Internet Explorer 8, Firefox 3, Google Chrome 4, Apple's Safari 4, and Opera 10 include features that block sites known to host malware and malicious downloads. All but Opera also let you browse without leaving any tracks. But just as important as these protections is ensuring that whichever browser you use is thoroughly patched.
Filtering out bad sites
Firefox's built-in antiphishing tool claims to update its bad-site database 48 times a day, according to Mozilla's Firefox security page. Firefox 3 uses Google's Safe Browsing service to automatically block sites that are known to host malware. The Google Code site describes how Safe Browsing works in Firefox.
To verify that attack-site blocking is enabled in Firefox, click Tools > Options > Security and make sure "Block reported attack sites" is checked.
Firefox will prevent known-bad sites from opening when "Block reported attack sites" is checked.
(Credit: Mozilla Foundation)The same feature is built into Google's own Chrome browser. You can ensure that malware-site filtering is on in Chrome by clicking the wrench icon in the top-right corner, choosing Options, and selecting Under the Hood. "Enable phishing and malware filtering" should be checked. The Google Chrome Help site describes the feature. (Hint: This page looks very similar to the description on the Google Code site.)
Google's Chrome browser blocks known-bad sites when "Enable phishing and malware protection" is checked.
(Credit: Google)The SmartScreen technology in version 8 of Internet Explorer blocks known-malicious downloads as well as bad URLs. Other new security features in IE 8 include automatic blocking of click-jacking and cross-site scripting attacks, automatic crash recovery, and highlighting of the actual domain name in the address bar. The Microsoft Security site describes the SmartScreen Filter and includes links to a SmartScreen FAQ and information for site managers.
Apple's Safari browser added phishing and malware blocking in version 3.2, which was released in late 2008; read about this and other security features in Safari 4 on the Apple Safari site. Likewise, Opera's Fraud Protection predates the phishing and malware filters in IE and Firefox and is enhanced in the latest version 10. But attack-site blocking is only one of Opera's many security features, which you can read about on the Opera site.
Browsing in private
To activate private browsing in Firefox 3, click Tools > Start Private Browsing, or simply press Ctrl-Shift-P. You can set Firefox to start in private-browsing mode by clicking Tools > Options > Privacy and check "Automatically start Firefox in a private browsing session." The Mozilla support site provides more information about this feature. Likewise, put IE 8 in private-browsing mode by clicking Safety > InPrivate Browsing, or by pressing Ctrl-Shift-P. You can also open a new tab and click either Browse with InPrivate or Open an InPrivate Window.
IE 8 also lets you control the information about your browsing habits that's shared with Web tracking services. To activate this feature, click Tools > InPrivate Filtering Settings and choose "Let me choose which providers receive my information." This opens the InPrivate Filtering settings dialog, where you can turn filtering off, choose which services to block from tracking you, or automatically block all trackers.
Internet Explorer 8's InPrivate Filtering lets you block some or all Web tracking services.
(Credit: Microsoft)You can open an incognito window in Google Chrome by clicking the wrench icon in the top-right corner and choosing "New incognito window," or simply press Ctrl-Shift-N. The incognito icon (a shadow figure in a fedora and glasses) appears in the top-left corner of the browser window. The Chrome support site offers a more detailed description of this feature.
Opera lacks an equivalent private-browsing capability but does offer private searching and other identity-blocking features, as described on the Opera site. To activate private browsing in Safari, simply click Safari Settings Menu > Private Browsing.
Automatic and not-so-automatic browser updates
Patching is a way of life with nearly all software, but especially with browsers and the media players associated with them: Adobe Reader, the Flash Player, Apple's QuickTime, and Sun's Java, among others. All of a browser's security features can be rendered useless by a piece of malware that takes advantage of an unpatched hole in the program.
Firefox 3 alerts users to the presence of an update and now also notifies you when your Flash Player is out-of-date. Internet Explorer 8 updates via the Windows Update/Microsoft Update services. Google Chrome made a splash by being the first browser to update itself in the background without requiring any prompting from users. Safari updates automatically via Apple's update service, which also serves up patches automatically for QuickTime, iTunes, and other Apple software. Opera also notifies you automatically when a new version is available.
But updating is too important to leave to others. Back in April, I described Secunia's Online Software Inspector and downloadable Personal Software Inspector, which identify out-of-date programs on your PC. The programs mentioned in that post have all been updated since, but Secunia's services should point you to the most recent versions.
(Note that Secunia sometimes reports a program as being out-of-date when in fact you have the latest version. On my PC, it continually reports my up-to-date Flash Player as being in need of an update, for example. But the free service Secunia provides is worth putting up with this and similar minor annoyances.)
There's no way to reduce to zero your risk of picking up some piece of malware while browsing. You need layers of security to keep viruses, Trojans, and botnets at bay—the more layers, the safer your browsing. (Of course, the more layers, the slower your browsing, too, so don't get carried away.)
Much emphasis has been placed on the enhanced security features of the latest versions of the popular browsers. Whether one is any safer than another is anybody's guess, but no browser gives you more ways to thwart a Web-based attack than Firefox via its wealth of security add-ons.
Link checkers add warnings to search results
Search results are often difficult to trust, even when the URL looks familiar. Phishers are adept at planting dangerous links that look like harmless ones. Link checkers provide you with an indication of the trustworthiness of sites before you click their links. (Note that several of the products are available for Internet Explorer as well.)
Some of the programs, such as McAfee's SiteAdvisor, give the thumbs-up or thumbs-down based on a single company's research. Web of Trust (WOT) bases its recommendations on the collective intelligence of a network of volunteers. LinkExtend is a link-check aggregator that combines the analyses of eight different services.
McAfee SiteAdvisor adds a safety indicator to Web search results.
(Credit: McAfee)While the recommendations of link checkers are helpful in identifying safe sites, you can't take their yeas and nays as gospel. For example, sites that offer downloads of system utilities may be flagged as dangerous because the programs require access to the operating system and thus could do major damage in the wrong hands.
Track the trackers
You know popular Web sites download software that tracks your activities on their sites, but do you know who's doing the tracking? Find out with the Ghostery add-on that pops up the names of the trackers as the page opens. The program puts a small "ghost" icon in the bottom-right corner of the Firefox window that turns orange when trackers are present. Click the link that appears to the right of the icon to find out more about the trackers and block them individually or entirely.
The Ghostery Firefox add-on lets you know who's tracking your activities on the site.
(Credit: Ghostery)
View encryption specs
When you open an encrypted Web page, a lock icon appears in the bottom-right corner of the Firefox window and the URL in the address bar begins with "https." But there's more than one form of encryption, and knowing which type and strength of encryption in use can be handy.
The CipherFox add-on puts in the bottom-right of the Firefox status bar the Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) cipher and keysize currently in use. Double-clicking the entry opens the CipherFox dialog box, where you can disable RC4 encryption and display partial SSL/TLS. (Note that the developer accepts donations to support the product.)
Take charge of Web password management
Firefox's built-in password manager lets you create a master password and remember passwords for specific sites, but if you want to get serious about managing your passwords, get LastPass, a password manager that provides much more granular control over your sign-ins.
After you download and install the add-on, an icon is placed in the top-right corner of the Firefox window. Click it to open the LastPass menu, which lets you manage your identities, open the LastPass Vault, jump to favorite sites, and generate secure passwords. You can also import or export sign-in IDs, compose and print secure notes, and assign keyboard shortcuts for specific actions.
In addition to Firefox and IE, LastPass is available for Google Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers. LastPass backs up your passwords by storing an encrypted copy on its own servers. And because you can access your passwords via the Internet, you can use LastPass on any Web-connected device, although use of LastPass on an iPhone or other smart phone requires a Premium membership, which costs $1 a month. (You can also put LastPass on a USB thumbdrive for use with Firefox Portable and other portable apps.)
Do you pine for the Netscape Communicator days with unified browser and e-mail software but want something more current? Mozilla on Tuesday released SeaMonkey 2.0, which combines Firefox and Thunderbird.
The new version, for Windows, Mac, and Linux, is rebuilt with Firefox 3.5.4 and is more closely aligned with the standalone browser. "SeaMonkey is now much closer to Firefox as far as user profiles, add-ons, and functionality of user interface elements are concerned," according to the release notes. Among other changes:
• Retrieving e-mail using the IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) protocol is faster, and for new IMAP accounts, mail is synchronized by default with the local computer.
• The Mozilla Lightning calendar plug-in for Thunderbird can be used.
• E-mail accounts, folders, and messages can be viewed in tabs.
• The mail module lets you subscribe to RSS and Atom feeds that the browser discovers on Web pages.
• The browser is faster at running Web-based JavaScript programs and supports a variety of modern Firefox features coming with the HTML5 standard.
• Browser tabs can be reopened after being closed, and tabs are reloaded if the browser crashes.
• The user interface for handling add-ons, passwords, forms, cookies, and downloads have been overhauled.
• The Mac OS X theme fits in better with the look of Leopard and Snow Leopard, the previous and current versions of the Apple operating system.
• Several older operating systems are no longer supported: Windows 95, 98, Me, and NT 4 as well as Mac OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) and 10.3 (Panther).
The software is available as a download for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux in 18 languages.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--John Lilly wants it both ways.
Working at Mozilla Corporation since 2005 and as chief executive since early 2008, he helped oversee a remarkable achievement. Mozilla has built the Firefox browser from a largely unsuccessful remnant of the Netscape era of the 1990s into the browser that nearly a quarter of people on the Web use. Now the challenges are different.
Mozilla Corp. CEO John Lilly
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)First, for new growth, Mozilla must make its open-source browser appeal to an even more mainstream crowd, one that's more interested in working and playing online than in sticking it to Microsoft or being part of a cause. Second, it's got to keep the loyalty of the technically savvy early adopters and Web developers that Google now has been courting with its Chrome browser.
"We have to do both," Lilly said in an interview at Mozilla headquarters here. "We have to be a better browser for your standard everyday user of the Web who uses IE now, but I think we have to redouble our efforts to be good for Web developers."
The world changed for Mozilla when Chrome burst onto the scene in 2008. Mozilla didn't see itself as complacent, but Chrome was a wake-up call that "clarified some of our priorities," Lilly said, including snappy performance.
"It made some things real crisp," Lilly said.
Indeed, in the months after Chrome's arrival, these priorities appeared in Mozilla's Firefox planning: "Observable improvements in user-perceptible performance metrics such as start-up, time to open a new tab, and responsiveness when interacting with the user interface. Common user tasks should feel faster and more responsive." And future versions of Firefox likely will look more like Chrome embracing some of its less obtrusive framing of Web content and applications.
'Web-native' Google
Mozilla's biggest rivals before, Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Apple's Safari, came from companies firmly rooted in the era of desktop computers and operating systems. Not so Google, which not only has Web-based applications such as Google Docs and Gmail to support, but also a browser-based operating system called Chrome OS.
"Competing was hard but at some level simple. Google is much more Web-native," Lilly said.
Google is an unusual rival. Even as Google and Mozilla vie for popularity, they're tight allies in the "Open Web" movement to augment Web standards to today's static pages into tomorrow's applications. And Google almost singlehandedly funds Mozilla by sending back a portion of search-ad revenue that originates from Google searches within Firefox.
In 2007, the last year for which Mozilla has released figures, Google supplied 89 percent of Mozilla's $75 million in revenue. Although the Mozilla-Google revenue-sharing deal is set to expire in 2011, realistically, it's probably safe.
For one thing, Firefox sends a large amount of search traffic to Google--traffic it could easily send to another search engine with the flip of a default setting switch. Second, Google's browser enemy is Internet Explorer, especially the slow and limited IE 6 that's still in widespread use eight years after its release. If Google wanted to cripple Mozilla, the time to do it would have been 2008, when the search-ad deal was up for renewal, but Google renewed it.
New standards
One big part of Mozilla's effort to remain in the vanguard is support for new Web standards.
Mozilla is among those trying to renovate Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) to make it a richer, more capable foundation for programming as well as display. And its significant if not dominant share of usage makes it a major force bringing those "Open Web" technologies to fruition.
"There are still a lot people who think the Web is done--there's this big mission accomplished banner. It's not true," Lilly said. "There are many proprietary technologies, many walled gardens with respect to video and offline technology. There is still is a lot of the Open Web fight to fight," Lilly said. "Getting to Firefox--a quarter of the Web--shows these technologies are real."
One thorny one is Web-based video. Today most online video is sent using Adobe Systems' Flash browser plug-in, which is free; video is encoded with the H.264 standard, which must be licensed. But fees could increase in 2011 with the possibility of new royalties for streaming H.264 video over the Internet.
Mozilla headquarters in Mountain View, Calif.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)Perhaps not coincidentally, Google announced plans to acquire On2 Technologies, which has other video encoding and decoding software--or codec--including a new version under development called VP8.
"If VP8 is an open codec and unencumbered (by patent licensing considerations), it's something we'd implement. That changes the whole landscape," Lilly said.
The first update in a decade to the HTML standard used to describe Web pages is under way, and one major feature is a video tag that builds video directly into the Web rather than relying on a plug-in such as Flash, Microsoft's Silverlight, or Apple's QuickTime. Though Mozilla, Google, Apple, and Opera all like the tag, they don't see eye to eye about what format video should be encoded in, which complicates how well the technology works in practice.
Mozilla and Opera urge use of the Ogg Theora video format, which may be implemented in open-source software without licensing complications, and Firefox has had Ogg support since version 3.5 of the browser arrived earlier this year.
But Apple's Safari has H.264 support built in. Google's Chrome supports both standards, but YouTube supports only H.264. Microsoft hasn't said what it plans to do. So for now, video plug-ins appear unthreatened.
Microsoft in the wings
At the other end of the competitive spectrum is the incumbent. Although Microsoft's browser development crept nearly to a standstill after IE won the first browser wars of the 1990s, there's evidence the sleeping giant is awakening.
IE 8, released earlier this year, attempts to conform to existing Web standards rather than setting its own. And though IE still doesn't support many of the latest technologies to make the Web into an application foundation, Microsoft now is actively engaged in discussions over those technologies and their standardization. Finally, Microsoft is working on Web applications of its own in the form of an online version of Office 2010, giving the company a strong new incentive to improve its technology.
So far, though, Microsoft's effect is more theoretical than actual.
"They've given notice they will engage. We haven't seen them influence it a lot," said Mike Shaver, Mozilla's vice president of engineering. He's eager about the possibility that Microsoft will embrace new Web standards. "They represent a large user base--some by choice, some not. Those technologies mean a lot more when they make it to more people."
Something of a wild card factor in today's browser wars is Apple, which has released a Windows version of its browser. The company rarely ventures out of its home turf of Mac OS X unless there's a strong incentive--releasing iTunes for Windows to boost the iPod business, for example--but evidently deemed Safari for Windows a high enough priority to fund development and support efforts if not much in the way of marketing.
Going mobile
Apple, though, has a big head start when it comes to the new era of mobile browsing that's just beginning to mature with high-powered devices such as the iPhone. Like it, Palm's Pre handset and Google's Android operating system for mobile phones use a browser based on the open-source WebKit project.
Firefox is moving more slowly into mobile, though. Its mobile browser project, called Fennec, is slated to emerge later this year under the Firefox brand name for Nokia's Maemo mobile operating system, and Lilly has said Firefox will be available for Google's Android operating system as well.
"I do more browsing than ever in mobile. The boundaries between desktop and mobile are going to blur," Lilly said. "We will release (Fennec) as a product called Firefox later this year."
Lilly likes to look at the bright side of this fluid landscape. "In most ways the world as a Web user is better than it's ever been. There's real choice, not just from Apple and Microsoft but from Google and Opera," he said.
"We're a unique organization. Compared to open-source projects, we look rather wealthy. Compared to the people we're competing with--Apple, Microsoft, Google--$50 million, $60 million, $100 million in revenue that to them isn't really meaningful," Lilly said. "We're competing in a low-expense, scrappy way."
Mozilla on Wednesday released two new versions of its browser, Firefox 3.5.3 and 3.0.14, that patch three critical security holes and fix assorted other bugs.
The updates can be fetched through the Help menu's Check for Updates option, or can be downloaded directly.
Although Mozilla still supports the 3.0 version, it's pushing people to the 3.5 version, and support for the 3.0 series will end in a few months. Version 3.5, released in June, supports a variety of new Web page technologies and includes a faster JavaScript engine for running Web-based programs.
Interested folks can read the release notes.
Mozilla has introduced a new pilot program for Firefox developers to make a little money off add-ons they've created. Developers now have the option to place a "contribution" button on their add-on page, which lets users donate any amount they wish via PayPal.
CNET News Poll
Contributions are optional, meaning users can continue to download and use add-ons without having to pay anything. Mozilla is also letting developers pick their own suggested price, although users can choose to pay whatever they wish.
For the pilot program, add-on creators get the entire amount of the contribution, minus PayPal's transaction fee. However, in the future that could change with Mozilla taking a small cut. Mozilla is also encouraging developers to set up special PayPal accounts for contributions under $12, since PayPal's fees are less if set up for micropayments.
Mozilla is running the pilot with a limited number of developers, and will likely open it up to all if it's a success. It's definitely a smart way to attract add-on developers to host their creations on Mozilla's site, since there's now a simpler way for them to get paid. However, it will be interesting to see if users are willing to part with their money when they don't really have to.
How much would you be willing to pay a developer for their add-on? Vote in the poll to the right.
Update: Here's an example of what it looks like live as seen on the Download Statusbar extension:
(Credit:
CNET)
Internet Explorer 8 now comes with a Nickleback.
No, Microsoft isn't again offering cash to get people to download the browser. This time it has partnered with Live Nation and the band to offer a custom version of the browser.
(Credit:
Amazon.com)
The software maker is sponsoring Nickleback's 2009 tour as well as Live Nation's Bamboozle music festival. As part of the tie-up, users can download music-themed versions of the browser.
Those who download Internet Explorer 8 from a special Web site gain access to a new live version of Nickelback's hit single "Something in Your Mouth," as well as video of the band on tour. There is also a Bamboozle version of Internet Explorer 8 available at a separate Web site.
Microsoft routinely allows others to create and distribute custom versions of its browsers. Of course, the timing of this is rather interesting considering it comes the same day that Mozilla launched Firefox 3.5, the latest version of its Web browser.
There is also a start-up, Brand Thunder, that creates custom branded versions of Firefox.
Microsoft has made great strides in educating Windows users about the need to keep their systems secure by downloading and installing the most recent updates. (I still recommend that you set Windows' Automatic Updates to download but don't install, as I described in a blog post from last July.)
The irony of the heightened awareness of Windows updates is that malware is less likely to target vulnerabilities in Windows--or other PC operating systems, for that matter. These days, most viruses and Trojans use holes in your browsers, media players, or Web applications to breach your system's security. That's why it's imperative to keep these programs up-to-date, which is a subject I covered in a post from last April.
Google pushes updates to its Chrome browser automatically--without bothering to let you know about it (the current version is 2.0.172.30). You may think I'm a hypocrite for preventing Microsoft from loading its updates automatically and applauding Google for doing the same thing with its browser. Here's the difference: if a Chrome update causes the program to malfunction, I can simply use another browser, but if a Windows update screws up, my entire system's hosed until I fix it.
If you want to use Chrome to browse without leaving any tracks on your system, press Ctrl-Shift-N to open a new browser window in Chrome's incognito mode. The sites you visit subsequently will not appear in your browser history nor will terms you search for stay in your search history. You won't pick up any new cookies, either.
You'll find plenty of add-ons in the Privacy & Security section of the Firefox Add-ons page that give Firefox a similar stealth mode. You can also choose Tools > Clear Private Data to wipe your tracks in Firefox, but this setting erases all your history in the various categories. Chrome's incognito mode lets you retain the history you want and delete the history you don't want.
Google's Chrome browser lets you surf without leaving tracks on your system via its incognito mode.
(Credit: Google)I've been spending a lot more time browsing with Chrome lately, and not just because of its incognito mode. Chrome seems faster to me than Firefox or Internet Explorer, and I'm getting used to Chrome's streamlined interface. Firefox remains my default browser, however. The one Firefox security add-on I won't browse without is InformAction's NoScript (donationware), which lets you block JavaScript, Flash, and other scripts on a site-by-site and source-by-source basis.
The best way to enhance your privacy while using Firefox is to set the browser to delete cookies each time you close the program. To do so, click Tools > Options > Privacy, select "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox," and click OK.
Check "Always clear my private data when I close Firefox" in the browser's Privacy settings to maintain your Web privacy.
(Credit: Mozilla Foundation)So what about Internet Explorer? IE 8 is said to be more secure than IE 7, which in turn was said to be more secure than IE 6. Two facts remain: Internet Explorer uses ActiveX, which in my opinion is inherently insecure; and IE 8's security options are way too complicated. What do those slider controls mean, really? (Press Alt, click Tools > Internet Options, and choose either the Security or Privacy tab to see what I mean.)
Bonus tip: Encrypt Gmail
I've been using Gmail as my primary e-mail service for several years, but it wasn't until a couple of months ago that I started encrypting my Gmail correspondences. (In fact, encryption wasn't available in Gmail until a couple of months ago.) To use encryption in Gmail, click Settings in the top-right corner of the main window, scroll to the bottom of the General tab, select "Always use https," and click Save Changes. Note that this setting prevents the iGoogle Gmail widget from working, but that's a small price to pay for the added security.
Web privacy resources
For more information on the privacy options in Google services, visit the Google Privacy Center. Along with an FAQ and overview, you'll find privacy videos and specific privacy options for YouTube, Orkut, Blogger, Docs, and other Google services.
The SANS Institute's Internet Storm Center offers a daily Internet threat level (green, the last time I checked) as well as information on the sources of recent Internet-based attacks and extensive links to other Internet security sources.
For a soup-to-nuts look at browser security, read the United States Computer Emergency Response Team's article Securing Your Web Browser. The information was last updated more than a year ago but remains relevant. Some of US-CERT's browser-setting recommendations are overkill for regular, everyday browsing, so take the advice with the proverbial grain of salt.
I'll save us both some time by getting right to the descriptions of three Firefox add-ons that shave minutes off my workday. Hey, they add up!
Navigate Web pages using only your keyboard.
When it comes to speed, I'll take a keyboard over a mouse any day of the week. A post from April 2008 explains how to create a keyboard-shortcut list you can access quickly. I also wrote about using your keyboard to move and resize windows and shortcuts for Word and Excel.
Now I can park the mouse when I surf. Instead of clicking, I enter the number Rudolf Noe's Mouseless Browsing add-on places next to each link. If I want to put the cursor in the address bar, I enter 0, while pressing 00 puts the cursor in the search field. Each open tab gets a number, each text box on the page gets a number, each drop-down menu gets a number. (I just wish the bookmark toolbar options and the reload, stop, and home buttons did.)
The Mouseless Browsing Firefox add-on assigns a number to each link and option on a Web page so you get there from the keyboard.
(Credit: Rudolf Noe)The program is loaded with options, including the ability to use only the numeric keypad to enter the numbers, so the top-row number keys aren't used to enter shortcuts. You can also require pressing the Enter key before the action occurs or change the delay between entering the numbers and taking the action.
Granted, the numbers can play havoc with a page's layout, but I can't count the number of times I've struggled to get the mouse pointer over just the right tiny link in a sea of tiny links. Being able to enter a number instead of clicking is a joy for this keyboard aficionado. (Warning: the add-on also slows your page-load speeds a bit.)
Finally! Copy Web text without the formatting.
I know how to create a keyboard shortcut that pastes plain text, but I didn't have the ability to copy and paste text from Web pages without the formatting until I downloaded Jeremy Gillick's aptly named Copy Plain Text add-on for Firefox. Just download the extension, restart Firefox, and when you copy text from a page, you'll see a Copy as Plain Text option just under the Edit menu's regular Copy option.
Copy Plain Text lets you do just that from Web pages in Firefox.
(Credit: Jeremy Gillick)You also get the Ctrl-Shift-C keyboard shortcut to copy the text without formatting. You can say what you want about one-trick ponies, but I only wish all software was this straightforward. Of course, Firefox could have this feature built in, but I'm not complaining.
The latest scores are a right-click away.
OK, I admit it. If I'm working late and missing a big game, I visit a sports site to check the scores. Now I save myself time by right-clicking Vinny 2020's SportsFox add-on, choose the sport, and see that yes, the Tigers dropped another one to the Bosox, and even worse, the Red Wings lost their second game of the Stanley Cup finals the the Penguins. (Might as well keep on working.)
Get up-to-the-minute sports scores inside your browser with the SportsFox add-on.
(Credit: Vinny 2020)Now I'm going to enjoy some of the time these add-ons have saved me. Go Wings!
Updated May 1, 2009, at 8:40 a.m. PT with more specifics about how the Google Location Service works, and again at 11:40 a.m. with additional background information.
When Google Labs released its experimental browser toolbar with its My Location finder for Internet Explorer last week, we wondered why it wasn't available for Firefox. Now we know. Instead of being added on through a toolbar or extension, it was intended to be built in. So, on Thursday, Mozilla turned on a new feature for Firefox 3.5 beta 4, and for Fennec, the code name for the mobile version of Firefox: Google's geolocation service. Like the toolbar with My Location, Mozilla's opt-in engine will use your position to return more focused search results across the Web.
(Credit:
Mozilla Labs)
The functionality has been available prior to this release, in the form of Geode, an experimental Mozilla Labs add-on that implemented the W3C Geolocation Specification. While the support was there for third-party add-ons to use geolocation in Firefox 3.1, 3.5 and Fennec, Mozilla hadn't offered it directly until now.
Here's how it works. When you browse to a page that requests to know your location, you accept or decline. Declining does nothing, but accepting delivers your Wi-Fi access point or IP address details to Google Location Services, using an encrypted SSL connection (https). Google can then return an approximation of your location to the browser, which returns it to the requesting page. Using the classic example, a search for "movie theaters" or the weather will bring up local listings without you having to type in your city or ZIP code.
Privacy is a key concern here. With many computer users going out of their way to erase their Internet tracks, handing them over for the sake of saving a few keystrokes may seem foolhardy. To that end, Mozilla has posted in an FAQ section that "Firefox does not track or remember your location between sessions, never sends your location to any third party, and never sends it to any of Mozilla's servers."
Would you use this new geolocation feature, or does giving away your whereabouts give you the willies? Discuss in the comments.
