Google’s new browser: more secure?

Google released a new browser with the codename “Chrome“. This is very exciting and Google will definitely join the battle of the browsers between Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Firefox.

I tested it for a while and was quite impressed with the speed and overall elegance. Personally, I hate toolbars or other junk when I’m surfing the web. This is a very clean interface here, supporting most of the features we like such as Tab browsing. Chrome is still in Beta testing (like most Google’s apps isn’t it?) so be aware that there will be bugs. However you can trust Google for doing their own testing with their millions of machines…

One area I am particluarly interested in is security. The Chrome browser includes an anti-phishing and anti-malware component (which I guess is based on Google’s Stopbadware project). Of course, it does not guarantee it is going to work %100, as the screenshot below shows.

There is an option you may want to check for when you run Chrome. By default, files will be automatically downloaded to your computer. Very handy feature but also potentially disastrous with malware.

The fake video codec got downloaded automatically. This file is malware and should have been filtered.

If you turn off the automatic download feature, you will get a window that will ask you where to save the file. In case it is a file you did not wish to download, you can close it.

The Chrome browser is open-source, which means it is open to contributions.

In the meantime, Microsoft has released for Beta testing, Windows Internet Explorer 8.  The race is on!

Jerome Segura