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When you clear browsing history, delete the cookies and clear the cache you expect your browser to be not trackable. If you think about individuals certain singular information is not all that important but a combination of them can allow you to differentiate if not identify the individuals.

If you know the Zipcode of ten people there is no way to distinguish one from the other if two or more have the same zip code. But if you know a combination of zipcode, gender and date of birth then the person would be very uniquely identifiable and hence trackable.

In terms of browsers this information is often stored by servers when you visit a website for tracking statistics. Most analytical services track individual visits, unique visitors on websites with a combination of some information which makes the individual visitor unique and hence trackable.

About Panopticlick

• Ideally we think if we clear browsing data and use incognito mode for making use our stats are not tracked by a tracking service.
• That is not true. Despite all this your browser and its visits can be recognised as unique and tracked by a service.
• Visit Panopticlick after you have cleared all browsing data. Let it look up the uniqueness of your browser.

For instance I used my Chrome browser with all details removed and logged into Panopticlick with in incognito mode. Here it identified browser characteristics as User Agent, Browser plugin details, Time Zone, Size color and details. As I mentioned before none of these characteristics can give a unique identity about the browser. But a combination of all these create a unique identity for a website to track individual browser.

Link: Panopticlick

This Post How websites can track and identify your browser as unique? is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Searching for that piece of information and getting disappointed time and again? Hell, we all have been there! A solution in offering is a Google Chrome extension – Similar Pages Beta!

Assuming you want information on a particular subject and a Google search is not enough, you can click on the – Similar page extension, next to the address bar on your Chrome browser .

The Google Chrome extension, 'Similar pages' – In Action !

When you click on the Blue button, Google searches pages relevant to the current page and displays results! You can download this extension by clicking here. Go ahead and have a fantastic search! Although the extension is in its Beta release, we found this extension to be extremely stable and efficient! So guys, let us know what do you think of this extension !

This Post Make Your Search easier With Similar Pages Chrome Extension is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Opera announced the release of beta version of its web browser Opera 10.50 today, claiming it to be the fastest browser on Earth. Previously, Opera also launched its pre-alpha version, which came out to be very unstable, though it was the fastest of all versions.

With the new JavaScript engine – Carakan, beta version of Opera 10.50 turns out to be even faster than the Latest version of other browsers including firefox 3.6 and even Google chrome 4.0 . A comparison of the browsers is available on opera blog, based on the tests conducted by opera team.

Some of the features of the release are-

• Opera widgets – Multi-process architecture allows each widget to be run separately as an application on your desktop.

• Faster JavaScript Engine – Makes opera 10.50 almost 8 times faster than its previous version.

• Windows Integration – It integrates well with windows 7 and Vista.

• Private Browsing – Like other browsers, now you will find private browsing tabs in opera also, so as to hide your activities on web. You can open a private tab for this or, private window.

• Support For Web Standards – It features HTML5 for video support and also supports CSS3 for enhanced effects.

A host of other features like improvement in design, improved search, auto-complete address, dialogue boxes etc. make the beta release even better. Unlike the pre-alpha release of Opera 10.50, the beta version is much stable and can be used.

Download Opera 10.50 beta and enjoy super-fast browsing!

This Post Opera 10.50 Beta Released is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Buzz is a decent service, nothing fantastic but it is not bad either. I personally think it will be might just be that balance between Facebook and Twitter but really things will unfold more only in time. At the moment if you do not like Gmail Buzz you can certainly turn it off or even stop the updates from coming into your Inbox.

Chrome Extension for Buzz

• Download Chrome extension for Google Buzz from here.
• It is a pretty good extension and only works when you have Gmail closed. It shows a small timeline of all things shared on Buzz.
• Clicking on something that is shared will take your to either the profile of the person you are following.
• Clicking on the Buzz icon takes you directly to the relevant Gmail account.

Use RSS feeds for Buzz

• This is quite simple as some of you might not have noticed that when you click on someone’s Name while looking up Buzz, the link takes you to a Google Profile.
• Once you visit the Google Profile page showing all things shared on Buzz, just create an RSS feed of that page. If you are using Firefox or Internet Explorer 8.0, the Orange colored RSS feed button will appear automatically at the address bar.
• Clicking on the button will create a RSS feed for someones activities on Buzz and enable you to monitor it with a reader of your choice.

Hope you find these two tips useful for keeping track of Buzz updates. Drop in your comment with any new tips.

Link: Chrome Extension | ReadWriteWeb

This Post Track Google Buzz updates with Chrome extensions or with RSS feeds is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Firefox two days ago announced that it is coming out with a release candidate (RC) version of Firefox 3.6. Previously you might have read up on Firefox 3.6 beta version update. Now with this Release candidate version Mozilla will probably start the transition towards version 3.7 and the much awaited and hyped Firefox ver 4.

Firefox 3.6 has had over 5 beta versions and using it I am very satisfied with its compatibility with add-ons while most of them have been updated now.

Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate

• Now you can change the appearance of the browser with a single click using Personas.
• It has improved support for new CSS and HTML5 technology.
• It will support third party applications integrating with Firefox to improve stability.
• It will alert the users about out of date plugins.
• Improved automatic form fill with better options.
• Better JavaScript performance along with improved start up time for the browser. I personally did not find much difference after installing the Release Candidate version with the time it took to start up.
• You can manually update it from their website but if you have 3.6 beta version it should update automatically.

I am not a software testing expert but since the upgrade I feel the Mozilla Labs features which I had installed with my Firefox seem to be working a lot better and in a streamlined way. I think this will be quite crucial considering the applications and features in Labs which are present now will be the mainstay of Firefox’s version 4. Even though it is rumored that version 4 will be out towards the end of the year, its integration of applications lying in Mozilla labs will be crucial. I think it will get a lot better with Firefox 3.7 and we might be soon using some features like Weave in a more friendlier and reliable way.

Do let me know what do you think about the new release candidate? Download it from here.

This Post Firefox 3.6 Release Candidate is out is Published on Devils Workshop .

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Google Chrome has overtaken Safari. It’s now the number three popular browser, second only to Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox:
Google Chrome hit a milestone over the weekend when it became the third-most popular browser after Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox, according to metrics firm Net Applications. It controls just 4.63 percent of the browser [...]

Well, it’s official. Google Chrome browser is now available for the Mac and Linux. Information Week has the details:
“We’ve been working hard to deliver a first-class browser for the Mac — it took longer than we expected, but we hope the wait was worth it!” declared Google product manager Brian Rakowski in a blog post. [...]

Over the past few months if you are following news about how Internet Explorer’s market share has been falling consistently to such an extent that some experts believe that the market share which is almost two-thirds will fall below half in the next 2 years. I want to share some trends and why I think Internet Explorer’s fate seems to be tied to Windows 7.

Image and stats taken from marketshare.hitslink.com

Market Share in October 2009

• Internet Explorer has a market share of 64.64% which is still massive, but it has been falling over a percent every month for almost two years.
• The market share loss is massive considering the the fact that almost two years ago IE had a market share over 78%.
• This loss of market share is almost exclusively picked up by Firefox and more recently even Chrome has picked up the numbers.

Why Internet Explorer is losing the plot?

• Looking at browser version’s market share, IE 6 is 23.30 % which is now smaller than Firefox’s 24.07%.
• This is a ominous sign and shows how popularity of Internet Explorer is tied up with the Windows OS. IE 6 was a default browser with Windows XP. Windows Vista which did not go down well with consumers saw its pre-installed IE 7 version still having a share much less than IE 6.
• If IE6 is more popular than the IE7 and IE8 at the moment, it looks like that people after using IE6 end up migrating to Firefox or Chrome. Obviously if a older version is more popular than the new one, we can safely say that Internet Explorer has got its newer versions completely wrong.

Why is Windows 7 sole hope for Internet Explorer?

• One thing that holds out hope for Internet Explorer browser is how well received IE8 has been. Internet Explorer 8 when released back in April 09, has managed to catch up and consolidate. It seems to have done so at the expense of of IE7 but that still means people like using IE8.
• Microsoft’s Windows 7 comes pre-installed with IE8 as its browser. If you notice the lackluster performance of Vista has hurt IE7, that means IE8’s numbers will be hugely reliant on how well received Windows 7 will be.
• Windows 7 has had pretty good reviews and it might save Internet Explorer for the moment. But the heady days of having 80% of the market share with their browsers are probably a thing of the past for Internet Explorer.
• When Google releases it thread-bare Chrome OS, it might push up the numbers for Chrome Browser. Because of the reliance of IE on Windows, Chrome OS will probably hurt Internet Explorer much more than Firefox.

Links: Browser Market Share | Browser Version Market Share

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Over a month ago Google released a stable version of Chrome 3 which signaled that it was more confident about it’s browser’s ability to compete with others. A day ago it released Chrome 4 as a beta version and the big difference it claims in its blog is that its performance as a browser has improved over 30%. I downloaded the beta version and it has been working fine. I hardly noticed anything different.

With Chrome 3 stable version I did have a problem of the browser crashing after a few hours especially if I had a theme on it. Its only been a hour since I downloaded the beta version so can not say that issue has been addressed. One exciting feature it does have is having a real time synchronization of bookmarks on two or more computers with Chrome browser.

Chrome Bookmark Sync

• If you want to have the same bookmarks on Chrome browsers across 2 or more computers all of them need to have Chrome 4 beta installed on it.
• Sign-in with Google account and then merge and sync the bookmarks from all the browsers. It happens real time if you are signed-in on all computers. That means if I add a bookmark it shows up on the other computer in real time. This technology is the same that is used for bundling Google Chat with Gmail.

• Google has recently incorporated Sidewiki into Chrome which was earlier available through Google toolbar. Bookmarks could be previously shared on other browsers using Google toolbar, but it looks like Google is going to incorporate all that you can do with the Google toolbar into its Chrome browser as a feature. If that’s the course it is taking and assuming Google gets it right, Chrome might become the dominant browser in a few years.

There are many third party softwares and tools bars which allow bookmarks to be synced with multiple computers for example Foxmarks extensions with Firefox but this is the first time I see it as a main feature of a browser. Some people might be uncomfortable with the idea of storing bookmarks on a server which happens in the case of Chrome.

If you want to download Chrome 4 beta visit their landing page. Do comment on the post to let me know your thoughts on Google Chrome 4 beta.

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Tired of Firefox? Do you want something a little bit more faster, maybe more stable? I seem to have issues with Firefox running on Ubuntu 9.10. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it has crashed several times. This article shows you how to install Google Chrome on Ubuntu 9.10.
Add to your sources list.
$ sudo [...]

The latest reiteration of the Firefox browser in the upcoming version 3.6 will have an auto-orientation feature allowing devices with accelerometers such as mobile phones and laptops to show the Firefox browser either in portrait or landscape mode. The browser auto-rotates according to the orientation of the devices. This will not have much of an [...]

With the release of Chrome 3.0 and the  Chrome Frame controversy I was waiting quite eagerly to see its impact on the browser market share of Chrome and Internet Explorer in September.

• Internet Explorer has a market share of 65.71% but it had 66.97% share when the month began. That means Internet Explorer has lost 1.26% in just one month.
• For the August survey what Internet Explorer lost was almost entirely gained by Firefox and Chrome. This month is not different. Firefox  has gained 0.77% and Chrome has gained 0.33%.
• Chrome has now broken the 3% barrier by cornering 3.17% of the pie.
• One worrying factor for Internet Explorer is that over the last 3 months they have lost 3% of its share which means that it if continues its downward slide it will end up being below 50.0% in the next 15 months.

Credits: Marketshare Hitslink

• Safari has stayed on at 4.24% for over 2 months and Opera has shown marginal growth with 2.19% by probably taking away numbers from Internet Explorer.

One major factor that has gone against Internet Explorer is that IE8 has not really gone down as well as expected. I find IE 8 a much better browser than IE7 but it does seem to be have problems crashing on older machines running Windows XP.

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This is a new add-on feature with Firefox browser which will allows users to test the Firefox Browser and help Firefox build a better browser. This add-on for the Firefox browser automatically lets you know of what test to carry out and helps you collect data on your browser usage.

For people interested in testing this can be quite an insight into how browsers are tested. And for enthusiasts like me, its quite entertaining to know how I exactly use my browser.

Test Pilot

As you can see in the image above, Test Pilot allows you to fill in a survey and also lets you see what are the Upcoming Tests in the future. Tab Open/Close Study is the current test and simply clicking on it and then carrying on doing your work on the browser will see data being collected.

I took part in the the study and it showed various results. For instance how many tabs I have open at a time and for how much time in a graphical format. Another graph showed me how much time I spent on default Tab after I closed one of the tabs.

For me about 50% of the times I ended up on the default tab after I closed a tab of the page I was working on. This is interesting information, as it means every time I close a tab, half the time I am done with work and should be closing the browser instead.

Link: Test Pilot

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Mozilla Labs has another beauty in the works. It is a service that will allow your Firefox browser through an add-on to sync with other Firefox browsers across desktops and mobile phones.

Basically you can now access your Firefox browser’s  history, bookmarks, tabs, forms,  preferences and passwords from anywhere.

How does Weave work?

• What Weave does is stores information from your Firefox browser to a cloud or a server and it can be downloaded or be in sync with your Firefox browser on another computer or mobile phone.
• Bookmarks saved at a computer at home can be accessed from the computer at work by syncing the browsers with the Weave server.
• Continuation of work on a browser will be much easier. You have a tab open at one computer then it will be open on the other location because the Weave server keeps them both synchronized.
• A cool part of this is add-on is that it allows you to save passwords and then sync it with your mobile phone’s browser. That is very handy as sometimes it is difficult for mobile users to enter complex passwords.

Firefox’s Weave is available on Firefox 3.5 and upwards. It is still a beta project and being developed further with an eye to being a stable feature for Firefox 4 which will be released next year.

Links: Mozilla Labs | Download Weave

Considering how competition in the browser market is heating up, I was trying to look around what Mozilla Firefox 4 was going to offer even if there is almost a year for it to be released. I came across some information on the Mozzila Wiki site and was quite impressed with the peek into the future.

Changes with Firefox 4 that you can expect.

• The search bar and the address will be merged. This is a great idea and will make the browser very uncluttered.
• Stop/ Go/ Refresh all will be merged into one button. I have always wondered on the need for a ‘Go’ button but making the same button switch from ‘Go’, ‘Stop’ and ‘Refresh’ seems very handy. They are being merged together on right side of the browser where the address bar will end.
• Bookmarks Tab will be hidden by default. There will be an option to make it appear if needed.
• There will be a new Apps Tab. This tab will allow a person to create Apps of the website they are visiting. This will be useful for anyone who wants to keep a particular website open. You can simply drag and pin the website to the left and it will be saved in an App Tab.
• Profile functionality will allow many profiles with their individual passwords and bookmarks to be used. I think this will remove the need for having different profiles with the OS on the same computer especially if it is being used only for browsing.
• Home Tab will now give access to Favourite Bookmarks, Stats and History time line.
• There will me no Status Bar.

Firefox4 is not going to be available any time this year. Some reports are that it will release in Oct 2010!

That’s a long time from now but looking at all the changes I think it might be worth the wait.

Link: Firefox Wiki

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Chrome 3.0 is available for download now as a stable version and is no longer in Beta.
The release comes after 21 beta and 15 stable updates and is considered to be not just more stable than its predecessors but also much more fast.

It shows that now Google has confidence in its browsers to be released in a more wider base.

What has changed in Chrome 3.0?

• A better Omnibox. Omnibox helps users better search results and suggestions and increases the typign speed within the browser.

• An improved JavaScript performance by 150% than its oldest beta version over a year ago.

• A new Tab page which very closely resembles the Safari browser

• Allows you to delete the thumbnails of the recently visited pages which show up when you start the browser. Just hover over the thumbnail and option shows up to delete it. (See pic below)

• It also allows the user to install and apply different themes for Google Chrome as seen in the pic below. I installed the Late Night theme Just Check out Options and Personal Stuff. You have the Get Themes button which when clicked takes your to various themes Chrome supports.

I really liked the Google Chrome browser ever since they released it in 2008. I have not really used any other browser since then and the new options make it only more worthwhile. It did sometimes crash once in a while but its been only a few hours since I made the upgrade and hence wont be fair to comment on that. All said and done I quite like Chrome 3.0

Links: ReadWriteWeb | Download Chrome

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In a little less than a year, Google has updated its own browser to version 3! Google Chrome is now up on version 3.0.195.21, to be exact. Well, get to it, why don’t you. What are you waiting for? You can download it from Google’s Chrome pages.

IE6 was one of the worst editions of the Internet Browser series to be released by Microsoft in terms of compatibility, design and just plain, simple  surfing. A simple Google search would bring out thousands of results wherein people have poured out their woes about using IE6. The most recent example being of IE6 replacing the default search engine automatically to Bing. Well now a twitter user has taken this matter into his own hands!

James Lynch (@lynchjames) has begun using twibbon.com to bring about the downfall of IE6. What twibbon does is that it overlays your twitter profile image with a small symbol, detecting a reject stamp on the icon of IE6. Over 4500 twitter users have already joined this campaign. Currently a dozen people are are adding a “No to IE6″ image to their profile pictures.

Although this might not bring about the sudden deprecation of IE6 by Microsoft, still this could be a small step in that direction. What do you think? Anyways it’s one of the best methods of cyber activism, I’ve come across.

If you want to support this campaign, head over to IE6 Must Die campaign at twibbon.

(Image credits: Mashable | robbuti.com)

If you, too would like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

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Recently released IE 8 carries the reliability and performance features of Chrome and Firefox.

Lets see…

What’s already in Chrome and Firefox, that’s also included in IE?

• Website address highlighting- Similar to the brand new style in Chrome to make the web address more easily readable.
• Addons- More than half of the Firefox users are still stuck to it because of the addons feature. Now IE 8 has 1700+ Addons available from the official website and more from others.
• InPrivate Browsing- The name of Incognito browsing (Google Chrome) in IE.

What’s not in Firefox and Chrome but is in IE 8?

• Similar Tab highlighting
• Tab Crash Recovery(It’s needed a lot if you are running flash games etc. in your browser)
• Compatibility view (to fit websites designed for older browsers in it)

What’s in Chrome and Firefox but NOT in IE 8?

• One tab may lead to hang the whole browser. Unlike Google Chrome, if a ‘bad’ script runs in a tab of IE, the whole browser will hang. But the good news is, 90% of the times, it is recovered by Tab Crash Recovery(controlled by process named IEmonitor.exe)
• If you’re on a slow connection, again, unlike most other browsers, IE may leave you with loading finished and Images not loaded. However, to show the images, you’ll have to right-click the frame and choose ‘Show Picture’.

Mozilla’s second alpha of Firefox 3.1 is upping the ante in the next-generation browser battle. So how do the main contenders stack up so far now? One thing’s for sure, the Firefox team has taken note of Google’s recent Chrome release and worked hard to make sure its offering can hold its own.

Mozilla had already claimed its 3.1 version could outperform Chrome when it comes to speed (and most independent tests show it at least tying). Now, the engineers have incorporated Chrome-initiated options such as the ability to drag and drop tabs in and out of browser windows. The second alpha release also adds support for the HTML 5 video tag, which gives Web developers expanded options for embedding video within a page. Don’t forget that Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 8 beta 2 – released at the end of August and quickly eclipsed by Chrome’s introduction – is also vying for a piece of the pie.

Here’s a breakdown of the high and lowlights of each offering and where it stands as far as a full release.

Contender #1: Google Chrome

The status:

Windows beta released on September 2. Mac OS X and Linux versions still under development and said to be coming soon. No indication of targeted full release date.

The good:

• Reliability. Chrome’s multiprocess architecture makes a bad Web page less likely to take down the whole browser.
• Speed. Chrome loads fast and keeps your surfing super-fast.
• Simplicity. Its clean design wastes no screen space.
• Searching. The Omnibox lets you type search terms or URLs into a single spot and figures out what you want.
• Privacy. Chrome offers an “Incognito” mode that lets you easily leave no footprints from where you’ve been.

The bad:

• Privacy. Chrome’s taken a lot of heat for its monitoring and collection of user data, some of which happens before you even hit enter.
• Security. It didn’t take long for users to discover vulnerabilities in the beta browser. Several of these have already been patched.
• Reliability. Some sites and online services still don’t work with Chrome.
• Consistency. Because Chrome is build on the WebKit system, it differs from the dominant platforms that most designers focus on.
• Support. Chrome doesn’t yet have any add-ons or customization options available. It’s yet to be seen how these, once developed, will compare to the rich options available for Firefox.

Contender #2: Firefox 3.1

The status:

Second alpha build released on September 5. Beta expected in the next month. Full release targeted for end of 2008.

The good:

• Strong foundation. Mozilla’s already built a loyal following with Firefox, and it doesn’t intend on letting that go. With Firefox 3.1, you know you’ll have a powerful library of add-ons and support already at your fingertips, not to mention the slew of other assets unveiled in Firefox 3.0.
• Speed. Mozilla says its still-under-development TraceMonkey JavaScript platform will leave Google’s V8 in the dust. The second alpha build revs things up, too, with added support for “Web workers” — a system that lets multiple scripts run as background processes.
• Competitive edge. Mozilla’s developers have good reason to watch what Chrome is doing — and work to match it, if not one-up it.

The bad:

• Security questions. Some studies — albeit, Microsoft-funded ones — have suggested Firefox, with its frequent new versions, is more susceptible to threats than the other options.
• Crash potential. Unlike Chrome, Firefox does not have separate environments for each tab — so one rogue page can still take the whole program down.
• Support. Firefox has worked hard to snag a small portion of the browser market share, and most early predictions show Chrome taking away more of its userbase than IE’s.
• Google’s focus on Chrome will also take away some of its previous focus on Mozilla’s development efforts. Will Firefox be able to remain a key player in the browser war?

Contender #3: Internet Explorer 8

The status:

Second beta released on August 27. Full release expected before the end of 2008.

The good:

• Support. Love it or hate it, Internet Explorer is hanging on to about three-quarters of the browsing market with its default status in all Windows machines. You know developers and designers are going to cater to it.
• Security. With Microsoft at its helm, IE hangs on to a reputation of safe and reliable browsing.
• Privacy. IE 8 was the first to offer a no-record browsing mode, branded here as InPrivate Browsing.
• Searching. IE 8’s Smart Address Bar offers similar functionality to Chrome’s Omnibox, letting you type in URLs or search terms and taking you to the right place.
• Added add-ons. IE 8 finally catches up to Firefox with a new “Gallery” full of third-party add-on options.

The bad:

• Speed. Independent tests have found IE 8 to be significantly slower than the alternative choices. Resources. IE 8 uses a lot of memory compared to its competitors — a factor that could considerably slow down the rest of your system.
• Crash potential. While IE 8 does use separate processes for tabs, similar to Chrome’s approach, it does not do so to the same degree – still leaving room for a total meltdown.
• Competition questions. Can IE’s add-ons reach the level of Firefox’s? Already, some users are complaining of problems even getting them to work.

That’s the lowdown on the battle’s current status. Remember, all three of these programs are still early in their development, so many of the pluses and minuses could change as things move forward. One thing’s for sure, though: This battle is on, it’s growing fierce, and each of its contenders will do anything it can to win.

Browsers have arguably become more important than the underlying OS in the modern, connected world.

So, take note when Microsoft announces an update to the Web-dominating software favored by your IT department. Microsoft says it’ll release its much anticipated Internet Explorer 8 software to the world. Out of beta, Steve Ballmer claims that IE 8, “gets people to the information they need, fast, and provides protection that no other browser can match.” Time will tell, eh?

Opera stands nowhere between, though I’ve used all he four [IE8, Firefox 3.0, Chrome & Opera 10] and this is the ranking I give these browsers on the basis of speed, performance, security and stability…

1. IE 10 beta(Tab recovery, more stable, draws with or beats firefox in speed, superb security)
2. Mozilla Firefox(less stable, consumes a large amount of RAM, yet on no. 2 because of wide range of Addons, highly customizability and enough security)
3. Opera 10(Opera turbo increasing speed upto 3x, but Opera 10 beta still with bugs and wont support CSS3)
4. Google Chrome( Clean stunning looks, No addons supported, not customizable, IE 10 beats Chrome in speed, not secure at all)

IE is one step ahead firefox, though Firefox 3.1 will be far better than Firefox 3.0 and I, that’s what Mozilla officials say, again, time will tell!

(Source: PC world, Microsoft)
(Image credit: Microsoft)

If you, too would like to write for Devils Workshop, please check this. Details about our revenue sharing programs are here.]

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