity when browsing outside our search engine, because that frankly isn’t possible.”

As well as working with Microsoft to remove the restriction, DuckDuckGo is also working to update its app store pages to more accurately reflect the allowances it makes to Microsoft.

Microsoft Edge has officially surpassed Apple's Safari as the world's second most popular desktop browser, according to web analytics firm StatCounter.

The Edge user base has steadily climbed since the release of Windows 11 and that's helped take it above Safari and keep it there Since March 2022.

Edge now holds 10.07% market share, according to StatCounter, just slightly ahead of Safri on 9.961%. Unsurprisingly Google's Chrome is by far the top desktop browser with a massive 66.64% market share. Below Safari is Firefox, which saw its market share drop from 9.47% in February to just 7.86% three months later.

Still, the rise of Edge is worth noting; it debuted in 2015, initially built on a proprietary browser engine developed by Microsoft. It was the long-awaited replacement for the soon-to-be-binned Internet Explorer, but the original version of Microsoft Edge didn't go down well with users. It was rebuilt three years later on the same Chromium code as Google's Chrome browser. That would now appear to have been a very shrewd decision, along with making Edge the default web browser in Windows 11.

That could very well be the reason Edge isn't as popular on other devices. On mobile, for instance, its market share is almost non-existent. Chrome is again the dominant browser with 63.57% market share and the iOS version of Safari taking up 24.82%. Across all platforms, Edge again trails both Chrome and Safari; Chrome takes up 64.36% while Safari holds 19.13%, compared to just 4.07% for Edge. Again, Firefox makes up the top four with 3.41%.

There is still, however, the potential for Edge to gain more market share considering the slow adoption of Windows 11. Reports suggest that a considerable number of desktops and laptops are still running Windows 10 and as more and more switch they'll be taking on Edge as their default browser.

Google is rolling out two new badges for Chrome to help users avoid risky browser extensions.

The tech giant has already started to apply the new badges to extensions, it said in a blog post.

The first, 'Feature', looks like a ribbon and will be seen on extensions that follow Google's "technical best practices" and or meets its standards of "user experience and design". The idea is to remove the extra hassle of manually evaluating extensions, or making sure developers use the latest APIs. Instead, the company wants users to quickly get to an "enjoyable and intuitive experience".

For the Featured label to be applied, extensions also have to have a detailed store page, which must clearly outline the purpose of the extension. Also, an extension's core features must be accessible without "additional credentials or payments", Google said.

The other badge, which has a checkmark design, will be applied to extensions made by Established Publishers. This is for publishers "who have verified their identity and demonstrated compliance with the developer program policies", according to Google.

However, identity verification alone will not be enough to receive that badge; Google will also require extension creators must demonstrate "a consistently positive track record" with other services and that also means no outstanding developer policy violations. So brand new extension publishers will have to prove themselves elsewhere before having access to that badge and Google noted in its blog post that it could take "at least a few months of respecting these conditions to qualify".

Companies will also not be permitted to pay for either of the new badges, but they can nominate an existing extension as worthy of the Featured badge.

"It has always been our mission to make it easy for users to find great extensions while recognising the publishers who create them," Debbie Kim, Chrome design manager, said in the blog.

Jack Dorsey has taken to social media to apologise for the role he has played in the centralisation of the internet, which he calls a ‘damaging’ development.

The former Twitter CEO took to the platform he founded to make the admission, saying the old days of the internet when communication platforms such as Usenet and IRC were the leaders in the space “were amazing”.

“Centralising discovery and identity into corporations really damaged the internet. I realise I'm partially to blame and regret it,” he said, alluding to his work in creating the social media giant.

Twitter is one of the largest technology companies in the world with hundreds of millions of users and most recently a quarterly revenue of $1.57 billion.

It is also one of the most popular social networking sites and plays an important role in the professional world. Building a personal brand can help raise one’s profile in their respective industry and lead to opportunities thanks to increased networking value.

With access to millions of accounts and personal data, leaders in a centralised internet can harness that data to deliver tailored experiences to users, like recommending adverts that align with their interests or showing them content that would appeal to their passions.

People have become increasingly wary of the power large companies have on the internet and the personal data they safeguard, leading to growing calls for a more decentralised model.

The Onion Router (TOR) is an example of a decentralised internet product, operating on a peer-to-peer network - a decentralised model, though it is often painted in a negative light as it is perhaps most often used to access the dark web.

TOR works only when other users are online, each providing the same amount of computing resources to collectively prop up a network, removing the need for large servers.

Believers in a decentralised internet feel the security that it provides, plus the freedom from corporate and national governance, is a better way for the internet to operate. It would be free of censorship and allow users to own their data, though many think a hard definition for the concept is still under development.

Since founding, and recently leaving, Twitter, Dorsey has become a big proponent of blockchain technology and web3 - a future vision for the next generation of the internet which is largely decentralised - and the technologies that they support like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Dorsey is CEO at Block, which is a company that ties several digital-payments businesses into one, including Square, CashApp, cryptocurrency company SprialBTC, and TBD - a decentralised finance system, as well as music platform Tidal.

Microsoft is releasing an update this week that will allow users to switch their default browser in Windows 11 with a single click.

The change was first revealed in December when the tech giant began testing the feature in response to criticism from rival browser providers.

Windows 11, which launched last year, didn't offer a simplified way to switch the default browser, a feature that was always available on Windows 10. Instead, users had to change individual file extensions or protocol handlers for HTTP, HTTPS, HTML and HTM. The only other option was to tick a checkbox that appeared once when the user clicks a link from outside the browser.

Microsoft was initially resistant to the complaints, defending its decision to implement a more complex switching method, but companies like Mozilla, Brave and even Google Chrome made it clear that they didn't agree with the approach Microsoft had taken.

In August last year, Firefox senior VP Selena Deckelmann told IT Pro that Microsoft had put confusing barriers in place that "at best and seem designed to undermine a user's choice for a non-Microsoft browser".

That has now finally changed with the latest update; users can simply head into the default apps section and search for their preferred browser. From there a new button will appear asking if they would like to make that browser the default. That takes all that work with file handlers and condenses it into a single click, which should please users and rival providers.

Since its launch in October, Microsoft has added more and more changes through regular updates and insider builds. The firm has used both to listen to and respond to user feedback and make swift changes to its flagship OS. However, there is likely to be more on the horizon as the tech giant has a Windows 11 Hybrid work event on 5 April, where new features could be unveiled.

Apple released new versions of its operating systems across its entire portfolio of devices on Monday with business users benefiting from a range of new features.

Apple has launched new versions across macOS, iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS, but the most pertinent features for businesses come with macOS Monterey 12.3, iPadOS 15.4, and iOS 15.4, but Safari’s latest update may also be of interest.

macOS 12.3 business features

The standout new feature for macOS Monterey 12.3 beta is the long-awaited beta of Universal Control that allows a single mouse and keyboard to be used across Mac and iPad devices.

It aims to improve workflows for users running both types of devices, or two Mac devices, and should not be confused with Sidecar - a much earlier feature that allows an iPad to be used as an external display.

Universal Control allows users to type text and drag and drop files between Macs and iPads each running their own operating systems. Macs will need to have macOS Monterey 12.3 installed while iPads will need to have iPadOS 15.4 installed for the feature to work.

An assortment of bug fixes and miscellaneous system enhancements are also included, such as additional Safari translation languages, and saved passwords can now include notes.

Cosmetic features also come in abundance. These include improved battery readings accuracy, a new Siri voice, and a selection of new emojis, among others.

M1 Macs also get spatial audio when using AirPods on the machine, these can be enabled or disabled in the Settings menu.

iOS 15.4 business features

The headline feature that comes with the latest version of iOS for iPhones is that upgrades to Face ID now allow users to unlock their phones while wearing a mask.

The feature has also been extended for use with Apple Pay which will make life easier for those using contactless payments in their office commutes, and password autofill in apps too.

Bug fixes are also addressed such as those relating to iCloud synchronisation and keyboard issues. Similar cosmetic improvements as those brought to macOS Monterey 12.3 beta are also included with the expansion of the emoji catalogue. Siri’s additional voice also come across to mobile and it can also now provide the time and date when the device is offline.

Safari features for businesses and developers

The Safari 15.4 beta ships as standard with all new iOS, iPadOS, and macOS versions, and is the first major update since Apple released a range of urgent security fixes in macOS Monterey 12.2 back in February.

New additions to HTML and CSS capabilities arrive in droves, as well as JavaScript, allowing web developers to make it easier to implement features with less custom code.

The latest Safari version also introduces a number of new Web APIs, new web extensions, and security fixes. For full details, check out Apple’s developer release notes.

Companies behind the world’s most popular browsers have assembled for the first time to make the web more interoperable and easier to build upon for developers.

The group consists of members from Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Apple, as well as tech consultancies Igalia and Bocoup. The group aims to identify common interoperability issues in web standards so developers can build better experiences for the web.

Web developers have identified 15 platform specifications that are particularly troublesome when it comes to building browser experiences. These are either are not supported by some browsers or are implemented in different ways, making it difficult to build applications that work optimally across all major browsers.

The group has built the Interop 2022 benchmark, alongside a series of tests that browsers will undergo in order to determine their overall interoperability with other browsers on the market, to identify areas for improvement.

Interop 2022 builds upon last year's Compat 2021 initiative, which saw Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft work together to iron out five common pain points for web browser compatibility issues. The work culminated in December 2021, when it announced all major browsers scored above 90% compatibility on the five key pain points.

"The Interop benchmark focuses on key areas that have been identified by developers as challenging for them when developing web applications," said Joachim Herschmann, senior director analyst at Gartner to IT Pro. "It will help developers to improve the quality of their products by offering a frame of reference they can use to ensure that their applications will be compatible with the three major browser implementations.

"By taking advantage of modern AI-augmented test automation solutions, specifically those that offer visual testing capabilities driven by deep learning algorithms, they can run tests to check for any remaining inconsistent experiences across different browsers."

The new areas of focus are added in the Interop 2022 benchmark alongside the five from Compat 2021. The new areas include cascade layers, new viewport units, scrolling, and subgrid.

The group said the five areas of focus from Compat 2021 “made great progress… but there is still room for improvement”. These areas included: CSS aspect ratio, CSS flexbox, CSS grid, CSS sticky positioning, and CSS transforms.

In addition to the 15 focus areas, Interop 2022 will also introduce three “investigation efforts” - problem areas that need improvement but the current state of specifications or tests are currently good enough to be able to score progress using test results. These include editing, contneteditable and execCommand; pointer and mouse events; and viewport measurement.

Each of the 15 areas of focus can be tracked in the web-platform-tests dashboard and have had a set of tests identified to track their progress. Browsers are given scores for each area and then an overall score to easily compare the performance of each.

Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge have been bundled into the same category given they both run on Chromium, while Firefox and Safari each have their own scores.

All four browsers score roughly the same for interoperability on the key focus areas, but the scores are markedly lower compared to the Compat 2021 scores and vary wildly for each browser in each area.

Chrome, Edge, and Safari scored just 10% on the subgrid tests, for example, while Firefox scored 95%. Conversely, Chrome, Edge, and Safari scored 100% on the viewport unit tests while Firefox scored just 16%.

These scores highlight the challenges for interoperability show how far developers typically have to tailor their code so web experiences work on all platforms, even when support is limited on some but not others.

The goal of the Interop 2022 initiative is to remove these vast discrepancies in scores and make them more even, indicating a greater level of interoperability in the world's most popular browsers.

“The goal of these multi-year interoperability efforts, in the form of Compat 2021, Interop 2022 and much more, is to fully acknowledge and address the pain points developers have experienced through for many years,” said technical writer Rachel Andrew, developer advocate Robert Nyman, and software engineer Philip Jägenstedt, all of which work for Google.

“And it's not a one-browser effort but rather a strong collaboration between all major browser vendors and friends for improving the web platform across the board.

“In essence, the goal is to make the web platform more usable and reliable for developers, so that they can spend more time building great web experiences instead of working around browser inconsistencies.”

Microsoft's Edge browser is on the verge of knocking Apple's Safari from the second most popular spot on desktop systems.

According to browser-tracking company GlobalStats, there's just a 0.3% gap between the two.

In January 2021, Safari had a strong second-place position with 10.38% of the desktop browser market. Firefox was in third place with 8.1%, while Edge languished in fourth with 7.81%.

Firefox lost significant ground last year, dipping to a low of 7.17% in June. Mozilla's loss was Microsoft's gain as Edge moved into third place in April. Its share of the desktop market has grown consistently from June, when it stood at 8.01%.

In January this year, Edge had narrowed Safari's lead. Apple's browser still sat in second place with 9.84%, while Edge had 9.54% of the market. Firefox stood at 9.18%.

The gap between Microsoft and Apple has been roughly the same at around 0.3% for the last three months, the narrowest it has ever been. When Microsoft launched the Chromium version of Edge in January 2020, it had a market share of just 0.02%. If the trend continues, Microsoft stands a chance of edging Apple out of second place.

Chrome, which leads the market on the desktop, has also lost ground since Edge's Chromium-based version appeared. In January 2020 it had 68.78% of the desktop browser market, and now it has a 65.38% share.

While Edge is gaining ground on the desktop, it is invisible on mobile platforms. Although Microsoft publishes an Android version of the browser, it doesn't show up in GlobatStats' figures. Instead, after Chrome (62.06%) and Safari (26.71%), Samsung sits in third place with 5.26% of the market.

Researchers have found a bug in Apple's Safari browser that allows websites to track a user's browsing activities across other sites.

The bug, discovered by browser fingerprinting service FingerprintJS, also exposes a user's unique ID for some websites to other sites that they visit.

The flaw, found in Apple's WebKit browser engine, affects Safari 15 on macOS and all browsers on iOS and iPadOS 15. It lies in WebKit's implementation of the Indexed Database API, commonly called IndexedDB, a JavaScript API that browsers use to access a database of objects, and it frequently stores data generated while interacting with a web application. This includes a user's unique ID for interacting with web applications, such as their Google ID.

When properly implemented, IndexedDB follows the same-origin principle. This ensures that information stored from a web page is only available to web pages from the same domain. It stops over-inquisitive web pages from accessing other domain's stored information, which could include sensitive user or session data.

FingerprintJS found that WebKit's IndexedDB implementation fails to observe the same-origin principle, instead making stored information available to web sites from other domains.

FingerprintJS called the bug a privacy violation. "It lets arbitrary websites learn what websites the user visits in different tabs or windows," the company said in its analysis of the bug. "This is possible because database names are typically unique and website-specific."

The company found some websites using user-specific IndexedDB data such as ID numbers in their IndexedDB database names, making it easy for any other website to find out a user's ID on other sites. Using this ID to look up the user's assets (such as profile pictures) could allow identification of the user, the company warned. Google websites store ID numbers in this way, making it possible for other sites to harvest Google IDs using the bug.

The bug affects all browsers on iOS 15 because Apple mandates the use of WebKit on this platform in its developer guidelines. Section 2.5.6 says "Apps that browse the web must use the appropriate WebKit framework and WebKit Javascript."

FingerprintJS said that it had notified Apple of this bug on November 28 but Apple had not not patched it. Apple's engineers began creating a patch on Sunday February 17, the day that FingerprintJS published details of the bug.

Mozilla has temporarily suspended the option to donate cryptocurrencies to the Mozilla Foundation following backlash from users.

The announcement came mere days after the non-profit organisation issued a statement over Twitter reminding its followers that they can make a donation using bitcoin payment service provider BitPay.

This was met with criticism from environmental activists and software developers alike, with Mozilla’s original founder Jamie Zawinski stating that the organisation “should be witheringly ashamed of this decision to partner with planet-incinerating Ponzi grifters”.

April King, who created the site testing tool Mozilla Observatory and the Mozilla SSL Configuration Generator before leaving the organisation in 2020 to join Twitter, said that she “cannot begin to express” her disappointment with the decision to accept cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies have been tied to excessive energy use, with a recent Cambridge University research finding that the annual consumption of Bitcoin is greater than the total energy consumption of the Philippines, which has a population of 110 million. Another study found that only 39% of the electricity powering the Bitcoin mining process comes from renewable sources, with a hefty 61% coming from power stations fuelled by natural gas, oil, and coal.

Twitter users were also quick to point out that supporting cryptocurrencies is at odds with Mozilla’s commitment to reducing emissions and becoming a carbon-neutral organisation.

On Thursday, Mozilla announced that it is “reviewing if and how our current policy on crypto donations fits with our climate goals”.

“And as we conduct our review, we will pause the ability to donate cryptocurrency,” the organisation said in a statement posted to Twitter.

In a response published hours later on his blog, Zawinski said that he is “happy” to have contributed to having Mozilla “rescind that terrible decision”.

However, the option to donate using cryptocurrency may return in the future, with Mozilla adding that “decentralized web technology continues to be an important area (...) to explore”.

The news of the temporary suspension comes hours after Kosovo became the latest nation to ban cryptocurrency mining in an effort to curb energy consumption following a series of blackouts across the country.

Mozilla isn’t the only organisation to face backlash over its stance on cryptocurrencies; Tesla suspended vehicle purchases using bitcoin last year due to its high energy use, with the company shifting its attention to alternative, more sustainable cryptocurrencies.

Russia has blocked the Tor Project's website, prompting the non-profit online anonymity service to call for help.

Tor, which develops software to support anonymous online services and web surfing, reported the block on Tuesday. Its community had noticed individual ISPs in Russia blocking the Tor website over the previous week, which has since culminated in a country-level block by the Russian Federal Service of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor).

Alongside the main website block, the Project also noted that the default Tor bridges (private relays that interface to its onion-routing network) are no longer working in some parts of Russia. The team responded to the blocks by asking for more Tor bridges to help Russians use the service.

It also called on others to pressure the Russian government. "International digital rights and human rights organizations must pressure Russia's government to immediately revert this censorship," it said.

Tor has already been struggling to find enough people to run Tor bridges. Last month, it launched a campaign offering project swag to new bridge operators.

A researcher also found earlier this month that a sophisticated threat actor has been operating thousands of malicious computers at all points in the Tor network since 2017 in an assumed attempt to deanonymize users.

Russia has been steadily introducing new measures to control its internet infrastructure and wall itself off from the outside world. This includes multiple tests of a system to disconnect itself entirely from the global internet. Its Runet law, which came into force in 2019, introduced stronger measures to centralize traffic filtering and blocking.

According to the Tor Project, Russia has the second largest number of Tor network users, numbering over 300,000 daily users or 15% of all Tor users.

Mozilla is shipping a security technology with Firefox 95 that it hopes will stop zero-day attacks targeting users of the browser.

Called RLBox, the new feature will take a more granular approach to sandboxing, a security approach that runs website code in its own walled-off section of memory to avoid malicious components affecting the rest of the system.

In a blog post announcing the feature, Mozilla distinguished engineer Bobby Holley highlighted a problem with existing browser sandboxing technology, which isolates web site processes in individual sandboxes, and is vulnerable to chained attacks.

Malware developers can compromise the process first, and then escape the sandbox, it warns. It also limits the extent to which code can be separated into different sandboxed processes because of the memory overhead involved.

Developed in conjunction with the University of California San Diego and the University of Texas, RLBox complements process-based isolation with a new approach. It compiles code as native code via WebAssembly, which is a portable compilation format.

This makes each separately compiled piece of native code safer, because it can't access memory outside of a specified region and can't make any unexpected jumps. The new approach makes it possible to run different pieces of trusted and untrusted code in the same process without them affecting each other.

"RLBox is a big win for us on several fronts: it protects our users from accidental defects as well as supply-chain attacks, and it reduces the need for us to scramble when such issues are disclosed upstream," said Holley.

RLBox is a stand-alone project that Mozilla first trialed on macOS and Linux users last year. It is now deploying it across all Firefox platforms, including mobile systems.

Mozilla will begin with RLBox support for the Graphite font rendering system, the Hunspell spell checker, and the Ogg multimedia container format in Firefox 95. It will follow this up in Firefox 96 with support for the Expat XML parser and Woff2, the font compression technology used in the browser.

"Going forward, we can treat these modules as untrusted code, and — assuming we did it right — even a zero-day vulnerability in any of them should pose no threat to Firefox," Holley said. He also hoped that other browsers would adopt the open-source technology.

Mozilla has updated its bug bounty program to reward researchers for escaping the sandbox technology without exploiting vulnerabilities in an isolated component.

Microsoft has backtracked on plans that made it more difficult to switch their default browser in Windows 11.

The company has introduced a button to set the default browser in the latest developer build of the operating system that will make it easier for people to use alternative browsers to its own Edge product.

Microsoft had changed the way that people set default browsers in Windows 11. Windows 10 included an easy option to change the default browser. It also presented a prompt that appeared when they opened an alternative browser, enabling them to set it as the default.

In Windows 11, that prompt appears only once when a user opens a newly installed browser for the first time. Unless the user remembers to select "always use this app" as an option, it won't be selected as a default and the operating system doesn't prompt them again.

In earlier builds of Windows 11, users had to change the default browser manually using a more difficult process than before. Now, they must select the default application to open particular file types. Because browsers can open multiple file types, including .htm and .html files, PDFs, SVG and others, this means manually setting multiple file types.

Microsoft appears to have rethought its process after public criticism. The Verge reported on a tweet by Windows application developer Rafael Rivera which confirmed a button that enables users to set the default browser in Windows build 22509.

The build, released to the Dev channel this week, allows the user to set the default browser for HTTP, HTTPS, HTML and HTM files with a single option.

The latest Edge developments come after Microsoft last month introduced a default extension that enables people to use credit when buying products in Edge. The company rolled out the Zip buy-now-pay-later service in the browser, even for merchants that didn't ask for it. They would have to contact Microsoft to switch it off for their customers, Microsoft said.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has provisionally approved a "privacy sandbox" proposal from Google as a replacement for third-party cookies on the Chrome browser.

The decision comes after the CMA launched an investigation into Google following allegations of anti-competitive behaviour.

The sandbox aims to address privacy concerns by removing the cross-site tracking of Chrome users through third-party cookies and other forms of tracking. Instead, the sandbox will create a set of alternative tools to provide the functionalities that are currently dependent on cross-site tracking, according to the CMA.

The UK's competition regulator has been working closely with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), as well as its international counterparts, to assess Google's plans. The watchdog was keen to secure an outcome that would "work for everyone".

The CMA chief executive Andrea Coscelli said the watchdog had been "clear" that Google's efforts to protect user's privacy could not come at the cost of reduced competition.

"We welcome Google's co-operation and are grateful to all the interested parties who engaged with us during the consultation," Coscelli said.

"If accepted, the commitments we have obtained from Google become legally binding, promoting competition in digital markets, helping to protect the ability of online publishers to raise money through advertising and safeguarding users' privacy."

Round 40 third-party organisations agreed with the CMA's competition concerns, but also suggested certain commitments to strengthen several areas, such as increasing Google's transparency and engagement with the industry. It was also recommended that there should be improvements to the provisions on Google self-preferencing its advertising products and services and bolstering the monitoring of Google's compliance.

To address those points, Google has offered to mention the CMA's involvement in key public announcements, regularly report to the watchdog, clarify all internal limits on the data Google uses and improve the provisions on reporting and compliance, including by appointing a CMA-approved monitoring trustee.

Mozilla has announced that its Firefox Lockwise password manager will reach end-of-life on 13 December.

The final versions of the plug-in will be 1.8.1 for iOS and 4.0.3 for Android, after that it will no longer be available for download or reinstallment.

Lockwise joins several defunct projects Mozilla has taken down to try and streamline its business and become more profitable. Over the last few years, the company has shut down the team building the operating system for the failed Firefox phone, as well as binning off a file transfer tool and the Thunderbird email platform. There is, however, an Android replacement for the password manager - Firefox 93 for Android - that was released last month.

Firefox Lockwise was launched in 2018, originally as a small experimental mobile app (named Lockbox at that point) that ended up bringing a way to access saved passwords and perform autofills on iOS, Android, and even desktops. It was later adapted as a Firefox extension, but with only a four-year lifespan.

In a support article posted by Mozilla, users are advised to continue accessing passwords via the native Firefox browser on desktop and mobile. There is also a note on the support site suggesting that the Firefox iOS app will gain the ability to manage Firefox passwords system-wide later in December. This might mean that Mozilla adopts the features of Lockwise and eventually integrates them into the Firefox browser apps for all platforms.

Mozilla laid off around 250 people - roughly a quarter of its workforce - in 2020 to refocus its business on projects that make money. CEO Mitchell Baker wrote in a blog post, at the time, that the company's plans leading up to the outbreak of COVID have become "no longer workable" after it became a pandemic.

As part of the layoffs, Baker laid out a series of new focuses for Mozilla to set a stronger course for the company, such as building new products that "mitigate harms" and "that people love and want" to use, and also to build out new revenue streams.

Over the last few years, internet users have grown accustomed to seeing notifications pop up on websites they visit, alerting them they use cookies and urging their acceptance. Those notifications may also invite you to read the website’s cookie policy — something users rarely do. The messages also tell you such cookies will enhance your experience, even if the message seems to spoil that experience rather than improve it.

But what are these life-enhancing cookies? What do they do? Why are they necessary? Do they enhance or degrade your privacy? Read on to find out.

What is a cookie

In short, a cookie is a plain text file with no executable code that stores data that identifies your computer as you use the internet. This file is a necessity when browsing the web, as it allows web developers to give users a more personalized experience by remembering who you are, what your website login information is, and what the contents of your shopping cart is.

Cookies use a unique ID for you and your computer. When cookies are exchanged between the browser and the website, the server reads the ID and knows what information to give to you. Cookies can be split into two types: HTTP cookies and magic cookies.

What is a magic cookie?

Before the modern web, Unix programmers used a magic cookie, a data token passed from a server to a browser to track and authenticate a user on the system. A magic cookie differs from a data packet, as it contains no readable data. Rather, it contains path information to reach a server.

This cookie is a bit like a coat check ticket given out by a coatroom attendant. It has no intrinsic meaning, but unique enough to be exchanged for the correct coat when returned to the attendant.

What is an HTTP cookie?

Fast forward to the modern age, and we have the HTTP cookie. An HTTP cookie is like a magic cookie but created for the internet.

Founding Netscape engineer Lou Montulli invented it in 1994, taking inspiration from the magic cookie. Montulli applied the concept of a magic cookie to internet communications.

Montulli’s original specification provides basic information about how cookies work, which was formalized in RFC 2109. This was a way to help websites remember the users visiting them.

In essence, an HTTP cookie is a small piece of data a web server sends to the user's browser. The browser may store this cookie and send it back to the same server with more requests. HTTP is a stateless protocol and doesn’t remember users. Cookies are stateful in that they remember important data.

The five types of HTTP cookies

There are five types of cookies used in web browsing.

• Session cookies: These cookies are created in a browser’s subfolder temporarily during a website visit. When a user leaves that site, the cookie is deleted.
• Persistent cookies: These cookies stay in a browser subfolder after a user leaves a website. They become active again when a user comes back to the same website. This cookie stays in that folder until the expiration date set within the cookie.
• Third-party cookies: This cookie is set by a domain other than the one appearing in the address bar of a user’s browser. These cookies track user browsing behaviors and help serve up ads that may interest the user.
• Secure cookies: A secure cookie can only be used over an encrypted connection, such as HTTPS. To secure a cookie, a secure flag is added to the cookie in its file. Browsers that support this functionality will only send secure flagged cookies when a request is for a web page encrypted using HTTPS.
• HTTP Only Cookie: This cookie can only be accessed by a web server and not by a script running in the client. This is added protection for session cookies.

What is inside a cookie?

As mentioned earlier, cookies store information about the browser to identify it to a web server. They have several attributes within them.

• Name: This specifies the cookie’s name.
• Value - This specifies the cookie’s value.
• Secure – This specifies whether the cookie should only be downloaded over a secure HTTPS connection.
• Domain – This specifies the domain of the cookie. To make the cookie available to sub-domains, the domain would be set to, for example, abc.com. Setting it to www.abc.com would make it available only in the www subdomain.
• Path – this specifies the server path of the cookie, i.e. the URL path the cookie is valid in. If set to “/” it can be available to the entire domain. If set to “/abc/”, it can only be used in the “abc” directory and all its sub-directories.
• HTTPOnly - If set to TRUE, the cookie can only be accessed through the HTTP protocol. This is used to prevent cross-site scripting attacks and decrease identity theft.

Are cookies safe?

In themselves, cookies are harmless because they can’t store executable code. Most cookies are safe to use, but some have malicious intent. These cookies can track what you do over time, building up a picture of you as an internet user.

Other applications, such as spyware, can harvest any personal information stored in them, such as location, passwords, auto-completion details, etc. Unauthorized access to cookies is known as cookie hijacking. Should a hacker gain access to session or permanent cookies, they could get unauthorized access to websites someone has previously logged in to, then access the account without login details.

This can lead to problems, such as credit card information theft, unauthorized access to personal email or other accounts, etc.

But there is another type of problem cookie: a zombie cookie. While this won’t try to eat your flesh, it is hard to get rid of. These third-party cookies can be permanently installed on a user’s computer, even if they opted out of receiving cookies. Even when deleted, they can be reinstalled.

Zombie cookies took advantage of flaws in Adobe Flash Player. Tracking cookies could be created and stored in the Adobe Flash directory rather than a browser folder. This cookie then makes sure any cookie in the browser folder that a user deletes is recreated, coming “back from the dead.”

Zombie cookies can track your activity across different browsers.

Yet another good reason to get Flash off a computer.

While disabling cookies is a non-starter because so many websites use them, disabling third-party cookies can bolster security. Users should also avoid accepting cookies from unencrypted websites, as there is no security to protect your data, meaning it could be stolen and used in identity theft.

Browser caches should also be cleared regularly. Users should be wary of visiting unknown websites and handing over personal information, as their cookie security may not be as good as one would hope.

The Mozilla Foundation has announced that its open source Firefox browser is finally available in the Microsoft Store.

This marks a first for Mozilla. Until recently, it was unable to list its browser on the store because Microsoft required all browsers to use the browser engine it built into its platform, which meant Mozilla's Gecko didn't qualify. Microsoft lifted those restrictions in June.

"Previously, if you were on Windows and wanted to use Firefox, you had to download it from the internet and go through a clunky process from Microsoft," said Mozilla. “Now that Microsoft has changed its Store policies, choosing Firefox as your desktop browser is even more seamless."

The Foundation touted Firefox features including its anti-tracking and anti-cookie technologies, along with DNS over HTTPS, which stops network snoopers from discovering Firefox users' browsing habits.

Microsoft rebooted its online store for Windows 11 last month. It comes with some significant upgrades, including the ability for app developers with their own commerce models to keep all of their app revenue. Game developers pay a cut, but it's only 12% of the revenue (far less than Apple and Google take). It also allowed companies to publish other storefront apps in its store.

The company launched the store for Windows 11 in early October, announcing it would be available for Windows 10 users in the coming months.

Mozilla said it was the first major browser to be available on the Windows Store. Microsoft has also welcomed Opera and the Yandex browser into the web store.

Firefox is one of the few mainstream browsers left using an engine that isn't Chromium-based. Microsoft switched its Edge browser to Chromium in 2019. Apple's Safari, which uses its WebKit engine, is the other holdout.

Google's Chrome holds 64.7% of the browser market according to Statcounter, while Safari has a 19% share. Firefox lags in fourth place, with a 3.7% share, behind Edge with 4%.

Microsoft's Edge browser for Linux is now available for all users rather than just experimental ones. That makes it available for all major operating systems, bringing it in line with its major competitors Chrome and Firefox.

The company explained the browser has graduated to the stable channel, meaning it's available for mainstream users.

The stable release is available for Linux distributions including Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu.

"This milestone officially rounds out the full complement of major platforms served by Microsoft Edge through stable channel: Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and now Linux," said the company.

Microsoft launched the Linux version of the browser in October 2020, making it initially available in preview builds and aiming it primarily at developers. The preview version didn't include all user features, including omitting the ability to sign in via Microsoft accounts. The company added more features in later versions of the product, introducing sign in and sync support for personal Microsoft accounts in March this year.

Edge for Linux graduated from the Dev channel to the Beta channel in May, signaling it was more stable and introducing more features.

Microsoft Edge originally ran on its own engine, but Microsoft switched to the open source Chromium engine also powering other browsers, including Google's Chrome and the Vivaldi browser. Microsoft removed the legacy version from Windows 10 in April.

Microsoft Edge has seen growth recently, gaining market share from Chrome. In 2020, a report indicated Chrome usage decreased from 69.94% in September to 69.25% a month later while Edge use increased from 8.84% to 10.22%.

Internet browsers do not come with filters, a problem that plagues workplaces and schools alike.

According to InsideView, Americans spend 10 work minutes a day watching soccer, which translates to a whopping $121.7 million in lost productivity. Many universities have found themselves in a similar bind, as workarounds help students circumvent firewalls, and the same is true of public libraries seeking to limit visitors’ access to social media networks.

Malware lurking on seemingly innocuous websites is another cause for concern. In a 2020 Twitter hack that targeted Tesla CEO Elon Musk and former US presidents, among others, scammers netted $121,000 from over 400 Bitcoin transactions.

Web filters help administrators mitigate issues by blocking inappropriate sites.

Typically imposed without consent, web filtering is comparable to internet censorship. Web filtering helps enterprises identify and disable access to websites that pose a security risk or hinder employee productivity in its most basic form.

Read on to discover different types of filters, customizations, specific use cases, and more.

Web filtering methods

There are three key ways web filters determine which sites are safe and which to block. These processes are as follows.

1. Whitelists and blacklists

By and large, filters for the web rely on whitelists or blacklists.

The former includes a list of domain names, URLs, and ports an organization deems appropriate and safe for use. A whitelist is also known as an allowed list.

Blacklists or blocked lists do the opposite; they prevent users from accessing specific websites. Each site is manually entered or imported from a database that constantly updates links to potentially harmful or counterproductive websites.

2. Keyword filtering

A keyword-based filter restricts access to websites containing offensive, derogatory, or obscene words.

Even with its broad scope, a keyword filter is far from perfect. Numerous domains and accounts are denied registration due to overly restrictive filters. In addition to blocking legitimate websites, false positives can also cause social unrest.

For instance, a news site owned by the anti-LGBT American Family Association replaced every use of "gay" with "homosexual" in a 2008 article about sprinter Tyson Gay, referring to him as “Tyson Homosexual.”

In April 2021, Facebook's algorithm took down the official page of French town Bitche. When Facebook learned of the error, it apologized and restored the page.

3. Category filtering

Web category filtering blocks websites based on the category of content they contain. Web filters typically censor topics such as pornography, violence, and hate. When combined with keyword filters, category filters provide greater accuracy.

Types of web filters

On top of the various filtering methods, there are several types of filters, ranging from your ISP blocking a site to a simple search engine filter.

1. Domain name system filter

Domain names are human-friendly representations of IP addresses. Despite being easy to remember, they are specific to each website. For example, the domain name of Yahoo is “yahoo.com.”

Domain name system (DNS) translates domain names into machine-readable IP addresses.

When users type a domain name into their browser, their device sends a DNS query to a DNS resolver, a webserver dedicated to handling DNS queries.

By intercepting DNS queries that precede HTTP connection requests, DNS filters block access to a domain. Essentially, a DNS filter blocks a website and its associated web pages.

This is an all-or-nothing approach, as DNS filters do not support selective blocking.

2. Internet service provider-level filter

As misinformation, clickbait, and hate speech rise, governments are compelled to enact new and ingenious control measures. One such solution is to have an internet service provider (ISP) install a limiting filter.

Content-limited ISPs restrict access to a set portion of the internet, eliminating all sites the government deems inappropriate. As guidelines are subject to change, most ISPs offer the ability to lock or unlock their services dynamically.

By and large, subscribers do not have an option to opt out of this network-level filter. ISPs also work to block malicious websites that trick users into revealing sensitive information, such as usernames, passwords, and credit card numbers.

3. Search engine filter

The internet is home to close to a billion websites, making it nearly impossible to manually bar illicit videos, images, and content from search results. There are, however, search-engine-based security layers.

Search engines, such as Google and Bing, offer a safety filter. When turned on, the safe search filter prevents explicit content, such as pornography, from appearing in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Nevertheless, safety filters cannot prevent users from navigating directly to explicit websites.

4. Browser-based filter

Browser-based filters are typically lightweight, easy-to-install extensions. Despite their limited scope, extensions remain a popular choice among users seeking fewer distractions.

A case in point is StayFocused, a productivity extension for Google Chrome. StayFocused lets you whitelist websites during a specific period, allowing you to indulge in some calculated idle browsing.

Once you reach your time limit, the blocked sites remain inaccessible for the remainder of the day. You may also block an entire website or selectively exclude subdomains.

Though they are effective, you can easily circumvent browser-based filters by switching browsers. For instance, if you block Facebook on Chrome, you can still access it through Firefox.

Considering how easy it is to bypass browser-based filters, businesses seldom use them in professional settings.

Note: No filter, whether browser- or ISP-based, is failsafe. From proxy servers to VPNs, there are ways to slip past web filters. Additionally, users can bypass content-control filters by connecting to an uncensored device remotely.

The bottom line

An overly aggressive filter may block bona fide websites from time to time, making it a struggle to find that perfect balance. However, the fact remains that a wide range of cultures and contexts complicate selective blocking.

There will always be false positives, as filters are less likely to be all-inclusive.

Microsoft has been accused of making it harder to switch default browsers in Windows 11, prompting complaints from browser competitors like Firefox and Opera.

The tech giant has changed the way users can set default apps on its new operating system, according to The Verge. Similar to Windows 10, a prompt appears when a user installs a new browser or opens a web link for the first time.

The problem lies with a change in the way default browser apps are handled in Windows 11. Where Windows 10 allowed users to change default apps based on a program, Windows 11 requires users to set defaults by file or link type instead, much in the same way that PDFs or image extensions are handled.

For example, in Chrome, this means individually changing the default behaviour for HTM, HTML, PDF, SHTML, SVG, WEBP, XHT, XHTML, FTP, HTTP, and HTTPs, with each having its own drop-down menu.

Rival browsers tend to prompt users to set them as default, forcing them to navigate the default apps part of settings to do this.

Critics have argued that this creates unnecessary complications in what otherwise should be a simple process, causing many users to simply stick with Edge.

“Being able to select your preferred web browser is essential to shaping the internet experience that everyone deserves,” Selena Deckelmann, senior vice president of Firefox said to IT Pro. ”We have been increasingly worried about the trend on Windows. Since Windows 10, users have had to take additional and unnecessary steps to set and retain their default browser settings. These barriers are confusing at best and seem designed to undermine a user’s choice for a non-Microsoft browser.”

Krystian Kolondra, Opera’s EVP and head of desktop browsers, told IT Pro that it is “unfortunate” when a platform vendor is “obscurifying a common use case to improve the standing of their own product”.

“We would like to encourage all platform vendors to respect user choice and allow competition on their platforms. Taking away user choice is a step backwards,” added Kolondra.

IT Pro has contacted Google and Microsoft for comment.

Opera has released a host of new features for its Chromebook web browser to position itself as a full-featured alternative to Chrome that's also fully optimised for ChromeOS.

The new web browser boasts tools that are not available in the standard Chrome OS, such as a free browser VPN, built-in messengers, an ad blocker, and five different colour themes.

Opera suggests that its tweaked Android version is a simple and fast laptop browser, with "custom-made optimisations that deliver a full-fledged laptop experience". The major changes will allow users more 'laptop-style' controls, including keyboard shortcuts such as 'Ctrl+T' for opening new tabs and 'Ctrl+L' for focusing the address bar.

What's more, Opera suggests it has developed the only browser that lets users access chat functions without disrupting their work or the browser itself. Apps for Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Telegram are built-in, so users won't have to reach for a phone or specifically go to the website of each service.

The decision to develop an alternative for Chrome was largely based on a study conducted by Opera that found users wanted more than one browser, particularly for different purposes. Opera claims to be the first company to provide an alternative browser to Chrome that's optimised for ChromeOS, since the operating system launched back in 2011.

"Chromebooks, with their user-friendly interface and touchscreens, are excellent devices for people's everyday needs," said Stefan Stjernelund, product manager of Opera for Android. "We decided it's high time their users got access to an excellent alternative browser with a unique set of features they'll find both useful and fun."

The timing is also key, with Chromebook demand reaching an all-time high during the pandemic; according to Canalys, 11.2 million units were shipped between October and December 2020, which represents a 287% increase year-on-year. According to Opera, this highlights how important Chrome OS has become as it offers convenience for workers and students alike.

The Norwegian firm also expects a further 40 million units to be shipped during 2021.

Mozilla has "reimagined" the user interface (UI) of its Firefox browser by introducing a more intuitive aesthetic as well as functionality tweaks to improve the overall experience and attract more users to the privacy-oriented web browser.

Key to version 89's new look is a dramatic reduction in the number of prompts and notifications that demand users' attention, as well as actions on the menu bar.

Tab design, too, has been reworked so they float neatly alongside one another, while also being detached from the browser so users can move and rearrange them at will.

Alongside these aesthetic improvements, Mozilla has upped the ante on its privacy protections with the integration of a feature dubbed Total Cookie Protection in its private browsing mode. This tool was previously only available in Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) mode, and allows all users to block cookies from tracking them around the web by creating a separate 'cookie jar' for each site.

"We set out in 2021 to reimagine Firefox's design to be fast, modern, and inviting the first time you run it and every day after," said Mozilla's senior vice president for Firefox, Selena Deckelmann. "We've always had your back on privacy, and still do.

"Now with today's new Firefox release, we're also bringing you a modern new look designed to streamline and calm things down so you have a fresh new web experience every time you use Firefox."

Deckelmann added that the development team had set out to implement a swathe of minor and subtle changes to improve users' browser experience without making the overall change too obvious.

Tweaks have also been made with browsing habits in mind, with the team analysing 17 billion clicks per month to determine which elements users were interacting with the most, and which were more or less redundant. This analysis also gave the team insights over varying browsing behaviour by country, with the UK being home to the most 'tab hoarders'.

Underpinning the new UI is web navigation, with fewer icons in and around the main address bar, and fewer prompts to distract the eye. Menus, too, are less cluttered with different kinds of settings, and give a clearer idea as to where different options will direct users.

The reworked tab design, meanwhile, aims to improve the user experience by adding new functionality, such as blocking autoplaying videos on newly-opened tabs unless users visit them first. They'll also convey information about what video is playing, or update you on details like when your next meeting is.

Finally, enabling Total Cookie Protection by default on Firefox's private browsing mode means each site that users visit will be isolated in terms of the cookies on their machine. Cookies can no longer be used to follow users from site to site and gather browsing data when using other services.

This was first introduced in February for users who've enabled ETP, but it's now generally available for all using the private browsing mode. This is in addition to supercookie protections, automatic clearing of cookies and caches after each session, tracker blocking, fingerprinting script blocking, and SmartBlock. This latter feature intelligently fixes a web page that was previously broken when tracking scripts were blocked.

With Firefox 89, Mozilla has also rolled out a new refreshed UI for Firefox on iOS, with iPhone and iPad users also benefiting from a design functionality refresh. Among the tweaks made are reducing the steps to search in a new tab, emphasising the ability to do new quick searches, and changing the iconography and menu item naming to be more consistent with the desktop experience.

Microsoft’s once widely-used Internet Explorer browser will reach end-of-life status from June 2022, with the firm no longer supporting the desktop application.

The legacy browser will also be absorbed into Microsoft Edge through an in-browser Internet Explorer mode, so organisations still reliant on the out-of-date service can continue to run critical applications in an emulated environment.

The number of users still relying on Internet Explorer is minimal compared with historic standards, with the soon-to-be legacy browser holding a 0.71% market share as of April 2021. Chrome, by contrast, holds a 64.47% market share, according to Stat Counter.

Microsoft launched the next generation of its web browser, Microsoft Edge, in 2015 as a replacement for Internet Explorer 11.

The company then launched the second iteration of its flagship browser in 2020, powered by the open source Chromium engine, while announcing plans to retire the ‘legacy’ Edge version. Chromium-based Edge is now the default browser for Windows 10, with the 2015 version removed as of last month.

“With Microsoft Edge, we provide a path to the web’s future while still respecting the web’s past,” said Microsoft developer Sean Lyndersay. “Change was necessary, but we didn’t want to leave reliable, still-functioning websites and applications behind.

“We’re here to help you transition to the more comprehensive browsing experience of Microsoft Edge and tell you a bit more about why we think it will address your needs, both at home and at work.”

Microsoft is encouraging its users to transition to Edge by promoting the wide range of benefits it over the Internet Explorer user experience. The use of a dual-engine, for example, supports both legacy and modern sites, while the Internet Explorer mode will allow users to continue using sites and apps that are only compatible with Internet Explorer.

The Edge browser is also more secure than Internet Explorer, offering a host of features including Microsoft Defender SmartScreen to block phishing attacks and malware infection attempts. While Internet Explorer 11 packaged security updates monthly, Edge can issue security patches for flaws within days.

Organisations using Internet Explorer are being encouraged to move to Microsoft Edge immediately, and continue to use their legacy applications through the dedicated Internet Explorer mode, which Microsoft will continue to support until 2029.

Internet Explorer was first released in 1995 as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95. The project was started by developer Thomas Reardon in 1994 who used source code from Spyglass’ Mosaic web browser.

The web browser underwent several transformations and redesigns through the years, before its final version, Internet Explorer 11, was released in 2013 alongside Windows 8. Development on the project was suspended in 2016 when all work was shifted over to Microsoft Edge, which launched in the previous year.

Microsoft announced in February that Internet Explorer would no longer be compatible with Microsoft 365 apps from August 2021. This follows Microsoft Teams dropping support for the browser in November last year.

Users have until June 2022 before the Internet Explorer desktop app will no longer be supported, or available to download.

An HTTP Error 400, often referred to as the "Bad Request" error, occurs when a website server is unable to process a request due to issues such as an incorrect URL or invalid request data. Unlike server-side errors like HTTP 502 or 503, a 400 error typically originates from the user’s end. This means the fix is often straightforward, such as correcting a URL or clearing out old cookies.

Depending on the browser you are using, an HTTP Error 400 can result in a blank page, or a page showing a more generic, user-friendly message, as is the case with Opera and Chrome.

However, there are a bunch of other messages you might encounter that all signal an HTTP Error 400, including:

• Bad Request - Invalid URL
• Bad Request: Error 400
• HTTP Error 400 - Bad Request
• HTTP Error 400. The request hostname is invalid
• Bad Request. Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand

Website owners are able to customise the page that an HTTP Error 400 will display to visitors. An example of this is when web servers run Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), which results in a page breaking down the error in more detail, such as “400.3: Invalid If Header”, “400.2: Invalid Depth Header”, “400.1: Invalid Destination Header”, and more.

What causes an HTTP Error 400?

Several issues can trigger an HTTP Error 400, which generally stem from user input or browser data. Here are five of the most common causes:

1. Bad URL Syntax

The most frequent reason for an HTTP Error 400 is a misformatted URL. This could be the result of typing errors, such as including special characters that aren’t allowed in URLs (e.g., using a backslash instead of a forward slash). 

You can trigger an HTTP Error 400 manually, usually by typing "/%" after the URL.

For example, the following URL will send you to a valid page, the page to sign up to our daily newsletter:

'https://www.itpro.com/newsletter-signup'

However, if you were to type this URL in manually and type "/%" at the end of the URL, the request will result in an HTTP Error 400 page - as the server has received a 'Bad Request'.

2. Invalid Cookies

Sometimes, outdated or corrupt cookies can trigger an HTTP 400 error. Cookies store website data, including authentication information, but if they become invalid (e.g., due to session expiration), they can cause the server to reject your request.

3. Incorrect file size

In certain cases, an HTTP Error 400 may occur if the file you're trying to upload exceeds the server's size limit. Many web servers impose restrictions on file uploads to ensure performance, and if your file is too large, the request will fail with a 400 error. For example, WordPress sites often limit upload sizes to between 4MB and 128MB.

4. Unsynchronized DNS Cache

A 400 error may result from outdated or mismatched DNS information stored locally in your system's cache. DNS caches store IP address data associated with domain names, but if this information becomes out of sync, your browser may send incorrect data to the server, leading to a bad request error.

5. Server error

While rare, an HTTP Error 400 can also occur due to issues on the server's end. Server misconfigurations or system overloads may result in the server misinterpreting requests as invalid. If you're seeing the error across multiple browsers and devices, this could be the case.

How to fix a 400 Bad Request

Despite being frustrating, resolving a 400 error usually takes just a few simple steps. Here are some common fixes to get your browsing back on track:

When the Problem is Server-Side

If you’ve followed all the steps and the HTTP Error 400 persists, the issue may be on the website’s server. Unfortunately, in such cases, there’s little you can do other than wait for the site administrators to fix the problem. Reporting the issue to the website owner can help speed up the resolution, and websites like Down Detector can provide information on any widespread outages affecting the site.

Although 400 errors can be perplexing, they often have simple causes like a mistyped URL or outdated browser data. By following these troubleshooting steps, you should be able to quickly identify and resolve the issue in most cases.

How to Prevent Future HTTP 400 Errors

While HTTP 400 errors are often easy to fix, you can take proactive steps to reduce the likelihood of encountering them in the future. Here are some practical tips to help keep your browsing experience smooth:

WordPress may treat Google’s proposals to replace third-party cookies with a Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) mechanism for recording browsing history as a potential security risk.

A post on the WordPress Core development team blog has urged the platform to consider banning FLoC because this replacement for third-party cookies supposedly unethically places people into groups based on their browsing habits.

Any prospective move would be significant because WordPress powers 41% of platforms across the web, according to the organisation, and adds weight to a growing list of entities strongly opposed to the introduction of Google’s FLoC.

A string of popular web browsers, for example, including Mozilla’s Firefox, Opera, Brave and Edge have all opted out of the FLoC experiment, according to The Verge. Trials set to take place in the EU, meanwhile, have been delayed because of concerns they violate GDPR, according to Adexchanger.

Google has proposed FLoC as an alternative to third-party cookies to refine the process of using data to target web users with tailored adverts. This system is a way of making your browser profile users in the way that third-party tracker used to do, assigning a label to each user based on their behaviour, before sharing these with other websites and advertisers.

The likes of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) have complained that it exacerbates the worst tendencies of third-party cookies, while also allowing organisations and governments to discriminate against individuals.

The post calls for WordPress to brand this a security risk because this practice “is likely to facilitate employment, housing and other types of discrimination, as well as predatory targeting of unsophisticated consumers.”

The proposal, which is only being considered at present, would involve automatically blocking FLoC support from all its websites by default, with administrators able to opt-in at a later date should by making changes themselves. The only way to roll out an automatic block is by considering FLoC as a security issue, not an ethical issue.

Simon Dickson, who used to manage the WordPress VIP enterprise services team, clarified that nothing has yet been agreed, although the matter is under discussion.

"Framing it as a security concern is understandable, but problematic," he added. "As several influential folks have noted already, 'security updates' are there to fix something that's demonstrably broken. People should feel able to apply them without (much) consideration.

"This will be an interesting test of WordPress's commitment to an open web. With 40% of the web running our software, what responsibility do we feel to respond to developments like this? And do we have appropriate decision-making structures to make that call?"

Microsoft rolled out cosmetic and usability changes to its Edge browser this month that target power users and casual surfers.

The company has introduced a usability feature in the form of vertical tabs. Driven by users who have dozens or even hundreds of tabs open at a time, the company wanted a way to keep tab titles visible. Instead of using the top of the screen to hold tabs, users can now stack them vertically. The new arrangement includes a visible feature button enabling users to toggle vertical and horizontal tabs.

The vertical tab feature also includes a different color palette to distinguish it from the horizontal mode and a collapsible pane that helps users move tabs out of the way without losing them entirely when they want to see more of a web page.

The company also announced the official performance results of the sleeping tabs beta feature it debuted in January, which release system resources from inactive tabs to help maintain browser performance when users have lots of tabs open. After testing the feature, which users can activate in their browser's settings menu, Microsoft found a sleeping tab uses 26% CPU power compared to a non-sleeping tab and reduces memory usage by 16%.

Microsoft also made a small usability enhancement by introducing a lightweight drop-down menu to access browsing history. This eliminates the need to open the full history page in settings.

The company complemented these enhancements in Edge with changes to its Bing search service to make results more appealing. Microsoft has introduced more detailed infographic-style panels in an apparent move to differentiate itself from Google's text-heavy search results. These panels aggregate information about a search topic in the same way Google’s knowledge panels do, but Bing displays more visual information than Google — at least in some cases.

Bing also now summarizes information more effectively for certain use cases. For example, searching for recipes will highlight ingredients and calories in search results, the company said. In contrast, home improvement and DIY searches bring visual results to the foreground, giving users aesthetic ideas — a clear swipe at Pinterest's model.

In version 80, which arrived in January 2020, Microsoft Edge switched to Chromium, the open-source browser code Google bases its Chrome browser on. Since then, it’s gained market share over Chrome.

Edge version 80 blocked third-party trackers by default and offers three tracking-prevention levels: basic, balanced, and strict. The browser’s latest version introduces contextual help onto its settings page so users can better understand the difference between those options.

The company plans to kill the pre-Chromium Edge version in April by replacing it on users' machines when updating to Windows 10.

Google's Chrome browser is moving to a faster release cycle with new milestones shipped every four weeks, instead of the usual six-week cycle, the company has announced.

It will start with Chrome 94, which is due for release in the third quarter of 2021 and means that the big centenary update - Chrome 100 - is likely to fall early next year, on 29 March.

Chrome will now be in line with Mozilla's Firefox, which switched to a four-week cycle last year. However, Google is also offering an 8-week cycle via an Extended Stable option for enterprise administrators and Chromium embedders who need more time to manage the update.

There will also be bi-weekly security patches to fix certain issues, but these will not contain new features or even the majority of the security fixes that the 4-week update will bring.

"As we have improved our testing and release processes for Chrome, and deployed bi-weekly security updates to improve our patch gap, it became clear that we could shorten our release cycle and deliver new features more quickly," Alex Mineer, the technical program manager, Chrome operations, explained.

The Chrome team has updated the documentation for its release cycles but it is also calling for feedback from Chromium contributors to be sent to 'branches@chromium.org'. There is also a preliminary update on the release calendar which will be kept up to date ahead of the new release cycle.

Google has also said that Chrome OS users will also receive support for multiple stable releases in the future. More details on that will be shared "in the coming months" the company said, but it will include choices for milestone updates to managed devices.

Users of the original version of Microsoft's Edge browser have until April to upgrade before the tech giant kills if off completely.

Support for the desktop application, now dubbed 'Legacy Edge', will end on 9 March before it is replaced by the new Microsoft Edge browser a month later.

This move will not come as a surprise to many, as the to kill off the old browser was originally announced in August 2020.

The original version of Microsoft Edge, which first launched in 2015, failed to persuade users to ditch Chrome and Firefox and struggled to live up to the early success of Internet Explorer, which also lost popularity to rival browsers.

Edge 2.0, however, is built upon the Chromium open source project - the same web rendering engine that powers Google Chrome, as opposed to EdgeHMTL that underpinned Internet Explorer. The decision to use Chromium was to create a browser with better web compatibility for users and less complexity for developers.

As such, the Legacy Edge browser will now be put to rest completely, first with an update in March that removes support, before it's ultimately replaced with the new Chromium-based Edge browser in April.

"To replace this out of support application [Legacy Edge], we are announcing that the new Microsoft Edge will be available as part of the Windows 10 cumulative monthly security update - otherwise referred to as the Update Tuesday (or 'B') release - on April 13, 2021," the tech giant said.

"The new Microsoft Edge offers built-in security and our best interoperability with the Microsoft security ecosystem, all while being more secure than Chrome for businesses on Windows 10," the company added

Microsoft has stressed that Edge won't suddenly become the default browser if you've set Chrome as the preference, but there is no mention, as yet, about automatically migrating browser-related data, such as history or bookmarks.

Google has released an updated version of its Chrome web browser following reports of a zero-day vulnerability being exploited in the wild.

Version 88.0.4324.150 for Windows, Mac and Linux contains only one patch which is aimed at a memory corruption bug in Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine, known as CVE-2021-21148.

The vulnerability, marked as high risk, was reported on 24 January by security researcher Mattias Buelens, who is also a lead software architect on THEOplayer.

Google Chrome technical program manager Srinivas Sista said that the tech giant is “aware of reports that an exploit for CVE-2021-21148 exists in the wild”. He didn’t provide any additional details about the zero-day vulnerability due to risk of further exploitation, noting that the majority of users hadn’t yet been updated with a fix.

However, ZDNet notes that the date on which Google says the bug was reported, January 24, is just two days after Google's Threat Analysis Group reported a hacking campaign carried out by North Korean hackers against the cyber security community. It's believed this campaign may have relied on zero-day exploits in Chrome and Internet Explorer.

Chrome version 88.0.4324.150 has begun to roll out to users across Windows, Mac and Linux systems. Users can check if their Chrome browser is up to date by following these steps:

1. Open your Chrome browser and look the three vertical dots on the top right corner
2. Green means the update it less than two days old
3. Orange means the update is about four days old
4. Red means the update is a least a week old
5. If the dots are coloured, click them to open the menu
6. Click “Update Google Chrome”
7. Exit your Chrome browser and reopen it to complete the update.

Google was forced to deal with another Chrome zero-day vulnerability in October of last year, when its Project Zero security team discovered that hackers were exploiting the bug to attack Chrome users’ systems.

The vulnerability, a memory corruption bug in the FreeType font-rendering library, prompted the tech giant to release the Chrome OS 86.0.4240.112 update, which addressed the detected zero-day security flaw on Google Chromebooks.

Google, Microsoft and Samsung are among a handful of tech companies that have banded together to financially support one of the most significant development repositories created.

Open Web Docs is a collaborative project that’s been established to fund and resource the Mozilla Development Network (MDN) Web Docs repository, widely considered the definitive industry handbook for web development.

This group, comprising Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Coil, W3C, Samsung and Igalia, has been formed to support the community of technical writers behind the strategic creation and long-term maintenance of web development documentation.

Created in 2005 by Mozilla, MDN Web Docs serves as an all-encompassing repository for developers working in HTML and JavaScript among other languages to build web-based apps and platforms.

The repository’s future was threatened when Mozilla made a round of 250 job cuts last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however. This has sprung a number of large tech companies, including Mozilla, to establish a new model for funding and maintaining this critical resource used by developers across the industry.

Although Open Web Docs is a broad initiative that’ll support various documentation resources, the group’s current priority is garnering contributions to support MDN Web Docs, according to its Q&A.

“Open Web Docs was created to ensure the long-term health of web platform documentation on de facto standard resources like MDN Web Docs, independently of any single vendor or organization,” said global lead for programs and initiatives, web developer relations, at Google, Robert Nyman.

“Through full-time staff, community management, and our network of partner organisations, we enable these resources to better maintain and sustain documentation of core web platform technologies. Rather than create new documentation sites, Open Web Docs is committed to improving existing platforms through our contributions.”

The group has received more than $500,000 (approximately £366,000) in funding so far from its founding sponsors Coil, Google and Microsoft and others, as well as individual donations from the wider development community.

Technical writer and documentation engineer Florian Scholz joined the project in November 2020 as its content lead and will work with stakeholders to define the initial pathways Open Web Docs will pursue.

The immediate priorities for 2021 will centre on supporting Mozilla’s MDN writers and engineers in an infrastructure transition, as well as progressing key documentation work. This will involve building up the community of contributors around web technology documentation, browser compatibility data, and improving JavaScript documentation.

Adobe has officially killed off Flash Player, the browser plugin that helped define the early internet.

The iconic plug-in was discontinued on 1 January, almost 25 years after it was first launched. Adobe will not be rolling out any further security updates and the company is set to block all Flash content from 12 January.

Despite the sunset date being scheduled for 2020, the majority of browsers had already jumped ship. As of 2018, less than 5% of worldwide websites used Flash, with most favouring Javascript for running multimedia features. Other, more secure alternatives also included HTML5, WebAssembly and WebGL.

The decision to sunset the plug-in was first announced in July 2017 due to dwindling demand, as browser makers opted to integrate the software’s capabilities within their own offerings.

Flash was also plagued by various security concerns. In 2015, for example, security firm Recorded Future discovered that Flash Player comprised eight out of 10 top vulnerabilities leveraged by exploit kits, with more than 100 exploit kits and vulnerabilities affecting the technology. There were also reports of Flash being exploited by North Korean hackers, who used it to access Microsoft Office documents, web pages, and spam emails.

Nevertheless, Flash Player managed to write itself into internet history. The software’s unprecedented capabilities shaped the way users interact with multimedia content offered by an array of industries, such as gaming, education, and video.

The final nail in the coffin for Flash came in October 2020, when Microsoft rolled out an optional update for Windows 10 that permanently removed Adobe Flash from the operating system and prevented it from being re-installed. The company released the removal tool prior to 1 January 2021 in order to help customers test and validate their environments for any impact that might occur by the removal of the software.

Starting later in 2021, all APIs, group policies and user interfaces that govern the behaviour of Adobe Flash Player are expected to be removed from the legacy Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer 11.

Google has announced that its extending Chrome support for enterprises using Windows 7 until at least 15 January 2020.

Back in January, Google announced that it would stop supporting the browser on Windows 7 from 15 July 2021. However, in a post on the Google Cloud blog, the company has revealed that its extending support for an additional six months, with support now set to end in January 2022.

The company said it's decided to extend support due to the difficulties businesses have faced due to the remote working arrangements necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This year has presented a lot of challenges for organisations of all sizes," said Max Christoff, engineering director of Google Chrome. "Facing difficult business and technology decisions, supporting a changing work environment, and navigating uncertainty are among just a few of the issues IT leaders have faced over the course of 2020."

The decision has also been spurred by the fact that a significant proportion of businesses are still using the decade-old operating system. Although Microsoft stopped providing security updates for Windows 7 in January this year, Google's figures show that 21% of organisations using Chrome on Windows 7 are still working to migrate over to Windows 10.

"While the past few months served as a catalyst for technology investments and digital transformation initiatives for many organizations, for others, some planned IT projects may have had to take a back seat.

"Our hope is that this extension gives our enterprise customers the flexibility they need to continue supporting their workforce, while moving off of Windows 7 as their situation allows."

News of this six-month extension comes just days after Google debuted Chrome 87, which it claims "represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years". The company claims the update has the potential to reduce CPU usage by up to five times and to extend battery life by up to 1.25 hours.

Google has released the final Chrome update of 2020 with a slew of new performance enhancements and some tighter security controls.

The update includes changes to the search bar, power-saving tweaks for tabs and faster bootup times.

"Today we're offering up our final Chrome release of 2020," said Matt Waddell, Chrome director of product. "The updates can help you get things done this holiday season (and beyond), so you can make life's work a bit smoother and reclaim precious time."

The update "represents the largest gain in Chrome performance in years", according to Waddell, due to a number of under-the-hood improvements. This includes prioritising open tabs to reduce CPU usage by up to five times and extending battery life by up to 1.25 hours, according to Google's internal benchmarks.

Furthermore, the tabs you constantly have open will soon be accessible via a search bar, which is coming to Chromebooks first before rolling out to other desktop platforms. The feature works regardless of the window you're in, according to Google.

Chrome will also start up 25% faster, also loading pages 7% quicker, but by using less power and RAM than before. This will also include Android, where Chrome will load pages "near instantaneously", according to Google.

There is also extra functionality coming to the actual Chrome search bar. Along with searching websites and keywords, you'll soon be able to move into settings just by type commands; for example, "edit passwords" will take you straight from the search bar to the settings interface - these commands will initially focus on privacy and security features.

Security has also been boosted for developers with Chrome 87 boasting new setting and UI functions, including APIs and updates to Chrome's built-in developer tools. These support Cookie Store API, easier modification of web fronts via CSS, support for tilt, pan and zoom controls on webcam streams and also support for debugging WebAuthn operations via Chrome DevTools.

Google Chrome is losing its share in the browser market to Microsoft Edge for the first time, according to new stats from NetMarketShare.

In its latest report for October 2020, Chrome usage decreased from 69.94% in September 2020 to 69.25% a month later.

At the same time, Edge increased from 8.84% to 10.22%. It is thought the increase may be because of Microsoft promoting Edge as part of its latest Windows 10 20H2 update with a taskbar ad that urges people to use the browser.

The report also found that Firefox gained a little ground on Chrome, edging up from 7.19% in September to 7.22% a month later.

In its operating systems report NetMarketShare found that Windows 10's market share increased from 61.26% in September 2020 to 64.04% in October. Unsurprisingly, Windows 7 share also decreased from 22.77% to 20.41% over the same period. Apple's macOS 10.15 also declined from 5.11% to 4.88%.

Seperately, NetMarketShare signalled that it would be “retiring” its browser market report in its current form as an upcoming change in browsers will “break our device detection technology and will cause inaccuracies for a long period of time”.

It added that as it has focused on bot detection and removal as a key part of the quality control process, but noted that “as time has gone on, it has become increasingly difficult to manage this process. So, instead of accepting increasing levels of inaccuracy, we thought it would be a good time to call it a day.”

It added that Netmarketshare will “re-emerge at some point with a focus on ecommerce trends and verifiable user data”.

Microsoft has announced that its Chromium-based Edge browser is now available on Linux.

The release, which sees the first preview version of Microsoft Edge arrive on the open source operating system, means the browser now runs on all major desktop and mobile platforms, including Android, iOS, macOS and Windows.

In a blog post, Microsoft confirmed that the initial Edge Dev release on Linux supports the Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and OpenSUSE distributions.

The company is aiming the release squarely at developers, who can use the preview to "build and test in the preferred environment and be confident in the experience customers will have on other devices.” While Edge for Linux operates much as it does on macOS and Windows, according to Microsoft, this means it's currently lacking some end-user features.

For example, the initial release doesn’t support signing into Edge via a Microsoft Account or an Azure Active Directory Account, not does it support the syncing of favourites or settings. Microsoft says these features will be coming in a later preview.

If you want to try out Edge for Linux, you can download the Dev channel preview directly from the Edge Insider site.

Microsoft says it is planning to release weekly builds, like it does with the Dev Channel builds for other platforms, but it has yet to confirm when the first stable version of Edge for Linux will become available.

Microsoft has also announced that it has begun accepting submissions for the Microsoft Edge Bounty Programme on Linux. Security researchers can earn between $1,000 and $30,000 for discovering and reporting vulnerabilities that are unique to the Microsoft Edge browser.

DuckDuckGo has slammed the Android search engine auction model as "fundamentally flawed" and has urged the European Commission (EC) to take action against Google.

Microsoft's Bing search engine has usurped DuckDuckGo in the latest round of bidding and will now be used as an option for European-based Android users during the initial setup of a new device.

The bidding process comes in response to an EC ruling which found that Google was abusing its monopoly by forcing phone makers to use Google Search as the default search engine for web browser apps in Android.

Google's response was to create an auction where new Android customers would have a choice of four different search engines when setting up a new device. Companies that want their search engines included have to bid against one another to secure a place on the list - only three of the final four are alternatives as Google has the fourth spot by default.

DuckDuckGo was previously the most frequently-offered alternative, but its elimination didn't come as a surprise to the company going by the title of its most recent blog post: "As Predicted, Google's Search Preference Menu Eliminates DuckDuckGo".

"This EU antitrust remedy is only serving to further strengthen Google's dominance in mobile search by boxing out alternative search engines that consumers want to use and, for those search engines that remain, taking most of their profits from the preference menu," DuckDuckGo wrote in the post. "The auction model is fundamentally flawed and must be replaced."

The main problem with Google's search preference menu, according to DuckDuckGo, is that it's a "pay-to-play" auction. The search engine suggests that Google is incentivising bidders to be "worse on privacy", to increase ads and ultimately give more of their profits to Google.

DuckDuckGo also suggests it has been priced out of the bidding because it chooses not to maximise its profits by exploiting users.

"We predicted this outcome but chose to participate as long as we could since offering consumers an easy way to get simple privacy protection is more important than a boycott." the firm said in its blog post.

DuckDuckGo has put forward a proposal for a better way of selecting default search engines, by having the ones with the most market share in each market shown in a randomly ordered menu. The firm has called on the EC to take action and demand Google overhaul its preference menu design because "the current remedy is not a remedy at all."

The firm said that the EC was waiting on data before it looked into any form of action against Google, but that data is now available, according to DuckDuckGo. The company said it will be sending information that "demonstrates" how the current process inevitably eliminated the search engine.

In response, a Google spokesperson told IT Pro that Android provides users with unprecedented choice in deciding which applications they install.

"In developing the choice screen for Europe, we carefully balanced providing users with yet more choice while ensuring that we can continue to invest in developing and maintaining the open-source Android platform for the long-term," they said.

Whether you're shopping, working remotely, or just browsing the internet, they all require a web browser to take the data on the World Wide Web and convert it to consumable content.

While a browser is necessary, an unsecured web browser can open your computer and network to all types of hackers. These hacking masterminds can cause all sorts of issues once they gain access to your computer or network, including installing ransomware and locking your important files, stealing your passwords, and even getting access to your financial data. If you're a victim of this sort of hack, you could spend months or even years sorting it out.

Making matters worse, threat actors have become very sophisticated in their cyber attacks and continue getting better every day.

You can help protect yourself by using a web browser that puts your privacy front and center. These secure web browsers protect you from privacy and security threats, including phishing scams, malicious content, and intrusive ad tracking.

While nefarious web browsers are rare, and most have some privacy and security protections, not all browsers are equally secure. Some browsers put more focus on security than others and include loads of features to protect you. Secure web browsers also provide access to advanced security and privacy options for customizable protection.

A secure web browser is only part of the equation, though. You can further enhance your web-browsing safety with a VPN or ad-blocking extension. These will help block ad trackers and undesirable cookies.

Ready for the inside scoop on the most secure browsers of 2021? Continue reading to learn which browser best suits your browsing needs.

1. Tor

When I became interested in protecting my privacy online, I was encouraged to check out Tor. Not only does Tor mask your identity by bouncing your encrypted internet traffic through multiple Tor nodes, but it also clears your cookies after every session.

Endorsed by Edward Snowden, Tor was also instrumental during the Arab Spring. Not only did it protect people's identity online, but it also provided them with access to critical resources, social media platforms and websites their government blocked.

Tor pros:

• Security-centric features such as NoScript, HTTPS Everywhere and encrypted data make Tor a remarkably secure browser.
• Tor is free to download and use. Users can also download the open-source project and peruse the code.
• Tor can access the deep web. Unlike mainstream browsers, any site ending with .onion is visible when using Tor.

Tor cons:

• Tor bounces your connection off of several nodes, causing it to be much slower than other browsers.
• Not all websites work on Tor. Tor blocks Javascript and tracking scripts, which will stop some websites from working. Though you can whitelist scripts, as needed, it could impact the browser’s security.
• Tor’s slower speeds aren’t ideal for streaming.

2. Brave

Brave is a pro at blocking data-grabbing ads and trackers. Using Brave Shields, this browser blocks most data-tracking ads, boasts automatic HTTPS protection and can load sites, like major news outlets, nearly six times faster than other browsers, including Chrome, Safari and Firefox, on mobile or desktop.

Brave has also integrated Tor into its private browsing feature, so you can mask your location and hide your internet history.

What we find most interesting about Brave is its Brave Rewards program. Unlike most browsers, Brave users can earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) for viewing privacy-respecting ads. Users can currently only use these tokens to support web creators, but Brave claims users will soon be able to spend their tokens on premium content, gift cards and more.

Brave pros:

• Brave uses HTTPS secure connections, doesn’t collect or sell user data and automatically blocks ad trackers.
• The combination of ad and ad-tracker blocking enables Brave to load sites nearly six times faster than other browsers.
• Brave is built on Chromium, the same source code used for Chrome.

Brave cons:

• While browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Opera offer plenty of extensions, Brave lacks many extensions, add-ons and plug-ins. Though some Chrome extensions will work in Brave, that’s not true of all Chrome extensions available in the Chrome web store.
• If you want to trade-in your BAT tokens for real money, you’ll need a KYC-compliant bank account. For many, this defeats the point of using a secure browser.
• Brave users can browse privately using Tor. Unfortunately, this feature is not yet available to mobile users of the browsers.

3. Epic Privacy Browser

According to Epic Privacy Browser: “Visiting the top 50 websites will install over 3,000 tracking files on your computer.” To combat this, Epic routes all web traffic through a proxy server that automatically blocks things like trackers and cookies. It also clears your browsing history at the end of each session.

To further protect your privacy online, Epic also blocks certain types of real-time communications calls that have the potential to leak your IP address, even if you're using an encrypted proxy or a VPN.

Epic Privacy Browser pros:

• Epic uses an encrypted proxy server to hide your IP address and encrypt your browsing.
• Epic comes equipped with built-in protection against ad-tracking scripts, cookies, cryptocurrency mining scripts and third-party widgets.
• Use Epic to “spy on the spies,” as they say. Unlike other browsers, Epic gives you an inside look at who's tracking you and the trackers the browser has blocked throughout your browsing session.

Epic Privacy Browser cons:

• Unlike mainstream browsers, Epic offers no plug-ins.
• If you use a password manager, Epic may not work for you, as password managers work as plug-ins.
• Epic claims to be open-source, but the user can’t download the browser’s source code. To obtain the browser’s source code, you must first reach out to the Epic team.

4. Opera

Equipped with a built-in ad blocker and VPN, Opera shields your browsing history while also getting rid of the internet’s endless ads.

Beyond its privacy protection features, Opera has a ton of other neat features. With Battery Saver enabled, you can browse up to 35% longer than heavier browsers like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

I find Opera’s Personal News feature the most intriguing. Functioning much like an RSS feed, Personal News collects news and displays it to you all in one convenient location.

Opera pros:

• Opera comes with a free VPN that reduces online tracking and protects your browsing history.
• Built-in ad blocking means pages load faster. You can also easily unblock ads on any website.
• Opera allows you to sync your bookmarks, tabs and passwords across multiple devices and keeps your information safe by using an anonymous token to identify you and sync your data.

Opera cons:

• Though Opera has become popular among many, it’s far less popular than mainstream web browsers, so website developers don’t always verify their website is compatible with Opera.
• Extensions can be hard to find in Opera.
• Opera is updated every four to six weeks, whereas Chromium, the basis of Opera, receives updates every two to three weeks. For Opera users, security problems discovered and patched in Chromium could remain in Opera for several weeks.

5. Vivaldi

Much like other browsers we’ve highlighted so far, Vivaldi blocks sites from tracking you as you peruse the web. It also comes with features like a built-in ad blocker and secure sync with end-to-end encryption.

Perhaps the most exciting features Vivaldi offers are tab stacking, tab tiling and vertical tabs. By providing such customization features, Vivaldi gives its users full control of how they group, display and interact with tabs within the web browser.

Vivaldi pros:

• Vivaldi offers secure sync with end-to-end encryption, making it easier and safer than ever to sync your bookmarks, passwords and extensions across each of your devices.
• Vivaldi doesn’t store your web history, cookies and temporary files when you browse in a private window.
• To make your private browsing safer, Vivaldi allows you to set a different default search engine when using a private window.

Vivaldi cons:

• There is an Android version of Vivaldi, but iOS users are out of luck for the time being.
• Vivaldi isn’t the fastest browser out there. A tendency to freeze has also troubled enough users that it’s become somewhat of a common complaint.
• Vivaldi includes links to websites in its default bookmarks. Vivaldi also receives shared revenue from some of the default bookmarks. Meaning, Vivaldi has made ad space out of its bookmarks space.

6. Mozilla Firefox

From its comprehensive security settings to nifty features like Firefox Lockwise, Mozilla Firefox makes nary a compromise when pleasing its users. Not only does Firefox block over 2,000 data trackers automatically, but the browser will also alert you if your personal information has been compromised as part of a corporate data breach.

When it comes to features like Firefox Lockwise, you can also count on this privacy-focused browser to keep your passwords safe. Using 256-bit encryption, Firefox Lockwise allows you to access passwords you’ve saved in Firefox from anywhere.

Firefox pros:

• Features like Firefox Monitor can tell you if you’ve been part of an online data breach.
• Firefox is a pro in ad blocking and touts itself for blocking 10,000,000,000 trackers each day for users worldwide.
• Firefox collects data for development purposes but does so without including your browsing or search history. The data is also tied to a randomized numerical identifier rather than your name or user account. If you’d rather not share any information at all, you can also turn it off without affecting the browser’s performance.

Firefox cons:

• While Mozilla offers plenty of articles and FAQ’s for Firefox users in need of support, navigating its support system can be difficult. Not only does it require copious amounts of clicking, but the community forum doesn’t function reliably.
• Firefox has several extensions, but it doesn’t offer nearly as many extensions as browsers like Chrome.
• Firefox receives monthly updates. While that puts updates on a regular schedule, other browsers receive more frequent updates.

7. Google Chrome

Google isn’t exactly well known for protecting user data. However, Chrome helps protect its users from malicious sites and downloads that may steal your passwords or infect your machine. Chrome also updates every six weeks, providing its users with the newest security features and fixes. For more critical security bugs, Google sends out a fix within 24 hours.

To protect your data while using Chrome, consider adding DuckDuckGo to Chrome. With this handy extension, you can protect your data, internet search history and avoid pesky advertising trackers.

Chrome pros:

• Chrome is a speedy web browser and loads and displays pages very quickly.
• Features like Google Safe Browsing will warn you if you attempt to navigate to dangerous sites or download malicious files.
• With Chrome, you won’t have to worry about remembering all of your passwords. Instead, Chrome will generate a unique password for each site you visit.

Chrome cons:

• Google collects a significant amount of data as it relates to its userbase. Not only does the company track every search you perform, but it also tracks your location.
• If you’re using Chrome across multiple devices, you can sync your search history, bookmarks, among other things. Unfortunately, you must first enable sync to take advantage of the feature.
• While Google says it doesn’t sell user data, it does use it to serve up relevant ads in Google products, on its partner websites and in mobile apps.

8. Microsoft Edge

Microsoft Edge promises “world-class performance with more privacy, more productivity, and more value.” Designed to detect and block trackers, Microsoft Edge also comes readily equipped with Microsoft Defender SmartScreen.

Microsoft Defender SmartScreen is turned on by default and helps protect you from websites containing malware. This feature also helps protect against phishing and will stop you from downloading potentially malicious files when surfing the web.

Microsoft Edge pros:

• Edge was built using Chromium, meaning you can use extensions from both Microsoft and Google’s web store.
• Edge offers three levels of privacy protection. By default, the browser sets itself to Balanced, which blocks harmful trackers. To block all trackers, opt for Strict tracking prevention.
• Edge allows you to sync your bookmarks, settings and passwords using your Microsoft account. Microsoft also plans to let users sync their history, open tabs, extensions and collections.

Microsoft Edge cons:

• Edge lacks many enticing features. While Brave users benefit from BAT and Opera users enjoy features such as Battery Saver, Edge users won’t find many fun or intriguing features.
• Visit the website for Edge and you’ll find it has plenty of new features for users to enjoy. Unfortunately, many of these features aren’t available yet.
• Edge doesn’t come outfitted with an ad blocker. Instead, you’ll have to choose an add-on ad blocker.

There are countless ways to protect your privacy online. Whether that means opting for one of the secure browsers listed above or adding an ad blocker or similar add-on to your current browser is up to you.

In the end, the most effective way to keep yourself protected online is understanding when and how your data is being tracked and reading the privacy terms of the websites you’re visiting.

Microsoft is planning to release its Edge browser on Linux in beta next month, the tech giant confirmed at its Ignite conference.

This Linux preview, which is part of a broader push to entice businesses onto Edge, will be available to download via the Edge Insider site and through the native Linux package manager.

Much like the Windows and macOS versions, Microsoft Edge for Linux will feature the same browser engine that powers Google Chrome and supports its extensions.

The plan to release the browser for Linux was announced earlier in the year, but Microsoft isn't revealing full details just yet. There is no information regarding how many features will be available on the Linux variant of the browser, for instance, though it is likely that the vast majority of features will make their way over.

Microsoft has, however, added more privacy features that give users direct control over how websites can track you. It will also include new functions such as Collections, a feature for organising information from across the web.

This is Microsoft's big push to court developers and other technically advanced users to Edge where there is tough competition from alternatives such as Firefox and Brave, which are more established open source offerings.

The firm has also announced that it is making it easier for IT admins to manage the Internet Explorer mode found in Edge. This is the mode that helps businesses use older sites securely, without having to touch Internet Explorer itself.

Microsoft is trying to completely ditch the web browser by next year. Last month, it announced it was dropping support for Internet Explorer 11 across its Microsoft 365 apps and services by 17 August 2021. It means that the browser will no longer be supported on OneDrive, Outlook and more.

There is less time for IE 11 on Microsoft Teams web app which will lose support on 30 November 2020.

The Mozilla Corporation will make 250 staff redundant as part of a major structuring programme the organisation claims will be instigated as a result of the COVID-19 crisis.

Due to a significant reduction in revenue against expectations, the company’s pre-coronavirus plan is no longer workable, and Mozilla has decided to reorganise itself to become smaller and more experimental.

The company will reduce its workforce by approximately a quarter, including closing its operations in Taipei, Taiwan entirely. This is alongside another 60 individuals changing their roles and teams.

“Our pre-COVID plan is no longer workable. We have talked about the need for change - including the likelihood of layoffs - since the spring. Today these changes become real,” said Mozilla Foundation CEO Mitchell Baker in an internal memo to employees.

“We are also restructuring to put a crisper focus on new product development and go to market activities. In the long run, I am confident that the new organizational structure will serve our product and market impact goals well.”

The company is reducing investment in some areas such as developer tools, internal tool and platform feature development, as well as transitioning security and privacy products to its New Products and Operations Team.

This division, which sits outside of the Firefox web browser, will aim to ship new products faster and develop new revenue streams. The initial investments include Pocket, Hubs, VPN, Web Assembly, as well as security and privacy products.

Mozilla will also create a new Design and UX team to support these products, as well as a Machine Learning team that would help its products include machine learning features.

Supporting these divisions is the centralisation of Marketing to support new products as well as the core Firefox business. The engineering operations will be combined with IT, meanwhile, to create more focus and efficiency, the company claims, while a centralised security assurance function will also be established.

Decisions about how to restructure the ‘new’ Mozilla were made to increase innovation, ensure financial sustainability over a long-term period, and find new potential revenue streams that can deliver faster.

The company had already embarked on such a trajectory with the launch of its first paid-for VPN service in recent months, as well as rumours of a premium subscription-based Firefox web browser the year before.

These ventures have been delivered at a much slower pace than the Mozilla Foundation would have liked, however. Part of Mozilla’s new approach certainly means exploring ways to monetise and add a transactional element to its services.

A recently introduced change to the way the Firefox browser handles cookies is said to be breaking a number of websites, including the gov.uk platform, with web developers being urged to re-examine their web code.

Mozilla is changing the default value of the SameSite attribute in the Firefox browser from ‘none’ to ‘lax’, meaning the browser will withhold cookies on cross-site requests unless the user navigates to the URL from an external site.

According to reports on GitHub, services on the gov.uk platform are not usable following the SameSite changes, with users experiencing broken elements or pictures missing, for example, on affected sites.

Under the previous default settings of ‘none’, cookie data can be shared with third parties or external sites for advertising embedding content, or other cross-site sharing purposes. If any site hasn’t actually set a SameSite value, Firefox will treat it as ‘lax’ by default, instead of ‘none’, as it has done previously.

The change is designed to guard web users against cross-site request forgery (CSRF) attacks, in which a malicious site attempts to use valid cookies from a legitimate site in order to carry out an attack. This is not to be confused with cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks, in which the victim’s browser executes a script that’s been injected by an attacker while they visit a legitimate website.

Google also started a phased rollout of the SameSite attribute tweak in its Chrome browser earlier this year, however this was then stalled after the company received a number of similar reports of broken sites.

The issue largely comes down to developers not traditionally specifying their SameSite value during the construction of their sites. Treating these unset values as ‘lax’ by default means these sites will have to manually set their SameSite setting to ‘none’ if they wish to continue their previous arrangements, in addition to enabling HTTPS, in order to avoid breaking.

“Testing in the Firefox Nightly and Beta channels has shown that website breakage does occur,” said Mike Conca, group product manager for Firefox. “While we have reached out to those sites we’ve encountered and encouraged them to set the SameSite attribute on their web properties, the web is clearly too big to do this on a case-by-case basis.

“It is important that all web developers test their sites against this new default. This will prepare you for when both Firefox and Chrome browsers make the switch in their respective release channels.”

Mozilla rolled out the change to approximately half of its Firefox Beta user base with Firefox 79, distributed in June this year. The new SameSite behaviour was the default in the company’s Firefox Nightly pre-release browser since February 2020.

There is currently no timeline to ship the change to the Firefox release channel, as the developers are aiming to see Beta users experiencing a more smooth browsing experience, with the “unacceptable amount of site breakage” dwindling. Mozilla has established a Bugzilla hub to track broken functionality across the web, as this is difficult to determine using telemetry data alone, and relies on reports from users.

The company has also urged web developers to test their sites against this new default settings, as this will prepare them for when both Firefox and Chrome browsers make the switch in their respective release channels. Although Mozilla has approached individual sites to notify them, Conca added the scale of the issue means it’s impossible to resolve this alone on a case-by-case basis.

If you’re a member of the minority who preferred the original Microsoft Edge over other browsers, you’re likely not happy Microsoft will soon force the new Chromium-based Edge onto your machine. What’s worse, is there’s no clear-cut way to just uninstall it and revert back to the legacy Edge.

Thanks to the folks at MSPowerUser, we now know a backdoor way to easily revert to the legacy browser.

For most of us, Microsoft Edge was good for a few things: completing tasks on outdated government sites that errored on other browsers and downloading Chrome, Firefox, Vivaldi or any other browser.

For some people, though, Microsoft Edge worked. And now that they’re used to it, the company’s pulling the rug out from under them by mandating a shift to the new Chromium-based Edge with its latest Windows update. This update is slowly hitting machines, but it hasn’t impacted everyone yet.

By most accounts, the Chromium-based Edge will be superior to the legacy browser, but those who want to keep the original have options.

If you haven’t yet received the Windows update with the new Edge included, but you downloaded it and want to revert to the original, it’s a relatively simple process.

1. Click on the search bar on the bottom left of your screen, then type “Add or remove programs”
2. Click on the “Add or remove programs” app
3. In the Apps & Features window that opens, scroll down until you find Microsoft Edge
4. Click on “Microsoft Edge,” then click “Uninstall” and follow the prompts.

If you’ve already received the Windows update with the new Chromium Edge, you’ll notice the “Uninstall” button is greyed out. Fortunately, MSPoweruser found a backdoor method to force the system back into the old Edge.

1. Click the Windows logo in the bottom left corner
2. Type “Command Prompt” and right-click on the Command Prompt app, then click “Run as Administrator”
3. Type “cd” then add a space and type “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft\Edge\Application\83.0.478.58\Installer”
4. Press “Enter”
5. Type “setup.exe --uninstall --system-level --verbose-logging --force-uninstall” and press “Enter”
6. Open Edge (this should activate the legacy Edge browser)

Microsoft will force Windows users in certain sectors to upgrade Microsoft Edge to its new Chromium-based offering at the end of this month.

Starting July 30, Microsoft will upgrade Microsoft Edge Legacy to the new Microsoft Edge browser via Windows Update on education and business devices running the Windows 10 operating system. This follows the initial rollout of the new Microsoft Edge browser to Windows 10 devices earlier in the year.

The update will not affect education and business devices updated by Windows Update for Business (WUfB) or by Windows Server Update Services (WSUS). It will also not affect Internet Explorer 11 or the user’s default browser settings.

Education devices will receive the update first to be ready before schools reopen. Microsoft will release the timeline for business devices at a later date. No actions are required to make the update, although educational organizations (K-12) must take additional steps to configure their devices. Organizations can block this update by following the instructions on the Blocker Toolkit page.

The updated Microsoft Edge includes a number of security features:

• Microsoft Defender SmartScreen warns users about websites that might engage in phishing attacks.
• It enables single sign-on and natively supports Azure AD Conditional Access for seamless access to enterprise or educational cloud resources.
• Internet Explorer mode enables users to browse the Internet securely and access Internet Explorer apps and sites from tabs in the browser.
• Windows Defender Application Guard enables hardware isolation to launch untrusted site navigation inside a container to protect enterprises against malicious sites.
• Windows Information Protection protects enterprise data from unauthorized or accidental disclosure.
• Password Monitor provides alerts on password breaches, such as when users employ the same passwords in different settings.
• The Security Compliance Toolkit includes the enterprise-ready recommended security configuration baseline package.

Microsoft Edge includes features geared to help students with remote learning. It supports syncing of multiple profiles through automatic profile switching, which prompts users to click on a school, work or personal profile as needed. Immersive Reader reduces distractions on a web page to support reading comprehension. Collections enable users to track key links and search for files, data and websites in the address bar.

Google is pushing ahead with a test to shorten URLs in Chrome's address bar to help users avoid malicious websites.

The tech giant is experimenting with a new feature that will clip a URL domain down to just the basic address information, according to Android Police.

A feature flag in Chrome's Dev and Canary channels called "Omnibox UI Hide Steady-State URL Path, Query, and Ref" hides everything in the web address but the domain name. For example, a link to the latest IT Pro Podcast: "https://www.itpro.com/business-strategy/chief-data-officer-cdo/356033/the-it-pro-podcast-do-you-need-a-cdo" would just be 'ITPro.com'.

Google has looked at this a number of times and it is often met with criticism. There is very little detail this time around, but Chromium software developer Livvie Lin suggested there were security benefits in a design document earlier in the year.

"Showing the full URL may detract from the parts of the URL that are more important to making a security decision on a webpage," Lin commented.

While there may be some who don't like the change, there is a logic to trying to combat phishing, which has seen an increase over the last few months. With more and more people working remotely, hackers have seen plenty of opportunities to launch campaigns.

"Any help from Google to shift out dodgy domains will be a huge help to the general public who constantly struggle with noticing a fake," cyber security specialist Jake Moore explained to IT Pro. "This will most likely reduce the likelihood of someone falling victim to a phishing email with an illicit link but it will still require some user participation.

"Although it will clean up the address bar, users will still need to be vigilant to phishing emails in the first place and get into a habit of not clicking on any links from email however legitimate they may look."