Chrome is all set for Business purposes

Dec 162010
 

Last week Google announced that they have over 120 million chrome user and showed off some latest features of it. And they have a huge response from both users and businesses. Even many of them asked Google how they can employ chromes increased security, high speed and modern browsing capability into their business. They were also excited about the customizations and configuration that Google chrome offers.

Well, they need not to wait any longer as Google created a MSI installer for them. Using this all the managed users can deploy chromes safety measures and confidentiality into their business. This installer is compatible with windows, Mac, Linux. Google also added a list of policies and a set of templates that will allow the administrator to manage security and privacy according to their requirement.

With this new Chrome service organizations will be able to take advantage of enhanced security and web performance without needing any other expensive software or buying any special hardware. Installing Google Chrome allows the users to access to HTML5 web apps. Support for the new business features is available at Google applications for Business. Google has also posted documentations so that administrators can deploy this service easily.

Last few months Google have been running some trial program at different organizations to testify the effectiveness of chrome at larger business. Vanguard, Protect & gamble Boise State University and several other organizations had taken part in this trail program. They have successfully deployed chrome and distributed it among thousands of users. Google claims that they have received excellent feedback from them. This prompted Google to run a larger program and consequently brought this announcement of distributing Google among administrators.

Google says that this is just the beginning and currently they are working on some new policies and privacy options. Google hopes that their customer will appreciate their effort.

Chrome 8 With PDF Viewer

Dec 022010
 

Google released Chrome 8.0.552.215 but you can just call it Chrome 8. According to Google Chrome blog , they fixed over 800 bugs and also integrated PDF Viewer which is kind of nice.

The Chrome team is happy to announce our latest Stable release, 8.0.552.215.  In addition to the over 800 bug fixes and stability improvements, Chrome 8 now contains a built in PDF viewer that is secured in Chrome’s sandbox.  As always, it also contains our latest security fixes, listed below.  This release will also be posted to the Beta Channel.

chrome 8.0.552.215

I still like Firefox but if Google is going to start integrating these nice features I might switch to Chrome and use it as default browser. By the way what is your default browser?

You can read more from Google Chrome Blog , what bugs they fixed and related info.

Google Chooses Mobile Devices over Street View for all Future Geolocation Sharing

Oct 192010
 

It’s official, folks: Google is done with the use of WiFi geolocation scanning.

And that’s a good thing, because most people would rather have anonymous geolocation than have to deal with their home networking identifiers getting pulled out. I’m not making this up.

But on a serious note, Google’s erroneous habit of including geolocation scans with its road-traveling Street View cars is done. Kaput. Out with the rest of the garbage. Going forward, the Mountain View, Calif.-based internet search and services company will put its entire geolocation-related focus on the plethora of downloadable apps that users already install on their phones and notebook computers — which in turn should pull Google away from the risk of accidentially latching on to private information that it had with the Street View approach.

As explained by Canadian privacy commissioner’s office representative Jennifer Stoddart in relation to an official report concerning procedural findings on the matter, collection of geolocation data using Street View “is discontinued and Google has no plans to resume it.” Instead, Google will “obtain the information needed to populate its location-based services database” from “users’ handsets.”

As it is, users of Google software products (including Chrome, Google Maps and phones running the Android mobile OS) may already be permitting this functionality to do it’s work, in turn making the potentially-intrusive methodology seem rather pointless to begin with — so the change in focus really shouldn’t be in-your-face surprising, if it even is at all.

Source: CNet News

Google Chrome Teamed up With Arcade Fire Video to Showcase HTML5 Effects

Aug 302010
 

Google’s Chrome is always an exponent of HTML 5 and this time it is proved again through exposing special video and graphics along with Arcade Fire. Director Chris Milk created a custom interactive video through teaming up with Arcade for the song “We Used To Wait”. Viewing this through Chrome or any other HTML-5 compliant browser will be truly astonishing and pure wilderness.

The video will create wonder in a chrome browser. The video is almost a processor-intensive and it is suggestible to dedicate the browser for this program alone to experience it properly. But, it is purely an experiment to expose the best features of the HTML-5 and the Google’s chrome efforts in bringing it forward is quite appreciative.

You can find more from Techcrunch

10 Vulnerabilities of Google Chrome were patched up successfully

Aug 202010
 

Google on Thursday successfully patched up 10 existing vulnerabilities of Google Chrome. 7 of these vulnerabilities were rated as high and remaining three were medium. But, Google didn’t award any of the researchers that were reported bugs the new top-dollar reward of $3,133.

Google not revealed any details of these bugs and patches. As a custom, Google is blocked the public access to its bug-tracking database. Revealing of this kind of information could result as fatal to the few that are not yet upgraded and attackers can gain access through this information.

Generally Google used to block access to information on serious bugs for two months or more. In fact, two vulnerabilities were quite dangerous and got possibility for exploitation through malicious files such as SVG image files and MIME-type files. Remaining bugs potentially be used spoof the address bar’s contents or reveal a password.

According to Jason Kersey of the Chrome team, Google also added a workaround for a critical bug in non-Google code. Thursday’s workaround was the third in the last two Chrome security updates: Three weeks ago, Google said it had added unspecified fixes to account for flaws in the Windows Kernel and “glibc”, or the GNU C library, a collection of C programming language files and routines that’s a critical component of most Linux operating system Kernels.

Thursday’s workaround was also aimed at mitigating a bug in the Windows kernel. Like last month, it’s impossible to know whether the kernel issue referenced by Google was a previously patched flaw—Microsoft has fixed three kernels bugs so far this year, most recently in June—or a vulnerability that hasn’t been made public.

When asked in July about the Windows kernel workaround Chrome said it had implemented, Microsoft’s Jerry Bryant said only, “(We are) looking into this to determine what issues the post may be referring to”.

Google’s bugs Bounty program awarded bonuses to the five researchers that were reported the flaws. Sergy Glazunov pocketed $4,674 for reporting four bugs, including the maximum $1,337 each for two of the quarter. A researcher named “Kuzzcc” that had reported flaws in Opera to the browser’s Norwegian makers, took home $2,000 for uncovering a pair of Chrome bugs.

Recently Mozilla increased maximum vulnerability payment to $3,000 and with response to this Chrome set this as $3, 133.70 as the Google’s new biggest bounty and none succeeded in acquiring this. So far totally payment made as bounty through Google is slightly more than $ 10, 000.

Via Computerworld

Google Offers Reward for the Identification of Chromium Security Bugs

Feb 022010
 

February 2, 2010 – In a bit of news that seems to have slipped under the radar, the Google Chrome Security Team announced, via The Chromium Blog, that an incentive program has been established to solicit and encourage the assistance of external researchers in the continuous improvement of the Google Chromium browser. What is the goal? They hope to identify potential security problems that may exist in current versions of the company’s flagship browser, known as Chromium, and correct them for future releases. According to Chris Evans, of Google Chrome Security, a number of previously fixed bugs have been identified and submitted by third-parties. In the January 28, 2010 post, Evans writes, “Thanks to the collaborative efforts of these people and others, Chromium security is stronger and our users are safer.”

Based on the potential benefit of external assistance, Google will offer rewards starting at $500, for the identification and submission of bugs to the company’s team. Qualifying bugs are those that exist in Google Chrome, Google Chromium, and plugins that are included by default. Excluded from the program are bugs that stem from third-party plugins, extensions, and applications, as well as those stemming from a non-Google operating system. In the case of reports from multiple sources, rewards will be given to the submitter with the earliest date and time of submission. Potential bugs must be submitted through the Chromium Bug Tracker page and using the “Security Bug” template. In addition to highlighting the incentive program, Evans also indicated that the company is looking to hire a permanent Information Security Engineer to work with the Google Chrome project.

Though Google is not the first to offer incentives for the identification of software and operating system bugs, the initiative should still be applauded, since it is aimed at providing a more secure and stable operating environment for computer users around the world. Hopefully, those with the “know-how” will receive the word (feel free to share this article forward), spend some time making computing more secure, and make a few dollars in return. For complete details on the program visit The Chromium Blog.

Is Google’s Change in Browser Support the Equivalent of a Virtual Hit on Internet Explorer 6?

Feb 012010
 

On an official Google Enterprise Blog post, published January 29, 2010, Rajen Sheth, Google Apps Senior Product Manager, announced the company will cease to support Microsoft’s nine-year old Internet Explorer 6 browser in the delivery of Google web-based services beginning March 1, 2010. Specifically, certain embedded features of Google Docs will no longer function as designed.

According to the blog, browsers to continue being officially supported by Google sites and cloud-based applications include Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0+, Mozilla Firefox 3.0+, Google Chrome 4.0+, and Apple Safari 3.0+. Despite speculation by many that the discontinuance of support may be a retaliatory measure against Microsoft for Internet Explorer 6.0′s alleged use as the launching platform for successful Google Gmail intrusions revealed in January 2010, no specific mention of this was written by Sheth.

According to the latest web documentation available, Microsoft plans to continue support for the browser, through 2014. In the only reference to the actual reason behind the discontinuance, Sheth wrote, “Many other companies have already stopped supporting older browsers like Internet Explorer 6.0 as well as browsers that are not supported by their own manufacturers. We’re also going to begin phasing out our support, starting with Google Docs and Google Sites.”

In this case, as mentioned above, Microsoft has yet to stop supporting the browser. This leaves one to wonder if the premature discontinuance truly does have an undertone of retaliation from one computer giant to another? The only thing certain is that neither side is likely to admit anything.

 

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