GilsMethod.com » Browsers

Delete Flash Cookies in Internet Explorer with Flash 10.3

Greg Baden — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:00:04 +0000

A little over a week ago, we announced that Chrome had implemented the ability to delete flash cookies within the browser, shortly after Adobe released the update for Flash Player 10.3, and now we’re starting to see this expand to other browsers. Now Microsoft is announcing that Flash cookies will now be deleted in both IE8 and IE9, assuming you’re using the latest version of Flash Player, 10.3. When they released IE8, Microsoft integrated some APIs, so that add-ons, like Flash, could respond with Delete Browsing History and InPrivate Browsing. This would and now does allow you to delete Flash cookies with your standard deletion of browser cookies inside Internet Explorer 8 and 9.

Microsoft has a “test drive” page where you can use either IE8 or IE9 to create and delete Flash cookies if you currently don’t use the browser. The demo is pretty interesting and shows how deleting browser cookies, now will delete Flash cookies as well, assuming you’re using Flash Player 10.3.

Developers Rejoice, Omnibox API Now Available

Greg Baden — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:33:11 +0000

Using the address bar in many browsers in the past only included simply URL queries, but with browsers becoming more advanced, so are their address bars. Firefox started it all by allowing you to search directly from the address bar, even from sites you’ve visited in the past; then came Google Chrome, who shook up the browser market. While still featuring many of the older browsers features it brought in some new useful features and that is still changing even today.

With updates from Google quite often, it’s not too often that we seen an update for the address bar, but on Tuesday Google changed that. More Google Chrome extensions should be coming our way soon with the new release of the omnibox API. The omnibox, better known as the address bar, API will now allow developers to create their own keywords for the omnibox. New keywords will allow for more useful features to be used inside of the omnibox. Developers will be able to use the keywords to predict what the user is trying to do for their own extensions.

Useful extensions, like allowing you to search and switch between tabs right from the omnibox, are just an example of what we have yet to see.

Forget Acrobat Reader, PDF’s Open Automagically in Chrome

Gilberto J Perera — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 11:00:46 +0000

The latest version Chrome beta has an integrated PDF reader that requires no additional software or plug-in’s to open PDF files. Google feels that since the PDF format is the most popular file format used to deliver documents on the web that it would be a good idea to make the viewer part of the browser itself. To mitigate security risks associated with PDF’s, Google has added a layer of security called the “sandbox” around the PDF viewer to prevent attacks from malware and security flaws aimed at PDF files. More features will be added and the feature should be available in the stable Chrome channel in the near future.

PDF’s appear to open almost instantly within a Chrome tab. You will notice that when opening PDF’s there is no way to zoom in or out, but if you place your mouse cursor on the lower-right corner of the document a set of tools to modify the document view will appear.

Software used: Google Chrome 8.0.552.28 beta

A. Zoom toolbar.

a. Fit document to window height.

b. Fit document to window width.

c. Decrease magnification of entire page.

d. Increase magnification of entire page.

With Flash and now a PDF viewer built-in, what else do you think Google will incorporate in future versions of Google Chrome?

Why Firefox is NOT ‘Safer, Faster, Better’

Gilberto J Perera — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 02:09:41 +0000

Until about 5 o’clock yesterday when I stumbled upon Firefox Myths I was a true Firefox fan (not a fanboy), I told everyone Firefox is the Safest browser out there, it Faster than Internet Explorer, and it’s Better all around. I went and installed Firefox on all my computers at home (5 computers) and countless friends whose computers I’ve serviced.

I was WRONG! I was wrong about Firefox’s God-like status. It is not what it has been made out to be. I ask you to venture into Spread Firefox’s website, read through their forums/articles/comments and see for yourself how deceiving this Spread Firefox campaign has been.

Below I will cover each of the abilities that Firefox claims to have – I will cover this from a high level approach, Andrew does a better job of explaining this. I’m writing this in hopes to reach users that blindly followed Firefox’s claims, I know I did, but promise to never do it again.

Below I highlighted why Firefox is NOT ‘Safer, Faster, Better‘ My main source for this was Firefox Myths, other sources are listed below.

NOT Safer : All of us take browser vulnerabilities seriously; it’s one of the reasons among others, why we all flocked to Firefox (please notice I said one of the reasons, there are others). According to Firefox Myths, these are Firefoxes latest security statistics:

Secunia – lists (122) security vulnerabilities in Firefox, (77) rated Highly Critical. – Source - Notes – The number of Secunia “advisories” (34) does not equal the actual amount of “vulnerabilities” (122). Over 10 advisories have multiple vulnerabilities, look carefully. SA19631 – Lists 24 Vulnerabilities Alone!
Mozilla – lists (125) security vulnerabilities in Firefox, (26) rated High and (54) Critical. – Source
CVE – lists (180) security vulnerabilities in Firefox. – Source

These numbers may not reflect the exact number of current vulnerabilities due to Mozilla’s release of version 1.5.0.5 which resolved about 12 firefox vulnerabilities, but they do show Firefox is not as ‘Safe‘ as it is claimed to be.

NOT Faster : Below you will see a comparison that clearly shows Firefox is slower than Internet Explorer, Opera, and even Mozilla with regards to loading times.

Myth – “Firefox is the Fastest Web Browser” – Example

Reality – Opera (now 100% Ad free) is the fastest Graphical Web Browser in Windows. – Source

Myth – “Firefox is Faster than Internet Explorer 6” – Example

Reality – Internet Explorer 6.x is clearly faster than Firefox 1.x in 6 out of 7 measures of performance and is significantly faster from a cold start. – Source (Notes – The argument that components of Internet Explorer may load during Windows Startup is nullified by Opera‘s start times. Which means there is no excuse for this except poor coding on Firefox’s part).

Myth – “Firefox is Faster than Internet Explorer 7” – Example

Reality – Internet Explorer 7 is clearly faster than Firefox 1.x in 5 out of 7 measures of performance. – Source

Myth – “Firefox is Faster than Mozilla” – Example

Reality – Ironically Mozilla 1.8 is faster than Firefox 1.x in 5 out of 7 measures of performance.. – Source (Notes – Considering Firefox is supposed to be the lighter, leaner version of the Mozilla suite, this is very surprising).

NOT Better: With regards to a better browser, well that is entirely up to the user, you may like, for example, the fact that StumbleUpon makes an extension for Firefox and Internet Explorer only, not Opera, you may stick with Firefox due to IE’s myriad of vulnerabilities, whatever the case may be, if we’re going to judge a piece of software and rate it Better based on capabilities alone, Opera would be the better browser (based on capabilities and speed), NOT firefox.

With all that said, I will keep a copy of Firefox on my computer (just for StumbleUpon, I’m addicted) until it is real eased for other browsers. I will continue to play with Opera, which by the way I’m loving and continue working on; I will also continue using IE7 and hope for the best when it is officially released.

Download Opera, Internet Explorer 7

Sources: Secunia Security Bulletins, Mozilla Security Updates, Firefox Myths, SpreadFirefox Forums, Rob Ashton, Popular Technology.net, Dave’s Rants