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Feed+: Chrome app to create Google+ RSS feeds

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Feed+: Chrome app to create Google+ RSS feeds

It feels kinda strange that Google has not integrated RSS feed capabilities into its social networking site Google+. I do know quite a few users who would like to subscribe to certain Google+ users via RSS to receive information about posts in their RSS reader.

A few hacks have come and gone in the past that added RSS feed capabilities to Google Plus. Google Plus Feed for instance is a third party service that turns public messages of a Google+ profile into an RSS feed that you can subscribe to in programs such as Google Reader, RSS Owl or my current favorite program Great News.

Feed+ is a Google Chrome app that offers more than that. Even better, it has been created by a Google employee which should add a bit of trust to the app. And trust is something that you need, considering that you need to be signed in to a Google account to add it to your browser and authorize it to access certain data sources.

You can start the program from the browser’s new tab page after installation and authorization. The app supports two different types of feeds:

Public user feeds: this turns all public messages of a selected user on Google Plus and turns it into an RSS feed. To create the feed, you either need to enter the profile ID which you find on the public profile page on Google+, or the full profile url.Search results: this creates an RSS feed from a selected search term. It combines all public posts that include the search phrase.

A click on the preview button generates a preview of the feed which allows you to verify that everything is displayed correctly. You can then click on the add button to add the feed to your library on the app page.

Each feed listed here links to a generic RSS feed url and Google Reader. If you are not using Google Reader, you simply need to copy the RSS feed url into your program of choice. Please note that the feeds remain active even if you remove the app from Google Chrome. It is not really clear how to de-authorize the application, the Google authorized access listing does not include the script. The app in addition is limited to Google Chrome.

Feed+ is regardless of that one of the best options of creating RSS feed from Google profile listings and Google+ searches.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday September 21, 2012 -
Tags:google chrome, Google Plus, rss feed
Categories: Google

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GExtend Optimizes Google+ For Widescreen Monitors

Google a few days ago launched a re-design of Google+ that turned the site upside down. It introduced two static sidebars on the left and right side of the screen, and a fixed width content area in-between.  The left sidebar linked to areas on the site that were previously shown in the header, and the right sidebar to the hangout feature and the chat.

The biggest issue however was the fixed content width, which resulted in a large whitespace area on the page on big screens. If you viewed Google+ in fullscreen on large computer monitors, you’d see a large whitespace area on the site. It is not clear why Google designed the site to be this way. Some say it is in preparation for new features that will take up that space, but that could mean that small screen users would miss out on those features.

The Internet community developed dozens of solutions (see To Much Whitespace On Google+? Reduce It! for some) that resolved the issue temporarily. Most either center the contents on the screen, or dynamically adjust the width of the content section based on the size of the browser window.

GExtend for the Chrome browser is one of those extensions. It automatically changes the width of the content area on Google+ based on the width of the browser window. The content area is adjusted dynamically whenever you change the size of the window, which feels like the best solution right now.

The developer notes that his solution is only temporary, and that it will become obsolete once the Google+ team starts to fill the whitespace with contents. The extension itself is not perfect, as it breaks search on the site which is something that needs to be considered. If you do not use search, you may want to give it a try though.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Monday April 16, 2012 -
Tags:Google, google chrome extensions

You are here: Home » Browsing » GExtend Optimizes Google+ For Widescreen Monitors

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Google Chrome: First Metro version is out

A few days ago I mentioned that Google was about to release the first Metro version of the Chrome browser. As you all know, Windows 8 will ship with two user interaces, the desktop interface that you are all familiar with, and the new Metro interface that is limited in terms of functionality when compared to the desktop. Software developers are now in a position where they need to create special Metro-versions of their applications to support that part of the operating system as well. And while they simply could plant an icon there that launches the desktop version, some believe that it is better to create special Metro versions instead.

Microsoft is for instance providing a copy of Internet Explorer 10 for Metro that is limited in functionality. It for instance does not support plugins, and seems to have been optimized for touch-based devices. Mozilla too has been working on a Metro version of Firefox for some time now and seems to have made great progress so far.

And now it is Google with the company’s Chrome browser. The latest Chrome Dev release is now featuring the first public implementation of the Metro-version of the browser. Windows 8 users who have Chrome Dev installed on the system will notice that the browser is now opening up in Metro when executed there.

The browser itself does not look that different from its desktop counterpart, at least not when you first start it.  What you will notice though is that there are no window controls to maximize, minimize or change the size of the window in the Metro version. You can however use Metro’s feature to drag the Chrome browser to the left or right sidebar of the screen to display another application besides it. The menus seem to be larger and optimized for touch-input.

Themes, extensions and all that good stuff work in Chrome for Metro. What you will notice however is that the Metro version and desktop version of the browser do not share contents or information right now. When you install a theme or extension in Metro, it won’t be available on the desktop and vice versa. The same is true when you sign-in to Chrome, as you need to sign-in in both versions of the browser if you want to use the functionality in both. You can however make use of the browser’s synchronization feature to sync data between the desktop and Metro version.

When you look at the Chrome user directory on Windows 8, you will notice that Metro has its own directory in the root folder. Basically, the two applications are completely independent from each other at this point of development.

Interested users who want to check out the Metro version of Chrome need to install the dev version of the browser on their Windows 8 system.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday June 12, 2012 -
Tags:google chrome, metro ui, windows 8

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Google Play My Music Hotkeys for Firefox

Google Music has been moved to the new Google Play subdomain along with the Android Market, part of Google Books and Google Movies. The main purpose for the move was to consolidate all services under one address, to make it more attractive and accessible to users of the service. The main aim of the service is to create a counterweight to Apple’s iTunes service which is also offering different media in one interface.

Google Music users who open the service’s website now are automatically redirected to the new website, where they can use the service in the same way as they did previously. Users from all over the world can upload music to the service, or grab free music to add it automatically to their account. Only users from the United States can use the music store right now to purchase music on Google Play. Everyone else receives the dreaded “unavailable in your country” error message.

For those users, Google Play My Music is nothing more than an online storage for music that they have uploaded or grabbed freely. If you like to play music in the interface, you probably have noticed that you can only control the music if you click on the tab first to activate it. The service does not support global hotkeys or media keyboards at this point in time.

The Firefox extension Google Music Hotkeys adds global hotkeys to the browser that let you control Google Music even if the service’s tab is not active in the browser.

The latest version of the extension, which is fully compatible with Google Play, supports the following three hotkeys:

Play / Pause – Ctrl-Alt-PNext – Ctrl-Alt-.Previous – Ctrl-Alt-+

The hotkeys work even if Google Music is opened in a different window. There is no option to change the hotkeys, which means that you may run into incompatibilities if other extensions are also making use of the same hotkeys.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Extension.Fm Play Music Comfortably In Google Chrome
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Global Hotkeys Windows Media Player Plugin About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 9, 2012 -
Tags:firefox add-ons, google music, google play

You are here: Home » Browsing » Google Play My Music Hotkeys for Firefox

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Switch Between Multiple Bookmark Bars In Google Chrome

If you are making use of the bookmarks bar in Google Chrome, you probably have noticed that it offers limited space for your important bookmarks and not the best manageability. While it is possible to remove bookmarks from the bar directly, or to add the current page as a new one, you won’t find options in the frontend to swap bookmarks around. For that, you need to open the Chrome bookmarks manager.

Bookmark bar switcher is a Chrome extension that enables multiple bookmark bars in the web browser. This allows you to switch between different sets of directly accessible bookmarks, useful for instance if you use the browser for work and home related tasks, or if you have that many important bookmarks that they do not fit on one bar.

The extension adds an icon to Chrome’s address bar. A left-click displays all bookmark bars that are available, as well as options to create a new bar, and to open the browser’s bookmarks manager.

Only the default bookmark bar with all of its sites is listed there after installation. New bars are created easily from the extension’s context menu. All you need to enter is a name for the new bar, which will then become available as a blank bar in the browser.

You can switch between bars with a left-click on the icon and the selection of one of the available bars. Bookmarks can be added to each bar via drag and drop on the frontend, or in the bookmarks manager.

The bars are listed in a BookmarkBars folder in the bookmarks manager. Each bar is represented by its name for easy identification.

The extension has a few limitations that need to be mentioned here: It is not compatible with bookmark synchronizers, and supports only a limited number of bookmark moves before bookmarks cannot be moved anymore. This is due to Google Chrome’s limitation. A restart should fix the issue though according to the author.

An alternative would be the Chrome Bookmarks Manager which displays all bookmarks and a search option underneath an address bar icon.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday March 4, 2012 -
Tags:bookmarks, google chrome extensions

You are here: Home » Browsing » Switch Between Multiple Bookmark Bars In Google Chrome

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Foursquare Ditches Google Maps, Goes Open With OpenStreetMap

You may remember that Google some time ago announced that they would start to charge for Google Map api calls above a certain level (see Google Introduces Google Maps Api Limits). Usage limit was capped to either 25,000 or 2,500 per day depending on the data used, and companies that went beyond that were asked to pay between $4 and $10 for every 1,000 map loads.

Foursquare, the location-based social networking site, announced two days ago that they have switched from using Google Maps to power its service to OpenStreetMap. The company notes that while things may look a “tiny bit different” now, it is practically still the same service.

The motivation to look elsewhere was not only fueled by Google’s introduction of a tiered pricing structure for Google Map API calls, but also from the observation that a number of companies migrated away from Google Maps after the announcement was made

The company knew that they had to find a way to make the OpenStreetMap data usable with their service first, and they turned to MapBox for that. MapBox Streets launched at the end of February, is now powering all FourSquare maps.

The move does not affect Foursquare on mobile phones though, as the service is using the mapping components integrated into the phones. This means that Foursquare users on Android or iOS will still use Google Maps.

Most users, at least those who commented on the Foursquare blog, seem to embrace the move. Superusers on the other hand criticize the move as it makes it more difficulty for them to do their job.

Google’s move to charge for Google Maps api calls has forced companies to move away from the mapping service to find free, or cheaper, alternatives. Foursquare is not the first company to ditch Google Maps. StreetEasy, Nestoria and Fubra are just some of the companies who made the decision to move away from Google Maps. The main motivation to do so? Money of course.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Use and make free, as in beer and freedom, maps with OpenStreetMap
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loc.alize.us: Geotag photos the old way… with Google Maps About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Friday March 2, 2012 -
Tags:google maps

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Protected Search Lets You Use Google Without Being Tracked

Protected Search Lets You Use Google Without Being Tracked .download-info .download-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/downloadbutton.gif);}.download-info .more-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/morebutton.gif);} HomeWindowsLinuxSoftwareInternet ExplorerFirefoxChromeOperaEmailContactAdvertiseProtected Search Lets You Use Google Without Being Tracked

With Google consolidating many of the company’s privacy policies into one came the fear that the companies primary motivation for the move was to generate even more revenue through their advertising programs than before.

Google users have only a few options at their disposal to escape the tracking. Experts suggest to log out of the account whenever it is not necessary to use a product’s functionality. A user leaving Gmail for Google Search could for instance log out to avoid the linking of searches with the Google account.

Another possibility would be to move away from Google to products that value their customer’s privacy more. For search engines, this could for instance be DuckDuckGo.

The Protected Search add-on for Firefox offers another option for Firefox users who use Google Search for some or even all of their searches. The add-on tunnels the user’s connection to hide the Internet Protocol (IP) address and location from the search engine. This itself is not different from other web proxies or proxy servers. Instead of keeping it that way, Protected Search has access to a pool of Google cookies that are randomly assigned to users when they use the service. It basically strips all the original data from identifiable information, and replaces it with one of the random identities instead.

The Protected Search system consists of a custom proxy and a Firefox Addon. The proxy works by generating a pool of Protected Search “identities,” each of which contains a cookie issued by Google and an arbitrary User-Agent for one of several popular browsers. The Firefox Addon watches for requests to Google services from your browser, and when enabled will transparently redirect all of them (except for things like Gmail) to a Protected Search proxy. There your request is stripped of all identifying information and replaced with the information from a Protected Search identity.

This “GoogleShared” request is then forwarded on to Google, and the response is proxied back to you. Your next request will get a different identity, and the one you were using before will be assigned to someone else. By “sharing” these identities, all of our traffic gets mixed together and is very difficult to analyze.

Protected Search is automatically enabled after installation. The add-on redirects all search queries to Google’s encrypted search engine. Users who are logged in will be logged out as cookies are replaced when the traffic is routed through the proxy.

The Google Search page indicates if the search is anonymized by Protected Search. Another indicator is added to the browser’s status bar. This indicator acts as a switch to turn the feature on or off.

Firefox users can download Protected Search from the Abine website. Abine has also created the Do Not Track Plus add-on, and other privacy focused tools to improve the privacy of users on the Internet.

Protected Search was previously known as GoogleSharing, a popular add-on that is still listed in the Mozilla Add-ons gallery.

Addendum: You obviously need to trust the proxy provider to value your privacy and security.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday March 1, 2012 -
Tags:Firefox, firefox add-ons, google search, privacy

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Responses so far:Gary says: March 1, 2012 at 10:15 pm

Thanks so much for this info!

Since the demise of Scroogle, I have been unable to use Google. And although I use DuckDuckGo as my default search engine, I do find it helpful from time to time to be able to conduct a Google search.

Have you analyzed Protected Search at all with Fiddler? Is it a well-behaving add-on?

Replyberttie says: March 1, 2012 at 10:56 pm

@Gary

Try Start Page, it acts as an intermediary between you and Google and hides your details, just as Scroogle did.

Search: https://www.startpage.com
Privacy FAQ: https://startpage.com/eng/protect-privacy.html

ReplyWebHybrid says: March 1, 2012 at 11:16 pm

I am going to try out this new Abine service (having liked DoNotTrackPlus for some time). If you (all) see no further squawks from me, then my #1 question has been resolved: will this one slow things down much?

My other wondering was whether searches that did not involve using a Google start page would get scrambled as described. It seems from Abine’s explanation page that the answer is yes.

Almost all my searching is done from the Firefox search bar or – which amounts to the same – a right-context menu slide. Or it could be via a Google-search field on some web page. So although the now-defunct Scroogle and the suggested Start Page may be just fine, they are too limited for people with habits like mine.

Thanks so much – again – to Martin for putting this out. It would have taken months for me to stumble on it elsewhere.

ReplyTranscontinental says: March 1, 2012 at 11:09 pm

I’ve just tested ‘Protected Search’ Firefox add-on. Two points :

1- Works fine, but not with google.fr at least, whilst google.com for sure ;
2- Requires cookies allowed for google.com (the add-on works on that basis in fact)

I use google.fr, though google.com is no problem but anyway with cookies not allowed I always fall back to google.fr

The advantage for me was rather having my IP hidden. I guess I’ll stick with DuckDuckGo which is more than alternative, it is a search engine of its own, with many interesting specificities. There is also indeed starpage.com which is google powered.

Perhaps i’ll call Google for images and maps mainly, and when visiting youtube, even if Dailymotion IMO is far more interesting and well built than youtube, nicer GUI and makes you feel in a restaurant rather than in a MacDo … :)

ReplyCrodol says: March 1, 2012 at 11:19 pm

I also like DuckDuckGo.com but what about the local versions, like .fr for searching for French terms (or for getting hits on French Wikipedia)? How do you solve that issue with DDG?

ReplyTranscontinental says: March 1, 2012 at 11:50 pm

DuckDuckGo has many options available among which language preference. These options may be held in a cookie or recalled in the command-line, for instance I use :
https://duckduckgo.com/?ke=-1&kf=-1&kj=b2&kk=-1&kl=fr-fr&kn=1&kp=-1&kw=w&k1=-1&k7=%23E0E0E0&k8=%23000000&k9=%230000FF

That sets the language, interface, fonts, open in new tab and many more available. It’s just adequate :)

geeknik says: March 2, 2012 at 2:56 am

If Google was serious about security and privacy, they wouldn’t be tracking or logging me while I’m connected via HTTPS to their site(s).

ReplyDoc says: March 2, 2012 at 3:17 am

“Another indicator is added to the browser’s status bar.” This doesn’t really help, as in FF8+ the status bar is turned off by default.

Replyboris says: March 2, 2012 at 5:34 am

Tried it when it was GoogleSharing. Did not work so well then. Constant questions from Google: “Are you machine? type password now.”

ReplyVicent says: March 2, 2012 at 10:52 am

Protected Search sounds very useful.
I mainly use chrome firefox and Avant browser these three. but from now on,I will exclude chrome from them and mainly use firefox and avant browser with firefox rendeirng engine.
Goolge is too strong.

ReplyBrian says: March 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm

Try this one it tell you who is tracking you,
All so stops them
for this page…4 companies tracking you:

ReplyBrian says: March 2, 2012 at 3:48 pm

Sorry forgot the program
Do not track plus..

ReplySukhen says: March 2, 2012 at 7:56 pm

If I use DuckDuckGo with %s at Chrome, will I be tracked by Google? As such, I use HTTPS ANYWHERE, DNT Plus and ProxMate also in Chrome.

Replydoctor says: March 3, 2012 at 11:36 pm

I tried turning “protected search 0.5? on and get
The proxy server is refusing connections

Firefox is configured to use a proxy server that is refusing connections.

Check the proxy settings to make sure that they are correct.
Contact your network administrator to make sure the proxy server is
working.

irrespective of FF proxy setting, including no proxy. cookies are on, third party cookies off. and FF is actually working fine for other URL, Bing etc.

Turn protected search
off, and google search works again. Guess they don’t like the scrambling. But then protected search is not doing much for you – might as well just just not use google.

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Google Privacy Blocks Websites From Tracking You

Privacy has moved into the public focus in recent years. Initiatives like Mozilla’s Do Not Track Header try to improve user privacy on the Internet.

Google Privacy is a Firefox add-on that tries to enforce do not track on popular websites. The name may suggest that the add-on has been created by Google but that is not the case. It is likely that it concentrated on Google in the beginning, and that support for other websites have been added later on in development.

Google Privacy currently supports Google, Bing, Yahoo, YouTube, Facebook and Ask. The basic idea behind the add-on is to modify links on those websites to remove tracking functionality from them. It should be noted at this point that the sites still have options to track users through other means, for instance with JavaScript running on the site or analysis of web traffic.

First thing you may want to do after installing the add-on and restarting the browser is to look at the options it provides.

General options are displayed on the left and site specific options on the right. The extension by default displays small icons next to each link that indicates whether the link is a tracking link or not. Green icons indicate links that respect the privacy, while red icons indicate those that do not.

Both the original link and its modified version can be displayed at the same time. It is alternatively possible to hide tracking links automatically so that only safe links are displayed on the supported sites.

The websites listing can be used to enable or disable tracking on links that point to the same website, and to block the tracking of every click on links on the web page instead. The latter could have an impact on the site’s functionality though.

If you are concerned about your privacy online, you might want to take Google Privacy for Firefox for a test drive.

The add-ons concentration on six major companies limits its reach significantly. It is therefor recommended to install additional extensions to make up for that limitation. RequestPolicy is a good start, or the excellent NoScript add-on.

Enjoyed the article?: Then sign-up for our free newsletter or RSS feed to kick off your day with the latest technology news and tips, or share the article with your friends and contacts on Facebook or Twitter. Privacy Initiative To Release Three Internet Explorer 9 Tracking Protection Lists
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Tags:firefox add-ons, privacy

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Avast 7 Will Install Google Chrome, If You Do Not Pay Attention

Avast 7 Will Install Google Chrome, If You Do Not Pay Attention .download-info .download-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/downloadbutton.gif);}.download-info .more-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/morebutton.gif);} HomeWindowsLinuxSoftwareInternet ExplorerFirefoxChromeOperaEmailContactAdvertiseAvast 7 Will Install Google Chrome, If You Do Not Pay Attention

Avast 7 has been released a few days ago and it has not only received praises but also criticism by part of the security software’s user base. Users have been complaining about a variety of things, including slow system starts on Windows 7 among other things (Caused by the installation of Microsoft Security Essentials on the machine. The only fix is to uninstall Avast or MSE). Two Ghacks readers have mentioned another issue after upgrading to Avast 7. The software did install the Google Chrome browser on their system, and made it the default system browser.

When you run the Avast 7 installer, you are greeted with a start screen where you can select the express, compatible or custom install options. Express basically installs the antivirus software with the default settings, compatible installs it as a second line of defense in addition to other security software running on the system, while custom install offers the means to select the program modules that you want to install.

The very same page lists another program that will be installed if Avast users do not pay attention to the menu. The lower quarter of the screen advertises Google Chrome, and displays two selection boxes. These boxes are checked by default, so that Avast 7 will install Google Chrome on the system and make it the default browser on the system.

The option to not install Google Chrome does not come up afterwards anymore, even if you select the custom installation option. That’s a big usability issue comparable to toolbar and adware offers that you find in other program installers from time to time. The Chrome installation may not happen right away, as it was reported to commence after the first system boot.

If you have installed Google’s browser by accident, you can uninstall it again via the uninstall a program control panel applet. You also need to open another browser to make that one the default system browser again.

Bundling Avast with Chrome may alienate part of Avast’s user base. I do not know if the browser is also provided to users who upgrade from previous versions of the security software. It would be nice if users who upgraded their version could tell us if Chrome was installed as part of that upgrade as well.

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Related Articles: How To Install Google Chrome For Multiple User Accounts
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Avast Free Antivirus 7 Final Released
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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Sunday February 26, 2012 -
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Responses so far:libeco says: February 26, 2012 at 9:57 pm

I already had Chrome installed. After having updated to the newest Avast everything worked fine, but after one day this exact screen popped up. Naturally I just clicked continue, without paying attention to anything else, like those obscure checkboxes. Chrome was installed again and I lost all my settings and bookmarks.

Luckily I was able to restore them by going to Windows Explorer and right clicking on the default folder (in the user appdata folder) and restoring a previous version of the folder.

ReplyJake in Jerusalem says: February 26, 2012 at 10:10 pm

I had Avast 6 (free) on Windows XP SP3, got a notice that a new version of Avast was available and so I went ahead with the upgrade. I didn’t see any mention of Chrome anywhere (and never had Chrome installed). The upgrade required a reboot, but all seemed OK. That was yesterday. This morning, after starting the computer (with another reboot), Chrome was installed, made itself the default browser and even used the IE icon on the desktop to run Chrome, instead. Sneaky. This doesn’t give me a good feeling. Avast is supposed to give people a sense of confidence in using the Internet. Instead, it took control of Windows and helps Google steal information from people, without their consent. I’d guess that this was an installer bug on the part of Avast – unless they are also claiming to “do no evil” while doing so, anyways. To be fair, it’s free and you get what you pay for. Still, it makes one wonder what is going on inside our own computers.

ReplyWebHybrid says: February 26, 2012 at 11:26 pm

Of course I’d rather an install of any software involve just the one software. Boo hoo, freeware isn’t like that.

Except if a user cannot read the onscreen language, I don’t see what the problem is with this, as in generating a headline here. The checkboxes are obvious (*not* obscure), the text with them is 100% clear and right there in your face. Nobody’s tricking anyone. Why would someone who can read need a second chance a few steps later to opt out?

All you have to do is pay attention.

And if you didn’t, just uninstall Chrome. Big deal.

Replylibeco says: February 27, 2012 at 12:18 am

The screen shown above is not the one I saw. My screen showed a lot of text, with the same checkboxes, but only one visually distinctive button in the bottom right.

When software shows nagging screens I want to get rid of them as quickly as possible and Avast is software I usually trust, so I just clicked. It is deceptive.

ReplyWebHybrid says: February 27, 2012 at 12:33 am

Well that is your problem. It’s like signing an agreement without reading it.

Sorry, no matter how many opine that “It is deceptive,” not reading what you are clicking is where the communication gap happens.

And no, I have nothing invested in Avast or Chrome (or Google) – just a user.

Robert Palmar says: February 27, 2012 at 2:24 am

@WebHybrid
The installer is deceptive by design.

ibeco is not at fault for trusting Avast
and making him less likely to read fine print.
That is the essence of deception by Avast here.
It is just that kind of user goodwill they are exploiting.

And the author of this article did not generate
a headline based upon false pretenses as you imply.
He provided a heads-up to users who have trusted Avast.

Jake in Jerusalem says: February 27, 2012 at 12:52 am

In *MY* Avast upgrade installation yesterday, there was NO mention of Chrome. None. I’ve been installing software on everything from supercomputers to on-board chips for 35 years (yep) and have written super-reliable installing scripts and I can read English, thank you very much.

It seems that the Avast installation differs among different users and, likely, has been changed in production by Avast, probably fixing some bugs as they come to light. I bet they are doing that right now, too. In fact, I *HOPE* that they are fixing bugs as quickly as they can! This would explain why not everyone will be experiencing the same thing.

The whole attitude that ‘if the software doesn’t work right, it must be the user’s fault’ is just so Micro$oft. Some of you guys never knew computers that actually worked right because programmers cared about releasing reliable software. Software doesn’t HAVE to be buggy. Quit blaming the users.

ReplyRobert Palmar says: February 27, 2012 at 12:11 am

The installer is deliberately deceptive
and less sophisticated users will be taken
which is the whole point to such deception.

Software producers who treat people
like idiots should be avoided and
there are plenty of alternatives.

ReplyEarle says: February 27, 2012 at 12:15 am

ok,tried custom and it DID download BUT when i tried to install,got a error message saying unable to install,missing file THEN did the express and everything went ok HOWEVER chrome was installed which i uninstalled with Ccleaner but STILL needed to delete from Windows Programs folder

ReplyDougle says: February 27, 2012 at 12:47 am

Google Chrome, the new Ask Toolbar! A really nasty, privacy invading piece of software, if ever there was one.

ReplyMorely the IT Guy says: February 27, 2012 at 1:24 am

If you’re using anything other than Microsoft Security Essentials for an anti-virus, you’re paying too much (even if what you use is “free”).

Replyilev says: February 27, 2012 at 9:40 am

If you are using the worse ever anti-virus, MSE , you are a looser.

ReplyJacknife says: February 27, 2012 at 2:42 am

I installed it to give it a try, but my it hard locked my system at the end of the install and again when i eventually was able to reboot. Oh well, looked interesting.

Installers are getting sneakier about these kind of third party installations lately.

ReplyAlex says: February 27, 2012 at 3:02 am

I’ve been using Avast for years. I’ve never had any trouble with Avast – that is to say, never had an infection the bring my system to it’s knees nor did Avast itself bring the system to it’s knees w/ a huge resource footprint or the like.

For years and years reputable software companies have bundled other software (whether it’s Chrome browser or some toolbar), in with their free installations. It has become second nature to many of us to intentionally do a “Custom Installation” just to ensure we don’t have 26 “toolbars” on our internet browser.

I looked at the above screenshot and see NOTHING deceptive about it. If you did accidentally install it, go uninstall it through Programs and Features in Control Panel.

Personally, I pay for a copy of AIS. I upgraded to 7 yesterday. I upgraded through the program itself and it didn’t ask me about Chrome, nor did it install Chrome on my computer. For those of you who don’t believe in paying for anti-virus software, I can relate to an extent, but I have gone to the filthiest corners of the internet with my main machine running Avast Internet Security and while it had every alarm screaming at me as I was under siege every type of malware known to man and machine-kind, I knew I was safe, I wouldn’t trust MSE to defend me with the same precision and zealotry that Avast does. Avasts Firewall alone dwarf’s anything Microsoft has ever put out.

There was a time where I might have been “offended” that a company was trying to bundle extra software, but in this day and age, if you’re giving your software away for free, you gotta make a dollar to pay your programmers, and if that means Avast puts an option for Chrome to be installed so they can make an extra buck by spreading Google’s browser to the masses, I don’t fault them for that because at the end of the day Avast is one of the superior anti-virus/malware programs on the free and pay markets.

Replynoswal says: February 27, 2012 at 3:19 am

Over 3 years now and I will not have any anti-virus software running in the background anymore. To me its worse than having a virus.
I run a few things manually every week or two and never a problem except for the odd tracking cookie.
Most of these types of software start out good then become something that does more harm than good. Just my opinion.

ReplyJohnnie says: February 27, 2012 at 4:33 am

My update to Avast!7 reminds me each reboot that I am “almost finished with the installation” – and has a box checked which asks me to “participate in Avast community”. I uncheck this box every time – and the sequence repeats each reboot.

I am always skeptical of being “hard-wired” to a server somewhere and permanently sharing information – does anyone know how to get rid of this “reminder” without “joining the Avast community”? Thanks.

ReplyLovinglf says: February 27, 2012 at 5:47 am

Like other upgraders I did not see the screen shown above on 2/24/12. For early installers that screen with the Chrome options was supposed to appear after the reboot. Prior to the reboot Avast downloaded and then a message appeared that it needed to reboot to complete the install. After the reboot that screen with the checked Chrome options never appeared and we instead received a message that Avast was installing. I am meticulous about doing custom installs and unchecking options for unwanted software, so I resent the implication that all users were asleep at the switch.

Another issue was that Avast did a system-wide install of Chrome rather than the user install I had in place. It also advised me after the fact that Chrome had been installed by an Administrator. Who gave Avast the right to do a system-wide third-party software install as an Administrator of my system without my permission?

I contacted Avast and received a response from the Quality Control Manager that it was a bug in that iteration that caused the problem. I had to uninstall both Chrome (had already lost all my settings, extensions etc.) and Avast to get my laptop working properly again. I did a clean install of Chrome and when I did a later clean install of Avast it recognized that Chrome was already installed and did not offer to install it again. This makes me think that Avast rushed in a quick fix.

This had nothing to do with not paying attention for users who did not get the screen (though that may be the case for some users who did get the screen). It was an Avast bug. See the tweet and the Avast forum post;
https://twitter.com/#!/lukashasik/status/173784651276623873

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=qus049ao4ba8dr9uu4nqum76e6&topic=93980.0

ReplyLovinglf says: February 27, 2012 at 6:20 am

I left out the part that my first clue that something was wrong with my laptop was when I tried to open Chrome and it crashed repeatedly (many threads for this after Avast install). Like other users I also experienced other issues. For example I opened Control Panel to check the recent installations and the screen froze. So I restarted my computer again and when I tried to open Chrome, I received the message that an Administrator had done a system-wide install of Chrome. I initially thought it was a Chrome issue but after a quick Twitter check realized that Avast 7 was the culprit.

ReplyAnish K.S says: February 27, 2012 at 9:46 am

Avast if my favorite AV, i am using the same for the last 4 years. including chrome i don’t think a serious matter bcz people now very familiar with chrome.

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Customize Google+ With GGGG GUI on Chrome

I do not spend more than a few minutes of my time per day on social networking sites such as Google+, Facebook or Twitter. When I’m on there I like to get most out of the time, and that works best with extensions and tools that help me do that.

GGGG Gui for the Chrome web browser is such an extension, as it lets me customize the layout of the stream and the Google+ page.

When you install the extension in Chrome and visit Google+ afterwards, you will notice a new row of buttons that has been added to the bottom of the page. These buttons enable changes to the layout and functionality of the site.

One of the most interesting features is the so called list mode, which lets you compact the stream on the page. The first click switches to a two-row layout, a second click to a one-row design so that all messages are displayed directly on the page without the need to scroll down.

While you do not necessarily see the full message on the screen, you usually see enough to decide whether you’d like to read all of it or if it is of no interest to you. But that’s not the only layout change that improves your productivity on the site.

But that is just one of the changes that you can make on the site. Here is a short list of additional options:

Hide the right menu onlyUse a wide fluid layout for the Stream contentsHide the YouTube buttonHide Hot Posts on Google+Move Options to the page bottonUse a dark background color instead of whiteDisplay a clock on siteChange user icon and image opacity, reduce the size of images.

The extension offers several interesting customizations for Google+ that improve the usability of the service noticeably. Chrome users can download and install the GGGG Gui extension at the official Google Chrome web store.

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About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand. You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Thursday February 23, 2012 -
Tags:google chrome extensions

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Google Caught Red-Handed Reaching Into Internet Explorer’s Cookie Jar

Google Caught Red-Handed Reaching Into Internet Explorer’s Cookie Jar .download-info .download-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/downloadbutton.gif);}.download-info .more-button {background-image: url(http://www.ghacks.net/wp-content/plugins/download-monitor/page-addon/morebutton.gif);} HomeWindowsLinuxSoftwareInternet ExplorerFirefoxChromeOperaEmailContactAdvertiseGoogle Caught Red-Handed Reaching Into Internet Explorer’s Cookie Jar

The Wall Street Journal a few days ago described how Google and other advertising companies bypassed a user privacy feature of Apple’s Safari browser to drop “ad-tracking cookies on [..] Safari users”. Safari by default blocks third party cookies, which are often used by advertising companies to track users on the Internet. These cookies are used to track the user on every site the scripts of the advertising company run on, which in the case of Google are a lot of different sites.

Google released a statement shortly afterwards that claimed that the WSJ article was mischaracterizing the company’s intentions.

We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.

…

Users of Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome were not affected. Nor were users of any browser (including Safari) who have opted out of our interest-based advertising program using Google’s Ads Preferences Manager.

Microsoft today describes a similar circumvention in the company’s Internet Explorer browser. IE blocks third party cookies by default, unless the site in question “presents a P3P Compact Policy Statement indicating how the site will use the cookie and that the site’s use does not include tracking the user”.

Google now has created a P3P policy that is causing the browser to accept Google cookies, even though the policy the company submits does not “state Google’s intent”.

P3P policies are included in a site’s HTTP headers which users only see if they use specialized tools. Instead of using a valid statement, Google is sending one that is not a P3P policy. The problem here is that browsers will interpret Google’s policy as an indication that the cookies that will be saved to the user’s system won’t be used for tracking purposes, when in fact they do not verify that at all.

Microsoft has created a tracking protection list that allows Internet Explorer 9 users to protect the browser from Google’s practice.

msFilterList
: Expires=1
# Blocks 3rd-party Google tracking
# Last Modified: 2/19/2012
#
-d news.google.com
-d youtube.com
-d blogger.com
- apis.google.com/*plusone*
-d plus.google.com
-d googleadservices.com
-d googletagservices.com
-d googlesyndication.com
-d googleadservices.com
-d google-analytics.com
-d doubleclick.net
-d doubleclick.com
- http://google.*/api/sclk?
- http://google.*/client_204?
- http://google.*/gen204?
- google.com*/lh/ajaxlog?
- google.com*/uds/stats?
- google.com*/bin/stats?
- google.com*/log?
- google.com*/buzz

Microsoft is now actively investigating options to change the browser’s interpretation of unrecognized tokens.

Given this real-world behavior, we are investigating what additional changes to make to our products. The P3P specification says that browsers should ignore unknown tokens. Privacy advocates involved in the original specification have recently suggested that IE ignore the specification and block cookies with unrecognized tokens. We are actively investigating that course of action.

Google being caught red-handed reaching into the cookie jar twice in a week’s time. What’s your take on this?

Update: Google has posted a statement

Statement: Attributable to Rachel Whetstone, Senior Vice President of Communications and Policy, Google

Microsoft omitted important information from its blog post today.

Microsoft uses a “self-declaration” protocol (known as “P3P”) dating from 2002 under which Microsoft asks websites to represent their privacy practices in machine-readable form. It is well known – including by Microsoft – that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing modern web functionality. We have been open about our approach, as have many other websites.

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational. A 2010 research report indicated that over 11,000 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

Here is some more information.

Issue has been around since 2002

For many years, Microsoft’s browser has requested every website to “self-declare” its cookies and privacy policies in machine readable form, using particular “P3P” three-letter policies.

Essentially, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser requests of websites, “Tell us what sort of functionality your cookies provide, and we’ll decide whether to allow them.” This didn’t have a huge impact in 2002 when P3P was introduced (in fact the Wall Street Journal today states that our DoubleClick ad cookies comply with Microsoft’s request), but newer cookie-based features are broken by the Microsoft implementation in IE. These include things like Facebook “Like” buttons, the ability to sign-in to websites using your Google account, and hundreds more modern web services. It is well known that it is impractical to comply with Microsoft’s request while providing this web functionality.

Today the Microsoft policy is widely non-operational.

In 2010 it was reported:

Browsers like Chrome, Firefox and Safari have simpler security settings. Instead of checking a site’s compact policy, these browsers simply let people choose to block all cookies, block only third-party cookies or allow all cookies…..

Thousands of sites don’t use valid P3P policies….

A firm that helps companies implement privacy standards, TRUSTe, confirmed in 2010 that most of the websites it certifies were not using valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft:

Despite having been around for over a decade, P3P adoption has not taken off. It’s worth noting again that less than 12 percent of the more than 3,000 websites TRUSTe certifies have a P3P compact policy. The reality is that consumers don’t, by and large, use the P3P framework to make decisions about personal information disclosure.

A 2010 research paper by Carnegie Mellon found that 11,176 of 33,139 websites were not issuing valid P3P policies as requested by Microsoft.

In the research paper, among the websites that were most frequently providing different code to that requested by Microsoft: Microsoft’s own live.com and msn.com websites.

Microsoft support website

The 2010 research paper “discovered that Microsoft’s support website recommends the use of invalid CPs (codes) as a work-around for a problem in IE.” This recommendation was a major reason that many of the 11,176 websites provided different code to the one requested by Microsoft.

Google’s provided a link that explained our practice.

Microsoft could change this today

As others are noting today, this has been well known for years.

Privacy researcher Lauren Weinstein states: “In any case, Microsoft’s posting today, given what was already long known about IE and P3P deficiences in these regards, seems disingenuous at best, and certainly is not helping to move the ball usefully forward regarding these complex issues.”

Chris Soghoian, a privacy researcher, points out: “Instead of fixing P3P loophole in IE that FB & Amazon exploited ……MS did nothing. Now they complain after Google uses it.”

Even the Wall Street Journal says: “It involves a problem that has been known about for some time by Microsoft and privacy researchers….”

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Related Articles: Internet Explorer: Expired Cookie Remover
Flash Cookie Cleaning Improved In Google Chrome
Old Internet Explorers Affected By Security Vulnerability
TrendProtect Warns Internet Explorers About Dangerous Websites
Why you should restrict Cookie Access



About the Author:Martin Brinkmann is a journalist from Germany who founded Ghacks Technology News Back in 2005. He is passionate about all things tech and knows the Internet and computers like the back of his hand.You can follow Martin on Facebook or Twitter.Author: Martin Brinkmann, Tuesday February 21, 2012 -
Tags:Google, internet-explorer, microsoft

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Responses so far:Robert Palmar says: February 21, 2012 at 12:37 am

Google is shown to have lied and to be deliberately deceptive.
Not exactly meeting their self-proclaimed core value of “Do No Evil”.

ReplyDee says: February 21, 2012 at 12:52 am

In IE9, if you go to Tools > Manage Add-ons > Tracking Protection, enable “Your Personalized List” (with automatically block selected), would this automatically stop websites from doing this as well?

ReplyMartin Brinkmann says: February 21, 2012 at 1:06 am

Good question, I do not know.

ReplyEuroScept1C says: February 21, 2012 at 9:33 am

@Dee, I think not, ain’t enough… Go for example on YouTube’s Homepage only with your personal automated list enabled… The icon in adress bar which indicates if something has been blocked, doesn’t appear…. If you install this new list or ‘EasyPrivacy’, then it works… So, I assume you need to install an additional list…

ReplyDee says: February 21, 2012 at 10:26 am

True, good point.

Morely the IT Guy says: February 21, 2012 at 1:29 am

I guess it’s a matter of interpretation. I would interpret this as “Microsoft fails to implement security in Internet Explorer (again).”

Anyone browsing any Internet site (e.g., not intranet) not owned by Microsoft and using IE is risking major problems anyhow. I’d say Google did them a favor.

Replyódio says: February 21, 2012 at 2:23 am

martin, we got it!!! finally!!

just go to youtube history videos… and hit the “pause viewing history”…

and you see what i was talking about….

ReplyPaul(us) says: February 21, 2012 at 3:59 am

Main question is a legally question. Why does the international law court in Den Haag the Netherlands and the American law court nothing up to now? Is this maybe because Google is a big billion rotating turnover business?

ReplyQ says: February 21, 2012 at 4:01 am

I would not have expeccted anything less from Google.

Replyvasa1 says: February 21, 2012 at 4:10 am

“Microsoft has created a tracking protection list that allows Internet Explorer 9 users to ***protect*** the browser from Google’s practice.”

I guess that’s how Microsoft rates its own Smart Screen so highly … by blocking Google and claiming to protect the browser. It makes business sense for Microsoft and Apple to try to dent Google’s earnings anyway they can. The uproar about privacy is just another game.

ReplyReX says: February 21, 2012 at 4:13 am

So, IE’s non-standard implementation of a standard (no surprise here) that should just ignore invalid header values instead of allowing them is now Google’s fault. That makes sense.

ReplyNeal says: February 21, 2012 at 4:18 am

Google is shown to have lied and to be deliberately deceptive.

ReplyEuroScept1C says: February 21, 2012 at 9:19 am

I’m really impressed MS has as ‘recommended’ lists those of Easylist’s and Fanboy’s along with this new one… They pushed back some sneaky lists like ‘eTrust’ etc…

If IE10 x64 had a better, more reliable with better usuability anti-tracking system ( which can work generally as an Ad-block too ), I’d totally consider to go back to IE…

ReplyDee says: February 21, 2012 at 10:33 am

Hopefully they will also introduce a built-in spell checker with IE10 too. Obviously, there’s the IEspell add-on, but in this day ‘n’ age every browser should have it as standard.

ReplyMartin Brinkmann says: February 21, 2012 at 10:46 am

As far as I know, there will be a spell checker in IE10

Allen says: February 21, 2012 at 10:44 am

is that IE is going to come in new version?

ReplyMartin Brinkmann says: February 21, 2012 at 10:45 am

Microsoft will release Internet Explorer 10 with Windows 8.

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