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Google says Chrome 87 has the biggest performance boost in years
Google says the enhancements will improve battery life.
Google reveals its timeline for killing off Chrome apps
Chrome apps have been on death row since Google announced in 2016 it would wind down support. Almost four years later, the company has finalized its timeline for phasing them out across Windows, Mac Linux and Chrome OS.
Google plans to nix third-party cookies in Chrome by 2022
Google plans to end support for third-party tracking cookies in Chrome within the next couple of years. In August, Google announced its open-source Privacy Sandbox project with the aim of making the web more secure and private to use. Its proposed timeline to effectively kill off third-party cookies (since Chrome is by far the most popular web browser) is the latest aspect of the initiative.
Google Chrome will warn you of lookalike URLs
We've all had a finger slip and ended up mistyping a URL. According to ZDNet, Google Chrome will soon provide a warning for you when that happens so you don't get fooled by a lookalike site and will redirect you to the site you were trying to visit. The feature has been in a testing phase since the release of Chrome Canary 70 last fall and can currently be enabled as an experimental feature in the stable version of Chrome.
Chrome will start filtering disruptive ads worldwide in July
Google announced today that it will roll out its ad filter designed to block intrusive and disruptive ads in Chrome worldwide later this year. Starting July 9th, the company will prevent advertisements that violate the Coalition for Better Ads' Better Ads Standards from appearing on sites in any country around the world.
Chrome Canvas lets you doodle right in your browser
Google recently launched a new web app called Chrome Canvas that allows you to doodle and jot down notes right in your browser. The new tool, which appeared without warning, can be accessed anytime by visiting canvas.apps.chrome. Your drawings are automatically saved to your Google account so you can access them anywhere (as long as there is an internet connection) and can be downloaded as a PNG file.
Google's new 'Squoosh' app is designed to optimize your images
Aside from clamping down on deceptive websites, Google is also looking to make the web faster by taking the fight to cumbersome images. Cue a collective cheer from netizens everywhere. To that end, Google Chrome Labs has designed a new web tool called Squoosh that lets devs compress and reformat pics. The app taps WebAssembly to quickly squash down images using a bunch of codecs and is available on all browsers, though (unsurprisingly) it works best on Chrome.
Chrome will soon warn you about tricky mobile subscription signups
Starting in Chrome 71, the browser will serve up warnings to keep you from accidentally signing up for a subscription service. The new protocol will address mobile websites that require visitors to enter their phone number before viewing content. Those prompts can lead to charges showing up on your next phone bill even if you didn't explicitly agree to it.
Chrome 70 brings picture-in-picture mode to desktop
Get ready for productivity to plummet around your office. Chrome 70, the latest version of Google's browser, enables a picture-in-picture feature that will let you keep videos in a floating window that will follow you around -- though it will require developers to support it.
Google's new Chrome extension rules improve privacy and security
Google has announced several rules aimed at making Chrome extensions safer and more trustworthy. Many extensions request blanket access to your browsing data, but you'll soon have the option to whitelist the sites they can view and manipulate, or opt to grant an extension access to your current page with a click. That feature is included in Chrome 70, which is scheduled to arrive later this month and includes other privacy-focused updates.
Yes Chrome is scanning your Windows PC, but it might be a bug
A few days ago Kelly Shortridge, a product manager at SecurityScorecard detected some unexpected behavior on her PC, as a honeypot Canarytoken reported being accessed by Chrome.exe. That's not what you'd expect from a web browser normally, except for one thing -- Google did add some antivirus-y capabilities to its browser on Windows late last year as an enhancement to its Chrome Cleanup tool that can help reset hijacked settings. Google Chrome security lead Justin Schuh explained how the feature works and pointed to some documentation about it, and that was that -- until last night. If you are hitting this issue and you want a fix right now then go to chrome://downloads in your browser, go to the menu in the top right, and select Clear All. That will clear Chrome's list of downloaded files so that it won't have any files to existence-check at startup. If you have a large list of downloaded files then this will improve startup time slightly. It turns out the "AV scanning" wasn't that at all, and what it was doing could affect you right now. It turns out that Chrome is checking the integrity of downloaded files at startup, and a bug lead it to that particular folder. It relies on the Downloaded History list for this check, and if you have a lot of files in there, it could slow down your computer when you start Chrome. While the dev team is working to skip the check entirely in a future update, users worried about it can fix it by clearing their download history. Easy, right?
The next version of Chrome will block autoplaying videos with sound
With Chrome 64, Google began allowing users to stop videos from autoplaying on specific websites but with Chrome 66, the company is adding new criteria that dictate when videos can autoplay. As 9to5Google reports, in Google's upcoming version of Chrome, there are a few conditions that must be met for media to autoplay on a website. It must be muted or not have audio, the user has to have tapped or clicked on the site while browsing, the site has to have been added to the Home Screen by the user on mobile or the user has to have frequently played media on that site if on desktop.
The ASUS Chromebox 3 is destined for businesses
The vast majority of machines running Google's Chrome OS are laptops, but that hasn't stopped some companies from trying to put the lightweight software into tiny desktop boxes. ASUS has been making a Chromebox since 2014, and they're announcing a new one at CES 2018. Unfortunately, details are rather limited: we know it'll run an "8th generation Intel Core processor" with an untold amount of DDR4-2400 RAM. There's no mention of storage space either. What we do know is that the Chromebox 3 will include USB 3.1 via a type-C port and Gigatbit Ethernet, a logical choice for something you won't be moving around as much as a laptop (don't worry, it still has WiFi, too).
Chrome for business isolates websites for added security
Google handed more security controls to G Suite admins in July, now it's bolstering its browser's defenses for business users too. Today's Chrome 63 rollout brings with it site isolation, Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3 for Gmail, and granular settings for extensions.
Chrome will soon prevent irritating, unwanted website redirects
Today, Google announced some tweaks coming to Chrome that are aimed at blocking surprise website redirects and irritating pop-ups. In a blog post, Google said that around one out of every five feedback reports regarding Chrome mentions users being directed toward unwanted content and so it's working to address those issues in upcoming Chrome releases.
Skype’s interview feature pairs video calls with a code editor
Skype recently launched a preview version of a new feature that could be appealing to people who conduct technical interviews online. Now, while on a video call, Skype users have the option to simultaneously use a real-time code editor through the platform's new Interviews site.
Google is fixing a Chrome flaw that makes phishing easy
As we've seen in the past, a strong password doesn't automatically make people safe online. Often, a specially-crafted email is all that it takes for someone to hand over their digital life to a malicious third party. Although email services are doing more to filter phishing emails before they reach your inbox, a decades-old unicode technique is making it hard for users to determine whether a destination is legitimate. Fortunately, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer and Safari are immune and Google is just days away from patching the flaw.
Chrome for iOS adds a Safari-like Reading List
As part of its latest update, Google Chrome for iOS just got a so-called Reading List feature, allowing users to save pages for offline viewing. If that sounds familiar, it's because Safari has had a similar feature for years now.
Chrome extension restores the backspace key to its former glory
Lots of very smart people work at Google, but that doesn't mean they're immune from making decisions that piss people off. Consider this recent Chrome kerfuffle: some users were recently shocked to discover that, upon updating Chrome, they could no longer tap the backspace key to go back a page. Mild panic, and lots of comments, ensued. If that sounds an awful lot like you, well, you can dial down the anguish a little -- Google released a Chrome extension called Go Back With Backspace that does exactly what its name implies.
ICYMI: We've gone full Leia in honor of Star Wars
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-811506{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-811506, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-811506{width:570px;display:block;}#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-44035{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-44035, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-44035{width:100%;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-44035").style.display="none";}catch(e){}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-811506").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Many of you will be leaving work as quickly as possible to catch an early screening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We're helping you prepare for the glory of what awaits with a round-up of some of our favorite Star Wars moments and characters with all the products, amazing DIYs and games that are rocking our galaxy.We'll be back to normal for tomorrow, so if you see any interesting science or tech videos, please share with us! Just tweet us with the #ICYMI hashtag to @mskerryd.
