Tag Archives: Chrome

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Music Searches On Google Desktop Got A Helpful Update

These days, smart devices seem to get the lion’s share of developer time and attention, but Google has recently made a few changes to their desktop search that have made entries easier to read.

Initially, the company rolled out the changes for preview on any search related to COVID-19. More recently, they’ve expanded the territory that the redesign covers and now, if you do any music-related searches via Google, you’ll have a user experience that differs somewhat from what you’re used to when using search.

The single biggest change has to do with the presence of a navigation drawer located on the left side of the screen. You’ll find the name of the current “Knowledge Panel” you’re viewing at the top, a description of the query itself just beneath it, and below that, subtopic categories that load new search terms.

Where music is concerned, the search terms include:

  • Overview
  • Listen
  • And share button

Of course, Google still relies heavily on the central information panel, which displays the top search results as normal and doesn’t offer anything significant in the way of changes. However, to the right of that, you’ll find a “Listen” card on prominent display which gives you a quick and easy way to sample the sound you’re searching for to verify that it’s the version or release you wanted. Also note that just beneath that, you’ll find an “About” card which almost always links to Wikipedia content.

The new search aesthetic has been in testing for a number of months, and as mentioned, was originally only available for preview on a very limited basis. The new rollout to music searches is a sure sign that the company is primed and ready for a widespread, more generalized rollout. So if you’re not already seeing it on a regular basis on the desktop, know that you will be soon, and that it’ll be better than what you’re used to. Kudos to Google for that.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

New Chrome Update Version Removes Flash And FTP

On January 19th, 2021, Google released a new Chrome version–Chrome 88. The most notable part of this release is the removal of the Adobe Flash Player and FTP features.

FTP Removal

Google removed support for FTP in the Chrome browser because usage is significantly low and it is no longer viable to invest in improving the existing FTP client.

However, the removal wasn’t abrupt. Google had previously removed support for fetching document sub resources over FTP and rendering of top-level FTP resources in Google Chrome 72 and later versions. A bug in Google Chrome 74 and later versions resulted in dropping support for accessing FTP URLs over HTTP proxies. In Google Chrome 76, proxy support was removed entirely. The abilities of Google Chrome’s FTP implementation were restricted to either displaying a directory listing or downloading over unencrypted connections.

In Chrome 77, FTP support was disabled by default for 50 percent percent of users but was available with flags. In Google Chrome 76, the abilities of Google Chrome’s FTP implementation were restricted to either displaying a directory listing or downloading over unencrypted connections. Upon the release of the Chrome 88 version, Google stated that: “All FTP support is disabled. The legacy FTP implementation in Chrome has no support for encrypted connections (FTPS), nor proxies.”

Flash Removal

FTP wasn’t the only feature terminated, Flash was also eliminated. Google didn’t terminate the use of Flash in Chrome without any reason. At a conference in 2018, the Director Of Engineering at Google, Parisa Tabriz, said that the percentage of daily Chrome users who have loaded at least one page containing Flash content per day went down from 80 percent in 2014 to under 8 percent in early 2018. This number has continued to plummet since.

In 2011, at the prime of Flash Players, W3Techs, the web technology survey site, recorded that 28.5 percent of all websites at the time uses Flash code. However, currently in January 2021, the figure has plummeted to 2.2 percent. From this data, it is clear that Flash’s era is over and it won’t be missed as its discontinuation is justified.

Flash originally reached the end of its life (EoL) when Adobe started blocking content from playing with Flash on January 12, 2021. Before this, Adobe had stopped supporting the software officially on December 31, 2020. The decision to end Flash was led by Adobe and it was mutually reached with browser makers such as Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, and Google, since 2017. Currently, Google, Mozilla, and Apple have stopped supporting Flash. The only browser maker that is yet to stop supporting Flash is Microsoft. Microsoft is scheduled to stop supporting Flash later this month (January 2021).

In addition to Flash and FTP removal, additional features added to Chrome include its new ability to block mixed, insecure downloads and it also supports extensions built with Manifest v3 extension rules.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Chrome Will Help Users By Checking Passwords For Strength

While Google has come under fire from privacy groups in recent months, the fact remains that on balance, the company is working hard to improve overall user experience on the web and provide better security.

The most recent changes to the company’s Chrome browser is an excellent example of that very thing.

For months now, the company has focused on better password security, including a free tool that checks for compromised passwords, now built into the browser. Recently, Google has improved on that technology further, offering a new tool that checks the relative strength of all your saved passwords. If it finds any stored passwords that are weak and easy to deduce, it will draw the user’s attention to those and offer to help strengthen the passwords in question.

The new feature is in beta now, and slated to be rolled out in the weeks ahead for all users upgrading to version 88 of the browser, according to a recent blog post.

From an operational standpoint, here’s how it works:

When Chrome detects a weak password in your list of stored passwords, it gives you a prompt that notifies you of the weakness and gives you the opportunity to change the password to something stronger on the spot. In addition to that though, it also has the ability to generate a random, stronger password on the spot.

Whether you create your own stronger password, or take Google’s suggestion regarding a randomly generated one, you can save the stronger password to your saved list on the spot. That makes using the new feature in conjunction with the websites you regularly visit a seamless operation.

Finally, the company offers a way for users to check the strength of all of their stored passwords by going to Settings, then Passwords, then Check Password, and selecting the “Check Now” option.

If the review finds any problems, it will present the weak passwords in list form, allowing you to address each one in turn. It’s a simple, well-designed feature that is almost certain to improve security. Kudos to Google for the change.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Firefox To Follow Chrome in Backspace Keyboard Functionality Change

In July 2016, Google Chrome blocked the use of the backspace key to navigate to a previous page in their Chrome 52 release. This was because of reports that it brings about loss of data inputted into a form on a page by switching to a previous page.

The data loss often occurs when the user intends to use the backspace key to delete characters on a page, but the cursor is not in the text input area.

This makes the browser interpret the action as back navigation and brings about loss of all the filled data. Firefox also uses the backspace key shortcut for back navigation. This was initially done to follow Internet Explorer’s behavior.

In 2014, Firefox also considered disabling the backspace key as a navigation element due to a bug report they received about its loss of data drawback. They took their time to deliberate on if they should remove the ability of the backspace key to navigate to the previous page.

According to Firefox in 2014, the “Backspace” keyboard shortcut had 40 million clicks, which made it the most used shortcut compared to “Find in page”. That had 16 million clicks and “Page reload” had 15 million clicks. This is a cause of concern that users may be suffering from usability issues and data loss issues from hitting this keyboard shortcut by mistake.

Part of their reasons for keeping the backspace keyboard functionality was for muscle memory for users that are moving to Firefox from another browser or using Firefox with another browser. Unfortunately, this does not apply anymore as Chrome has gotten rid of this shortcut and only implements Alt + Left Arrow to navigate to the previous page on the same tab.

Also, Edge has now been used in place of Internet Explorer as a default Windows browser which has an Alt + Left Arrow shortcut for back navigation. In the coming release of Mozilla Firefox (Firefox 86) which is already in the nightly version, the backspace key functionality has been changed. This is a strong indication that Firefox 86 which will be launching February 23, 2021, will follow chrome in backspace keyboard functionality change.

What will be the new shortcut for back navigation in Firefox 86?

As already implemented in the nightly version, the new shortcut to go back to the previous page in the new release of Firefox will be ALT + LEFT ARROW key.

How to re-enable the backspace key shortcut:

In case you’re a fan of the backspace key shortcut for navigating to the previous page on the same tab, then you can re-enable the shortcut in the new release by Setting the browser.backspace_action to 0 in the about:config settings panel.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Chrome Users With Weak Passwords Will Get Notifications Soon

Is Google Chrome your browser of choice? If it is, then you’ve probably noticed some changes recently, with the browser offering to check the status of your saved passwords to see if they’ve been compromised.

Google has made some excellent moves in recent months designed to bolster the security of everyone who uses their products, and the company is poised to take another step in that direction.

They’re currently working on a new feature that will highlight weak passwords you’re using and prompt you to change them to make your accounts more secure.

The root of the issue here is that if you use a password that can be easily guessed, then it can also easily be cracked via brute force methods. Hackers have automated routines that allow them to try the most commonly used weak passwords in a matter of seconds, and if you’re using one of those, it’s child’s play for even a relatively unskilled hacker to gain access to your accounts.

While the new feature isn’t ready for Prime Time yet, if you want an early look at the shape of things to come, you can download and install Chrome Canary. Once you do, type “Chrome://flags” into the address bar and press enter.

Then, search for the ‘weak’ and enable the ‘Safety check for weak passwords’ and ‘Passwords weakness check’ flags.

Once these flags are enabled, you’ll need to close and restart the browser in order for the changes to take effect. After you do that, you can go to Settings and you’ll see a “Safety Check” option, with “Check Now” nested beneath it. Click that and it will check all of your stored passwords.

It’s a good feature and well worth checking out. Note, however, that Google has not given any indication when this new feature might make its way into the stable build.

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