Category: News

Will Google be forced to sell its Chrome web browser?

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google could be forced to sell of the company’s Chrome web browser and be required to make changes to other company products and services, including Android and AI.

Bloomberg reports that Justice Department antitrust officials will ask a judge to force Alphabet Inc to make the changes. The same judge ruled in August that Google has monopolized the search market illegally.

Why Chrome? According to Bloomberg, Chrome is the entry point for many interactions with Google Search. It is the default search engine on Chrome and most users keep it that way. Chrome is also a powerful weapon for Google to understand what users are searching for and what they do on the Internet.

Lastly, Google is using Chrome to support or promote other products and services. AI will play a much bigger role in the future, and what better way than Chrome to get it in from of hundreds of million of Chrome users.

Google may also be forced to “uncouple its Android smartphone operating system from its other products”. This includes search and Google Play.

Bloomberg says that the government has options to remove Chrome from the deal if Google makes other changes that “create a more competitive market”.

The judge planned for a two-week hearing in April 2025 and a final verdict by August 2025. Google already said that it is going to appeal the verdict.

Closing Words

The forced sale of Chrome and some of the other changes would have a major impact on Google’s business. With Chrome sold, it might have to broker a deal with the company that acquired the browser to make Google Search the default search engine. Considering that it pays millions to Mozilla and billions to Apple for that, it would probably cost Google a lot to remain Chrome’s default search engine.

The final verdict is less than a year away, but that won’t be the end of it. Google will appeal, which means that it could years before anything comes out of it.

What is your take on this? Should Google be forced to sell Chrome or make changes to any of its other services or products?

Kagi Translate

Kagi Translate: text and website translations by Kagi

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Kagi has launched Kagi Translate, a free translation service that it says offers better quality than Google Translate or DeepL.

Kagi, which started out as a service to revolutionize online search, has expanded into different areas since then.

Kagi Translate is the startup’s latest service. It offers the following features:

  • Supports 244 different languages.
  • Translate text.
  • Translate full webpages.
  • Free, zero tracking.

Usage is straightforward. You may either load the main Kagi Translate website and start from there, or prepend https://translate.kagi.com/ before the URL of the webpage that you want to translate.

Free users, those who are not signed in with a Kagi account, will see a captcha. Kagi Search users will have translate functionality integrated into the search engine soon.

Kagi says that it is using a “combination of advanced language models and precise output selection” and that this “delivers translations that surpass existing solutions”.

It claims that its translations are better than those of Google Translate (average) and DeepL (high). It remains to be seen if independent tests and reviews come to the same conclusion.

DeepL, the service which I use the most currently, lacks webpage translations and supports fewer languages than Google Translate, Bing Translate, or Kagi Translate.

While I won’t switch to Kagi Translate any time soon, I will keep an eye on the service and try it from time to time to see how it stacks up against other machine-based translation services.

Still, it is always good to have alternatives, especially if they are free and do not collect user data to make money out of that.

Have you tried Kagi Translate? What is your initial impression of the translation service? Will you continue using it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Thunderbird Android

Thunderbird is now officially available for Android

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The open source email client Mozilla Thunderbird is now also available for Android. This marks a big milestone for the makers and enables users to use the client on desktop systems and on mobile systems powered by Android.

With iOS support in the works, Thunderbird will be a true cross-platform email client that you can run on all major operating systems.

One of the main questions that existing Thunderbird users may have is this: how do I get my settings imported to Android?

Thankfully, Thunderbird’s team has published an easy to follow step-by-step guide that explains the entire process.

Note: the functionality requires manual steps. It also requires the latest version of Thunderbird 128 or Thunderbird Beta 132 or newer on the desktop. Only these versions come with the “export for mobile” option that is required.

Import email data from Thunderbird desktop to Android

All the latest version of Thunderbird for the desktop include an option to export data specifically for mobile use.

Here is how that is done:

  1. Open the Thunderbird email client on the desktop system.
  2. Select Menu > Tools > Export for Mobile.
  3. Modify the accounts you want to export (Optional).
  4. Decide whether you want to include account passwords (Optional)
  5. Activate the Export button.

Thunderbird displays a QR code when you hit export. Keep the screen open and switch to your Android device.

  1. Open Thunderbird on the Android device.
  2. Activate the get started button on the first screen.
  3. Select import settings.
  4. Scan the QR code that Thunderbird on the desktop shows.
  5. Select next, if you have selected multiple accounts for export.
  6. Repeat the steps 4 and 5 until all accounts have been added.

If everything went well, Thunderbird for Android should have imported the account settings from the desktop client. Thunderbird for Android should start looking for new emails immediately.

You can check out the full blog post to find out what is new and supported in Thunderbird for Android.

Firefox

Mozilla celebrates Firefox’s 20th birthday with a video that teases upcoming features.

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Mozilla has published a video to celebrate the 20th birthday of its Firefox web browser. The video showcases some of the existing features of the web browser and also upcoming features.

As far as new features are concerned, there is none that has not been mentioned before. Still, it is a good opportunity to see these features in action in the video. It is only a minute in size.

Here is the list of features that Mozilla teases in the video:

  • New Firefox profile manager and profile customization options.
  • Improved sidebar customization options.
  • Creation and management of tab groups.

The two big upcoming features are support for tab groups and the improved profile manager. All Chromium-based browsers support tab groups already. They may be used to improve tab management.

I use tab groups to differentiate between different tasks for the most part. What I like is that I can collapse tab groups so that an entire group takes up little space in the browser’s address bar.

Yes, some prefer to use bookmarks or other means to keep an eye on tabs. That is perfectly fine as well. Tab groups do not take anything away from that, but they add an option for users who like them.

Firefox Profiles gets an upgrade

The second feature improves the accessibility of the profile manager in Firefox. While Firefox supported profiles for a very, very long time, it was never put right in front of the user like in Chrome or Chromium.

Again, not ever Firefox user uses profiles. One reason for that is likely that it is difficult to find out about profile support in first place. You can stumble upon profiles in Firefox or on the Web, but there is a good chance that many Firefox users do not know about this feature at all.

If done right, this could be an introduction to profiles for lots of Firefox users.

I have to admit that I do not use profiles. I see their use, but I switch between so many browsers that these browsers are somehow like different profiles that I use. But, some users will certainly find this helpful.

What is your take on 20 years of Firefox and the features that Mozilla is teasing. Is this something you are looking forward to? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Opera One R2 interface

Opera One R2 launches with the promise that you can keep on using your classic extensions

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Opera Software introduced several new features to development editions of its browsers in the past couple of months. I reviewed the new tab management and dynamic themes feature just recently.

Today, Opera Software announced the launch of Opera One R2, the next stable version of its web browser. This release is feature-packed, and it includes some good news for users who want to keep using their classic extensions.

The details:

  • Opera One R2 is available for all supported desktop platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac).
  • It introduces several new features, including dynamic themes and the tab management feature.

Existing users may select Opera Menu > Update & Recovery to download and install the update. New users may download the installer from the Opera website.

Opera One R2: the changes

Opera published a long post on the official blog that details all the changes of the new release. Most of it talks about AI, but there are also changes that are not AI related or at least locally processed instead of in the cloud.

Since I have reviewed one of the features already, I will summarize it quickly only in this article. You can check out the links at the top of the page for detailed reviews.

Dynamic Themes is a new option to customize the look and feel of the browser. They support more than just colors and setting a background image. You may use them to add music, animated backgrounds or change UI elements such as colors. They use the device’s GPU for “smooth rendering”.

Tip: you can reduce animations in the browser in the Settings > Features > User Interface section.

Tab improvements

Opera One R2's Split Tab feature
Opera One R2’s Split Tab feature

While Opera has not introduced support for the new AI-powered tab management feature in Opera One R2, it does introduce the following new features:

  • Split Screen – This enables you to display two tabs side by side to display two sites at once. This is not a unique feature, as browsers such as Vivaldi or Edge supported this for a well.
  • Tab Traces — a memory for the five recently used tabs. Opera adds an underscore to these tabs so that you may identify them quickly from a list of tabs open in the browser.

AI features

Asking Opera's AI Aria to identify an image
Asking Opera’s AI Aria to identify an image

A few AI features are now also available for stable Opera One users.

  • Image generation — Use AI to generate images. The process is started from the AI command bar or sidebar chat in Opera. Limit is 5 images per day for anonymous users and 30 per day for Opera account users.
  • Image understanding — Aria may provide information about images that you upload to the AI.

Other new features

There is more!

  • Control music and video from the sidebar – You may now control playback of media from Opera One’s sidebar. Pause or skip media using the feature. You may also add your “preferred streaming service” to the sidebar.
  • Detachable videos and video calls
  • Multithreaded Compositor – Manages the rendering of the user interface efficiently.
  • Support for Manifest V2 extensions remains – Opera announced plans to support Manifest V2 extensions independently of other browsers.

Now you: what is your take on these features? Anything that you find interesting or would make you switch to Opera? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Chrome

Google Chrome 130: fixes 17 security issues

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Google released a new stable version of its Chrome browser today. The new version is a security and feature update.

As far as security is concerned, users no longer have to worry about 17 security issues, as Google patched them in the new release.

Three of the publicly disclosed one are rated high, which comes second only to critical. Google makes no mention of exploits in the wild, which means that it is not aware of attacks targeting any of the fixed issues.

Chrome users may want to upgrade the web browser to the latest version as soon as possible. This is done automatically on most systems, but you may speed up the installation on the desktop by selecting Menu > Help > About Google Chrome.

Windows users may also run winget upgrade google.chrome.exe to upgrade the browser from the command line.

Did you know?

Chrome for Android may move and delete Tabs automatically

You can check out the full list of disclosed vulnerabilities that Google patched in Chrome here.

As far as new features or changes are concerned, there is little information from Google about those.

Developers may check out the Platform Status page for Chrome 130 to get an overview of development related changes.

The Enterprise and Education lists some of the changes that apply to users.

Here are the most noteworthy ones:

  • Chrome is going to start to display “small chips” after certain user actions. The example that Google gives is that when users add something to the reading list, Chrome displays a Toast that confirms the action and offers a link to the reading list side panel.
  • Some users get a new account menu when they select the avatar in Chrome for iOS on the new tab page.
  • PDFs display “seamlessly” in Chrome 130 for Android now.
  • Chrome freezes a tab that “has been hidden and silent for more than 5 minutes and uses a lot of CPU” when Energy Saver is enabled. TAbs with audio- or video-conferencing functionality and tabs that control external devices are exempt.
  • Chrome’s URL parser parses non-special URLs correctly now.
  • Chrome on Android supports third-party autofill and password providers now.

Google has also started to turn off classic extensions for first users.

Microsoft Office 2016 and 2019 support ends in one year

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Next year will be crucial for many Microsoft customers. The company will end support for Windows 10 on October 14, 2025.

Next to that, it will also end support for Office 2016 and 2019 on the same day. This means that any of the included applications won’t receive updates anymore after that date.

This includes Word and Excel, but also Skype for Business 2019, Access 2019, or OneNote 2016.

Here is the full list:

Office suites: Office 2016, Office 2019

Office applications: Access 2016, Access 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2019, OneNote 2016, Outlook 2016, Outlook 2019, PowerPoint 2016, PowerPoint 2019, Project 2016, Project 2019, Publisher 2016, Publisher 2019, Skype for Business 2016, Skype for Business 2019, Visio 2016, Visio 2019, Word 2016, Word 2019

Productivity servers: Exchange Server 2016, Exchange Server 2019, Skype for Business Server 2015, Skype for Business Server 2019

While the programs continue to work after the end of support date, bugs and security issues will accumulate that won’t get fixed by Microsoft anymore. Microsoft won’t offer technical support either anymore.

Note: There is a good chance that micro-patching service 0Patch will support the two Office versions with updates after support end. A subscription is available for about $25 plus tax per year.

Customers may upgrade to a new version of Office, e.g., Office 2024, which Microsoft released recently, or subscribe to Microsoft 365, which includes Office applications.

The “End of Support: Know your options” table by Microsoft shows products that run out of support and Microsoft’s recommendations.

Obviously, there is no mention of Office alternatives that users may switch to. LibreOffice is probably the best option when it comes to that. It is an open source Office application that comes with pretty much the same apps as Microsoft Office. And it is free to use.

It offers good compatibility with Office document formats, but compatibility is not 100%. While most home users may not notice these differences and issues, Enterprise and business users may.

Do you run any of the applications? What will you do once support runs out? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Opera

Opera supports AI-powered Tab Management now – this is how it works

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

The latest Opera Developer build comes with improved AI integration. Opera highlights new tab management options, including the ability to group or close tabs based on your instructions.

Commands such as “close all YouTube tabs” or “create tab groups for all open tabs” should work now. Opera says that everything is processed locally on the user device.

The details:

  • You need the latest Opera Developer build for that. It is not yet in Beta or Stable.
  • Supported commands are close, group, pin, or save as bookmarks.
  • The feature works only if you have at least 5 tabs open.

Did you know? Opera launched Dynamic Themes recently as well.

Opera One: first look at the new dynamic themes feature of the browser

Opera Aria: tab management

All you have to do is activate the Aria interface with a click on “Ask Aria” or the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+). In some countries, it is Ctrl-Shift-7 instead. The Aria toolbar entry highlights the shortcut.

The prompt pops up in the middle of the browser window. All you have to do now is to type the command.

If you type “close YouTube” and have more than 5 tabs open in Opera, Opera will close all YouTube tabs. This worked considerably well. I added a few YouTube related pages from other sites, and they remained open.

When asked to close any tab that contains the term YouTube, Opera did not comply and closed only the YouTube domain tabs.

It is likely programmed to look only at the domain name when closing tabs.

Similarly, when I asked it to group all YouTube tabs, it would only add YouTube domain tabs to the group.

That is a somewhat of a let down, but the feature will likely be improved in future versions of the Opera browser.

Closing Words

I was not a huge fan of AI in browsers up until now. Reasons are that I do not want data to be transferred to a cloud server so that AI can process it. This is the case for Chrome’s and Edge’s automatic tab management features.

Opera says that Aria’s tab feature runs locally, which is good. While tab management powered by AI is not really something that you need when you have ten or so tabs open, I can see it useful in some scenarios.

Quickly grouping all vacation related tabs or bookmarking them can be useful. Sure, you can also do that manually, but AI may speed things up.

If you have two hundred or so tabs open, it may save you time. If, a big one, Aria gets it right every time. If the AI misses tabs or deletes the wrong ones, that could turn into an ugly situation unless you backup tabs regularly.

All in all though, it is an interesting addition that I will keep an eye on.

What is your take on this? Can you see yourself typing commands to an AI to manage tabs? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

AI Blocklist blocks AI-generated images from image search engines

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

AI is widely used to generate images. There are numerous services available to generate images using AI. All it takes are instructions and the AI generates the image.

These images may be published and they may land in search engines. It is often difficult to distinguish them from human-created images. If you do not want these in search, then you may be interested in AI Blocklist.

It contains about 1,000 URLs currently that are known to publish AI-generated images. When you apply the blocklist in content blockers like uBlock Origin, these will be blocked from image search engines such as Google Images or Bing Images.

You may be interested in this as well:

Keep on blocking in a free world: how to switch from Chrome to Firefox

The list can be installed in several ways and the GitHub repository has instructions for uBlock Origin, uBlacklist, AdGuard and Pi-Hole.

Good to know: uBlacklist is an extension that blocks domains that you specify from search results.

Install the AI Blacklist in uBlock Origin

Here is how you install the list in uBlock Origin:

  1. Activate the icon of the uBlock Origin extension in the browser that you are using.
  2. Click or tap on the cogwheel-icon in the interface that opens.
  3. Switch to the Filter lists tab.
  4. Expand the Import section at the bottom of the page.
  5. Paste the following address into it: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist/main/list.txt
  6. Click apply changes.

The list is now activate. Note that you can open it in the browser directly to check it out before you apply it.

To remove it, simply delete the line under import and select apply changes again.

Since it is a web-based list, it is updated in uBlock Origin whenever the list is updated on the GitHub repository.

Additional instructions are available on the Github repository. There you also find instructions in integrating the list in AdGuard or Pi-Hole.

Closing Words

The extension is useful if you search for images regularly and want to reduce AI-generated images in the search results. The maintainer says that it works better in uBlacklist, as it is designed specifically for filtering sites in search engines.

Do you use filters to block certain sites or content in search? Or do you simply skip that content when you encounter it? Feel free to leave a comment down below.

Arc Browser maker considering subscription-based features

Posted on by Martin Brinkmann

Arc Browser is a relatively recent web browser that is based on Chromium. About a year ago, the CEO of the Browser Company, Josh Miller, answered a question in a video that has been on the mind of many: how will the company make money with Arc Browser.

Part of the answer included revenue opportunities that the company would not pursue. This included selling user data. Among the listed possibilities that Arc was pursuing was specific Enterprise editions and also a feature called Boosts.

Boosts are small modifications to certain features on websites. There are boosts to increase the interface of AI chat clients, to blur information in chats, or to localize game times on sports websites.

This may remind veteran Internet users of userScripts, which use a combination of JavaScript and CSS for changing functionality on websites.

Some Arc features may require a subscription

New information about future monetization came to light in an interview with Josh Miller at The Verge.

Here are the main takeaways:

  • Current functionality will remain free. Nothing is going to be taken away to justify paying for the product.
  • Subscriptions are one option, but nothing has been decided on yet.
  • Other options are “usage-based” or “some sort of token system” according to Miller.

The idea seems to be to introduce new features that are either exclusive to paying users or less limited than a free version.

Closing Words

I tried Arc Browser several times. While I like some features, It is clearly lacking features in other departments that I want in a browser. I do dislike the forced account registration on start.

It seems at least that the company won’t remove features from the browser to put them behind a subscription or other form of payment.

It remains to be seen what the future will hold for Arc. It will get interesting if the monetization plans to not lead to the required results from investors.

Have you tried Arc Browser? Feel free to write a comment down below.