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New Chrome Beta Adds Privacy Controls, Translation Option

billandad writes "Anyone would think the timing was deliberate; just as Microsoft is forced into giving users the option to switch from IE via the browser ballot screen, so Google introduces a new Chrome beta with enhanced privacy features to chisel away at Microsoft's market share. '... you can control how browser cookies, images, JavaScript, plug-ins, and pop-ups are handled on a site-by-site basis. For example, you can set up cookie rules to allow cookies specifically only for sites that you trust, and block cookies from untrusted sites.' The new beta also adds language detection, and will prompt the user to translate a page if it's written in a foreign tongue."

12 of 181 comments (clear)

  1. Choices by eeg3 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I am glad to see Chrome coming along so well, it's nice having 5 legitimate choices to use (IE, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari). The competition is driving improvements, and it's the users that are benefiting. There are still some WebApps that I have to use IE or Firefox for, but now that Chrome has extensions (delicious bookmarks, IEtab, etc.) it has been my browser of choice.

  2. Re:A bright future for the web... by buruonbrails · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yep, the future of the web is looking good, except for IE that is lagging behind. I wonder, why MS wouldn't just get over it and discontinue the development of its monstrous browser. They've lost the browser war, why wouldn't they put their resources elsewhere?
    At least IE8 is better than its predecessors and IE9 looks even better, but still..

  3. Will we ever have control over flash cookies? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It seems no browser offers the functionality to wipe those out, and yet they can contain malicious code (there was a recent infection at the office).

    *praying for the demise of flash*

  4. Re:A bright future for the web... by jaymz666 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Netscape also had the largest userbase when they lost.

  5. And this is news? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 1, Insightful
    [with Chrome] you can control how browser cookies, images, JavaScript, plug-ins, and pop-ups are handled on a site-by-site basis.

    .

    Opera has had this ability for years, FireFox nearly as long.

    The headline should be more along the lines of, " Chrome finally starting to catch up to the competition "

  6. Privacy by Mr_Silver · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... so Google introduces a new Chrome beta with enhanced privacy features to chisel away at Microsoft's market share.

    I'm guessing that the "enhanced privacy features" doesn't yet extend to being able to turn off the RLZ identifier?

    (Good job we have SRWare Iron instead)

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  7. Hidden in plain sight by westlake · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You don't have to "trust" their browser at all. The source code for Chrome is freely available. If you find any features that are unfriendly towards privacy, you're free to modify the source.

    If - and only if - you can read and understand the source.

    If - and only if - you have the programming skills - and the time - to produce a well-behaved modification.

    I am tempted to argue that when a program reaches a certain size or complexity the difference between closed and open source becomes academic.

    1. Re:Hidden in plain sight by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You don't have to depend on your own programming skills to understand the source.

      If Chromium includes some huge privacy issue - don't you think someone who HAS gone through the source might have mentioned it?

  8. Re:A bright future for the web... by sopssa · · Score: 4, Insightful

    while IE doesn't generate direct revenue. The main reason why they are spending resources on IE is to promote Bing and a number of other products.

    So, just like Firefox, Chrome and Opera then?

    It doesn't really matter if browsers don't generate direct revenue. Indirect revenue is still revenue just as well. Mozilla cashes in $78.6 million (2008) a year, and they don't even have the marketshare of IE and that was in 2008.

  9. Re:Security changes won't make me switch by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Security features are nice, but they aren't a selling point.

    They may not be a selling point for you, but they are for some other people. You wouldn't want the content of your bank account transparently transferred to some criminal's bank account by some malicious JavaScript running due to an XSS attack on your bank's web site. Just to give an example what JavaScript can do.

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  10. Re:A bright future for the web... by abigsmurf · · Score: 2, Insightful

    After their experience with IE6, I think it's very unlikely Microsoft will be the first to implement any yet-to-be-standardised tags.

  11. Re:Google? Privacy? by jez9999 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    But Chrome comes from Google, and releases often with an auto-updating mechanism

    To be fair, Firefox comes with a very aggressive, annoying (IMHO) update mechanism built in and enabled by default.