A Shameless Plug (In)
Until 1994, a "browser" was someone who wandered more or less aimlessly through a retail store. Then came the World Wide Web and the concept of the "browser" as an application that runs on a computer. Today, many of us spend much of our time, at work and at home, interacting with a browser. It probably shouldn't be a surprise that the basic browser often fails to meet our needs no matter which browser it is. That's why plug-ins are so popular.
What's a bit surprising, though, is how few people install plug-ins. I'm going to use that term generically because even though all of the major browsers support plug-in technology, they don't all use the same term to describe it.
Plug-ins add functionality that's not present in the basic browser, thus making the browser suitable for tasks that might otherwise not be appropriate. Not every plug-is is a must-have for every user. Firebug and Web Developer are two that I have installed in Firefox, but that most people won't need.
Some plug-ins would be valuable additions for just about anyone, though, and I'd like to tell you about some that I consider to be all but indispensable. In most cases, the plug-ins are available at least for Firefox and Chrome. Many have Internet Explorer versions, too.
How to Install Add-Ons
Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer cannot use the same processes to provide access to add-ons, of course. Here's how to navigate to where you need to be for each browser. In each case, the description is for the most recent version of the browser. Earlier versions may not work exactly as described here.
- Firefox: Tools -> Add-ons; select the Get Add-ons tab.
- Chrome: Click the Menu icon, choose Settings, and then click Extensions. Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Get more extensions."
- Internet Explorer: Tools -> Manage Add-ons; click "Find more tool bars and extensions" near the bottom of the page. Note that if another browser is your default, it will open, so you'll need to set IE as the default for this to work. This is yet another reason to avoid using IE.
The Most Important Add-Ons
I've described the password manager LastPass before and I think that it's the best possible way to maintain control over dozens or hundreds of passwords that we must manage today. There's a LastPass plug-in for all major browsers and, if you use LastPass, you should certainly install the browser plug-in.
LastPass has recently acquired Xmarks, the bookmark synchronizing program. If you use several browsers or if you have more than one computer, you may have wished that there was a way to keep a consistent set of bookmarks in all of the browsers on all of your computers. There is and it's called Xmarks. As you download and install Xmarks for each of your browsers, you'll specify whether bookmarks on the computer will be merged with what's on the Xmarks server, replace the bookmarks on the server, or be replaced by the bookmarks on the sever.
Everybody should install HTTPS Everywhere. It is not available via the browser's standard installation process. Instead, visit https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere/ and download it from there. EFF is the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Many sites offer limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. Most sites default to HTTP, which is a plain-text process. The HTTPS Everywhere extension rewrites requests to call for HTTPS, which is encrypted, instead. This is not a protective application, though; it provides protection only when you attempt to connect using HTTP to a site that offers HTTPS. In other words, it activates security features if they're present, but it can't create them if they don't already exist.
Some people prefer Chrome's single URL/Search Bar. The user can type a URL or a search term and Chrome figures out what the user wants. The person who types "techbyter.com" clearly wants a website while "where do tigers live" would obviously be a question for a search engine. Unlike Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer both have separate URL and search areas. Omnibar combines them to provide Chrome-like functionality.
AdBlock Plus, NoScript, and Ghostery are plug-ins that eliminate annoying ads, protect against script-based attacks, and reveal the names of services that sites use.
AdBlock Plus has no inherent functionality; that is, it doesn't block anything until the user tells it what to block. I consider this to be important because I'm not really opposed to advertising. But when an ad plays audio or video without my permission, I block it.
NoScript can be annoying, but it eliminates website features that are even more annoying and possibly dangerous. By default, NoScript will block all scripting. The user can re-enable scripting for trusted sites, but scripting that is imported from other locations must be approved individually. That's the annoying part because NoScript has a "trust all this page" option, but it doesn't really work as intended and you may see the same prompt several times on the same page. But NoScript protects against cross-site scripting and click hijacking, so it's worth the occasional annoyance. JavaScript, Java, Flash and other plug-in code will be executed only by Web sites that you explicitly trust. I would not run a computer without this plug-in.
Ghostery (shown above) reveals cookies, tags, web bugs, pixels, and beacons that sites (even TechByter) might use, and you can choose which to allow. After you've seen what's being used, you can decide whether or not you want to block any of the services in Ghostery's library. You may want to allow some specific functions or some entire sites. I rarely turn off any of these, but I find it interesting to see who's using what.
Online shoppers will find PriceBlink to be useful. When you're viewing a specific product, PriceBlink searches more than 3000 merchants for lower prices and lets you know whether you've found the best price. It also provide coupon codes from hundreds of commercial websites. If you're looking at a specific item, PriceBlink will research prices on other sites and display them to you. Be cautious when comparing prices, though, because fraudsters are getting better at getting search engines to index their pages. Look for the best price, but stick with sites that you know and trust.
When you land on a commercial website, such as the Best Buy page shown here, PriceBlink will offer coupons related to the site. And when you're not on a commercial site, the big yellow PriceBlink banner simply vanishes.
If you're a Firefox user, you probably have a long list of installed add-ons by now. The add-on part of the browser's control panel might look like this. You look at the screen and think that there must be a better way to display all of these add-ons.
There is. It's another add-on called Cleanest Add-On Manager. An add-on to control the other add-ons! It condenses your add-on list and cleans up wasted space in Firefox (and Thunderbird, too) while retaining all of the basic application's functionality.
WorldIP is a plug-in that provides information about where a website is physically located and what its IP address is. Why do you need this? It provides protection against DNS spoofing and fake sites by providing access to all DNS records for the domain. You'll see the real location of Web server, country flag, and extended information about the data center. If you're visiting what claims to be the American Express website, but see that it's located in Albania, you might want to reconsider providing any information.
Those are just a few of the plug ins that are available for Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer. Some plug ins are available even for lesser known browsers. Check them out and see how you can make whichever browser you prefer even better.
How About a Browser from ... ... China?
If your initial response is along the lines of "NO XXXXing WAY!" give me a moment here. First, understand that this is not a brand new browser. It's been around for more than 8 years and, in some form, for more than 15 years. There's a story behind the Chinese part, too.
Maxthon is based on "MyIE", which was created by a Chinese programmer as a way to customize Internet Explorer. The programmer released the source code before leaving the project in 2000.
Maxthon CEO Ming Jie (Jeff) Chen continued working on the code and released version 2 in 2002. Users have contributed code to the project to create plug-ins and other features. MyIE2 became Maxthon in 2003.
The browser runs on Windows, Apple's OSX, Windows Phone 8, IOS devices, and Android devices. It supports both the Trident and the WebKit rendering engines, which is unusual.
Still have doubts? Maxthon has won several awards from organizations such as CNET and PCWorld over the years. And, although most of the development is done in Beijing, the company has corporate offices in San Francisco, along with Hong Kong and Shanghai.
Four years ago, Microsoft included Maxthon as one of 12 browsers it displayed at BrowserChoice.eu, the site that Windows users who live in Europe visit to select and install the browser they want to be their default. You may recall that the EU forced Microsoft to stop installing IE as the default browser. Versions for Android, Mac, and IOS devices date back to 2010. The current Windows version (4) has been around since late 2012.
The Browsers You Know
If you're big on plug-ins, Firefox is still the leader. For speed and built-in functionality, Chrome wins. Even Microsoft's Internet Explorer long ago shed its "loser" status; many people haven't realized that yet and IE still gets little respect even though in some ways it's the most secure browser today. And I should also mention Opera (now at version 20), which gets some respect but not a lot of notice.
But let's look at Maxthon. You might be a bit concerned during the installation if you bother to read the agreement. Near the top, it says:
WHEN YOU INSTALL MAXTHON YOU WILL BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO INSTALL ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE PRODUCTS FROM THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. A LIST OF THE AVAILABLE THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PRODUCTS WILL BE PROVIDED DURING INSTALLATION. USE OF EACH AVAILABLE THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PRODUCT IS GOVERNED BY ITS OWN END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT. THOSE LICENSE AGREEMENTS WILL BE PRESENTED FOR YOUR REVIEW AND ACCEPTANCE DURING INSTALLATION OF EACH THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE PRODUCT.
I thought that this might refer to tag-along installations that plague other freeware applications, but that wasn't the case. No additional applications were presented or installed. What it seems to refer to instead are plug-ins that are available. The choice is nowhere near as broad or as deep as the plug-ins available for Firefox, but several hundred exist. They have been written by third parties and hence the warning.
You will, of course, want to turn off the Set as default browser option until you decide whether you might want this browser to be your default.
You'll be given another opportunity to make Maxthon your default browser when you first open the browser. Just decline that for now and go on with seeing what you think.
Maxthon is a fast browser and has excellent support for HTML5 and CSS3. Although the tabbed browsing isn't as robust as you'll find in the big-three browsers, the presence of both main rendering engines (Trident and WebKit) is a plus. Do-not-track is enabled by default.
The numbers (0) in the text refer to the call-outs on this image. Click the thumbnail image to see a larger view.
If you install Maxthon, the first thing you're likely to notice is that it doesn't look like other browsers. In fact, if you have Windows 8, the Maxthon interface is probably a better fit than any of the big three. All the clutter you would typically find at the top of the browser is gone, except for the minimize, resize, and close buttons in the upper right.
Along the left edge of the browser (1), you'll see several icons that allow you to log on to a Maxthon synchronizer site (optional) to share information between computers and hand-held devices, display your favorites, manage downloads, define RSS feeds you subscribe to, connect to the Maxthon Community, and write notes that will optionally be synchronized to your Maxthon SkyCloud.
Where's the menu? Perhaps taking a cue from Chrome, it's on the right side of the screen (4) below an icon that looks like a menu.
Chrome combines its URL and search box into a single unit. Internet Explorer, and Firefox have separate areas, but I've explained how a plug-in can convert Firefox to work the way Chrome does. Maxthon provides a huge URL box and a tiny search box, but the search box becomes larger the instant you plant the cursor there.
Initially you'll see a smiley face in the upper left corner. That's the icon you click to log on to Maxthon's cloud-based services. These are optional, but if you create an account and upload a photo, you'll see that photo in place of the smiley face.
Creating an account has several advantages. If you have multiple computers that you'd like to synchronize, this is what makes it possible. Bookmarks and favorites can also be synchronized with Android and IOS devices. If you're a user of OneNote, Evernote, or Google Keep, the SkyNote feature will have less appeal, but the built in notes feature could be used by anyone who wants to write a reminder that will be synchronized with other computers.
When you sign up for an account, Maxthon will send an e-mail that includes both your user name and the password. This is an absolute security violation and the instant you receive the message, you should log on and change the password. If you do that, the security issue will be eliminated, but it really shouldn't be introduced in the first place.
Innovation is Key
The developers have clearly been thinking outside the browser and Maxthon offers some features that are not present in any other browser. These have names such as Cloud Download, Push, Resource Sniffer, Magic Fill, Feed Reader, and Night Mode.
Cloud Download: When you download a file from a website, the file is placed on your computer. If you want to use the file elsewhere, you have to transport it there or download it again from the other device. Maxthon's Cloud Download can place the file in your online storage instead so that it will be available from any computer where you've installed the browser.
Push: You would use this when you want to send a page reference to your other computers. Click the star icon in the address bar (what you would typically use to create a new favorite) and you can simply create a favorite/bookmark as you would with any other browser, or select "Push to" and send the address to another device.
Resource Sniffer: (5) You'll find this on the minimalist tool bar, a magnifying glass with an arrow that points down. Start on any page that contains media files (photos, music, video) and click the Resource Sniffer; you'll be offered the opportunity to download any of the files, or all of them. If the site you're visiting has protective measures installed, the process may not work properly, but it seems to function as intended with sites such as YouTube and Vimeo.
Magic Fill: (also 5) This is essentially a password manager. I don't care for browser-based password managers because they generally are less secure than a dedicated password manager such as LastPass, but Magic Fill works a lot like LastPass. You can also use it to fill forms on websites based on multiple identities that you define. For example: You and your home address, you and your office address, and so on.
Feed Reader: Those who have a lot of RSS feeds defined will appreciate Feed Reader because it's a way to display all of those feeds in a single concise window.
Night Mode: Have a notebook or tablet computer that you read while in bed? You're a candidate for Night Mode. It darkens sites (you get to choose the colors) so that the page is easier to read in a dark room.
Other stuff: There's a status bar in the lower right corner of the browser (3) and here you can select various options to display: CPU usage, upload or download speed, available physical or virtual memory, and your local or public IP address. And if you happen to be connected to the Internet via a proxy, you can find out about it by clicking the (6) proxy icon.
Operating in the Real World
Although you can move tabs left or right by grabbing them with the mouse cursor, Maxthon doesn't make it possible to just grab a tab and drag it off the browser to open a new instance of the browser. That feature is incredibly handy for some tasks, particularly if you have more than one monitor.
But maybe the New Tab feature makes up for some of that. Click the + sign at the right of all open tabs to create a new tab and you'll encounter what I think is the best new-page function available. (Oh, all right -- Opera's is probably better here, but so few people use Opera that most people probably have never seen new-tab functionality working the way it should.) You'll see a tiled grid of pages. (7) Initially, it's mainly search engines, news sites, and portals. Hover your mouse over it and use the scroll wheel (touch-screen users will just swipe) to see a many more tiles. For the 6 people on the planet who won't like this feature, Maxthon makes it possible to hide the tiles and, instead, simply display a blank page.
I haven't seen Maxthon on an IOS device, but it works well on a Windows tablet or an Android tablet. I would expect it to work as well on an IOS device or an Android phone. (This image is from a Nexus 7 tablet.)
Extensions? At last count, Firefox had something like 12 quintuple-bazillion plug-ins, extensions, themes, and backgrounds (perhaps a slight overstatement). No other browser comes even close, but Maxthon has a few hundred plug-ins. (2) You'll find a gear icon in the lower left corner of the browser. This will lead you to the Extensions Manager where you can review what's available. One thing you'll notice, though, is that many of the add-ons are intended for Chinese users. By now, that should not be much of a surprise. If you don't read Chinese, you'll probably want to check the English only box.
If you're looking for a browser that is compatible with HTML5 and CSS3 standards, look no further than Maxthon. Really! HTML5Test.com measures browser compatibility and all of the current browsers provide good support for the latest standards, but Maxthon edges out even Chrome. The testing service's best score is 555. Maxthon scored 513 (92%) and this compares to Chrome (505, 91%), Opera (496, 89%), Firefox (448, 81%), and Internet Explorer (335 [60%], or 376 [68%] if you're running Windows 8.1).
Possibly one reason for this score is the fact that Maxthon includes both the page-rendering engine that Internet Explorer uses (Trident) and the one that of Chrome uses (WebKit).
Security? Well, the most secure browser today is actually Internet Explorer 11 because it has built-in protections against rogue downloads. Maxthon does use a sandbox technique similar to that employed in Chrome, though, to protect system operations from what the browser is doing.
Thinking far outside the browser leads to an innovative browser
Given how long Maxthon has been around, I can't exactly call it new, but Maxthon's developers have displayed a willingness to think about browsers in new ways and version 4.2 shows it. The differences are clear, but they don't get in the way of using the browser. After just a few minutes, you might start thinking of Maxthon as an old friend.
More information is available on the Maxthon website.
Short Circuits
Know Somebody Who's Sitting for the SAT?
The Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is one of two tests used by some colleges in determining which students to admit and the SAT will be changing its format in 2016. A huge and profitable industry tutors students to learn how to take the tests and the redesigned SAT is supposed to focus more on skills needed to succeed in college and less on learning how to take tests.
In the meantime, though, learning successful test-taking strategies is important. Khan Academy, the free online educational resource that's in part funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is striving to level the playing field between students of wealthy parents who can afford test tutoring and those students whose parents can't afford the expensive programs.
Khan is partnering with the College Board so that all students who want to go to college can prepare for the SAT at their own pace and without cost.
If someone you know will be taking the SAT this year or next, they can start practicing today with hundreds of previously unreleased math, reading, and writing questions from real SATs on the Khan website. In addition, more than 200 videos that show step-by-step solutions to questions are present.
By spring 2015, Khan plans to offer interactive learning tools that will provide deep practice and help students to identify areas where their knowledge is lacking. "Our goal," says Khan's official policy, "is nothing short of leveling the playing field for every student taking the SAT."
For more information, take a look at Khan's SAT preparation site, www.khanacademy.org/sat.
Watch This
Do you wear a watch? How many people do you know who wear a watch? Most people I know just use their cell phone or some other hand-held device to find out what time it is and often to manage their calendar, task list, and reminders. Could watches become powerful enough to make a comeback?
Apple seems to think so. Google does, too. The latest Android watch could be either incredibly useful or astonishingly intrusive, depending on your feelings about privacy.
This week Google announced what it calls "Android Wear", a modified version of the operating system that's designed for wearable computers. The first such device from Google is being called a smart watch.
The Android watch will, of course, know where you are and so it will be able to provide helpful information about what's in the area. But the Android watch will report your location so that others will be able to send ads enticing you to visit their stores.
Your new Android watch could also display posts and updates from your friends, news, and (like Android tablets and phones) will respond to questions you ask by speaking into it.
Where's Dick Tracey when we need him?
The Android watch will have be ability to help you monitor health and fitness. Apps will be able to tell you how far you've walked, remind to not to skip the gym, and report activity summaries. All of this is helpful information, but it raises questions about how some highly personal information might "accidentally" escape from the device on your wrist.
If you own other Android devices, the watch will allow you to control them. In a blog post, Google says "There’s a lot of possibilities here so we’re eager to see what developers build."
Here's how Google sees the future:
OK, so maybe that's just a little overblown, but you get the idea.
So now you have two devices to wait for, one from Apple and one from Google, and it appears that Google will win the race to the marketing finish line. Android is the most popular operating system for smart phones. Apple isn't even close, despite the Iphone, but some developers still create apps for Apple's IOS before porting it to Android. If Google is able to bring a watch to market before Apple does, that could shake up the development community.
And maybe IF Apple creates a watch, not when. There's been a lot of talk about it, but Apple is a very secretive company.
So ... watch this space. So to speak.
DeepFace Knows Who You Are
"Kill Decision", a novel by Daniel Suarez examines the future of warfare where drone aircraft can identify individuals and kill them entirely without human intervention. I'm reading the novel now and this week Extreme Tech had a report about a Facebook technology called DeepFace (really!) that's as good as humans when it comes to identifying people. Combined, the accounts are a bit unnerving.
Humans are still better, but not by much. The article says that DeepFace can examine 2 photographs, even if the lighting and camera angles differ and can determine, with 97.25% accuracy, whether the photographs are images of the same person. Humans get it right 97.53% of the time. That's just 28 hundredths of one percent better!
It hasn't been rolled out yet. The article says that DeepFace is currently just a research project. "Facebook will use it to help tag your photos, but [i]t would also be irresponsible if we didn't mention the true power of facial recognition, which Facebook is surely investigating: Tracking your face across the entirety of the web, and in real life, as you move from shop to shop, producing some very lucrative behavioral tracking data indeed."
The article points out some very real concerns. For example, "DeepFace could clearly be used to trawl through every photo on the Internet, and link it back to your Facebook profile (assuming your profile contains photos of your face, anyway)." Is that an invasion of privacy? Assuming that you posted your images on the public Internet, probably not. But what if somebody else posted the images?
Facebook already recognizes people that you've tagged previously and it does a good job if the person in the photograph is reasonably well lighted, the photo has sufficient detail, and the image is close to being straight-on. The new technology would extend this ability to far more images.
The full article is available on the Extreme Tech website.
Google and Viacom Agree to Agree
The news release was about as illuminating as a 2-watt light at the bottom of Mammoth Cave: Google (the owner of YouTube) and media company Viacom have reached an agreement to stop meeting in court rooms.
Here's what they said, jointly, "Google and Viacom today jointly announced the resolution of the Viacom vs. YouTube copyright litigation. This settlement reflects the growing collaborative dialogue between our two companies on important opportunities, and we look forward to working more closely together."
The only thing missing from the news release is news. Except for that, it's a great news release.
The two have been battling in court since 2007 when Viacom sued YouTube, accusing the video-sharing site of allowing people to upload movies and television programs for which Viacom held copyright. Viacom never conclusively proved that Google had knowledge of specific copyright violations and, as a result, Google has generally prevailed in court.
One judge, finding in Google's favor, said that the burden of proving that YouTube knowingly allowed "specific infringements of the works" is with Viacom. In other words, YouTube must be considered innocent until proved guilty and not the the other way around. The burden, said the judge "cannot be shifted to YouTube to disprove."
Even the barbaric Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) includes what's called the Safe Harbor provision that holds providers such as YouTube blameless as long as they take down any copyrighted materials when the copyright holder notifies them to do so.
Amusingly, 100 of the videos cited by Viacom in one of its suits were found to have been uploaded by Viacom employees and in recent years, the companies have become friendlier. Viacom even posts clips and some longer materials to YouTube. So the decision to drop the legal wrangling is simply an agreement to recognize the status that has been quo for quite some time. (Apologies to Latin teachers worldwide.)