Browserland » How-To

Restore Default Search Engine In Google Chrome

Giovanni Panasiti — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 09:53:10 +0000

Many people ask me how to restore Google as their default search engine.

Maybe you are one of those people who have installed something that changed their default search engine and now you don’t know how to restore it. I’m writing this guide to help you solving this, very common, problem.

How to restore Google Chrome default search engine:

First you have to click the “wrench icon” located at the upper right corner of your browser

Now go to “Options” (Preferences on Mac and Linux; Settings on a Chromebook)

Open the “Basic” tab

Click on the “Manage search engines” button

Now remove the search engine you wouldn’t use just selecting it from the list and clicking the “x” that appears at the end of the row.
Add a search engine: Scroll to the bottom of the dialog and fill out the following fields:
- Add a new search engine: Enter a nickname for the search engine.
- Keyword: Enter the text shortcut you want to use for the search engine. Use the keyword to do keyword searches.
- URL: Enter the web address for the search engine. Learn how to find this URL
Edit a search engine: Select the search engine from the list and click the field you want to modify.
Make a search engine default: Select the search engine you want to use as your default search engine and click the Make default button that appears in the row.

You have done! If you want to share your experience or if you found some problems following this guide drop us a comment and we will help you!

Browsers’ Private Mode Is Not So Private

Giovanni Panasiti — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 21:18:25 +0000

During the last Usenix Security Symposium was presented a research by G. Aggrawal, E. Bursztein, C. Jackson, and D. Boneh. This research was published as a PDF and you can download it.

According to their research the “private mode” features offered by the major browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari) don’t work as promised.

In theory these features should let you to browse the Web without leaving any trace on your computer , but they don’t. For example when you visit a website that uses SSL security certification,also if you are using Firefox, IE, and Safari “private mode”, this visit will be recorded in a file on your computer.

In Firefox, the private mode leaves traces everytime you set preferences for a specific site or use a plug-in, an add-on, or visit a site that uses the HTML5 advanced features. Instead, Internet Explorer has a problem in those sites which carry query SMB for any reason.

More in general the problem is that these browsers don’t distinguish browsing sessions between private and “non-private”. So a specially crafted website can track who visit it in public mode or in private mode.

The authors of the research also found a way to allow a site to find out if the visitors use public or private mode just using an IFRAME and a bit of Javascript.

The researchers used this system to know in which situations users use private browsing feature. This feature is presented by manufacturers as a solution to buy gifts without the recipient knowing it in advance, although the researchers proved that this feature is mainly used to visit adult website. The real surprise is that the proportion of users adopting the private mode to visit adult websites is very close to the one of those who use it for shopping or browsing for generic topic: respectively 8% and 6%.

The other interesting aspect, found by researchers, is that there is much variability from browser to another browser: Internet Explorer users are those that less use this feature (2%, including pornographic sites). Safari users are at the opposite end with a 14%.

The problem is that researchers proved that this feature is not what you think it is and everything you do on the Web is recorded. So whatever you do online, you better know you are going to be observed and remember: you are not invisible.

This article was originally published by Paolo Attivissimo on his blog Il Disinformatico in italian language.

Serious Safari Security Flaw Found: A Bug Makes Vulnerable Your Personal Informations

Giovanni Panasiti — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:45:11 +0000

If you are among the more than 80 million people who use Apple’s Safari browser to surf the web, you may want to change your settings stat.

At the moment, if you are a Safari user, who surfs the web visiting web pages and stuff, a malicious website can uncover your first name, last name, work place, city, state, and your email address. Even if you’ve never been there, or entered any personal information, before.

PhotoFiltre: Todd Klassy

This is possible using an exploit discovered in Safari’s AutoFill that allows malicious websites to extract a user’s first name, last name, work place, city, state, and email address. They don’t even need to fill out a form to trigger the bug: It can occur simply by their loading the site and takes place in just seconds. WhiteHat Security’s Jeremiah Grossman has described it in greater detail.

In Safari, AutoFill uses data from the users personal record in the local operating system address book. Again it is important to emphasize this feature works even though a user never entered this data on any website. Also this behavior should not be confused with normal auto-complete data a Web browser may remember after its typed into a form.

To better understand what we are talking about visit this website using Safari version 4 or 5 (the last): Safari AutoFill Exploit and press the “START” button.

In a few seconds the page shows you your first name, last name, work place, city, state, and your email address. Luckly this is only an harmless demo, but it works exactly how could works a malicios website. But in a malicious website your personal data may be transmitted to the operator of the site without you to do anything, and without you see anything. All this could happen in backgroud while you are surfing the Web.

In other words, with Safari you can steal the identity of a visitor without noticing. Goodbye anonymity. Imagine putting a trap on a website with objectionable content and thus steal the identities of visitors. The possibility of spamming and blackmail are easy to guess.

To read more about this in Jeremiah Grossman’s article: I know who your name, where you work, and live (Safari v4 & v5)

How To Surf The Web Anonymously: Proxy Servers

Giovanni Panasiti — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 13:39:19 +0000

If you want to surf in the web anonymously, if you want to hide your IP address, there are a lot of free proxy servers that you can use to secure your web browsing activities.

Proxy servers allow you to surf in the Web without leaving any trace of your passage. They also allow you to bypass firewalls due to censorship filters, schools, universities or any other case where yo are forbid to browse the web like you do at home.

Photocredit: ukaszSie

If you are in your office and a firewall doesn’t allow you to access some websites a proxy server is what you really need.

When you surf in the Web your privacy is constantly at risk. When you are in Internet everything you do is recorded by Internet providers and by the servers that host the web sites you visit. All this information is collected without you even noticing, and these could be given away to third-party services.

So cover your traces when you surf the Web is very important and proxy allows you to make it.

I found an incredible number of Proxy servers and I have them all listed below:

Bind2

Link: http://bind2.com/

Online-Proxy.net

Link: http://www.online-proxy.net/

BTunnel

Link: http://www.btunnel.com/

Bypass School Filter

Link: http://www.bypassschoolfilter.com/

Web4Proxy

Link: http://web4proxy.com/

Proxywars

Link: http://www.proxywars.net/

Sambaweb.info

Link: http://www.sambaweb.info/

Proxy-Online.com

Link: http://www.proxy-online.com/

Free Proxy Server

Link: http://www.freeproxyserver.ca

Unblock Myspace

Link: http://www.unblockmyspace.com/

Proxy.org

Link: http://www.proxy.org/

InternetProxy.net

Link: http://internetproxy.net/

Free Public Proxy

Link: http://www.free-public-proxy.com/

Hide My Ass!

Link: http://www.hidemyass.com/

Zend2

Link: http://www.zend2.com/

GoTrusted

Link: http://www.gotrusted.com/

Anonymous Surfing

Link: http://www.anonymizer.com/

SnoopBlock

Link: http://www.snoopblock.com/

PageWash

Link: http://www.pagewash.com/

MegaProxy

Link: https://www.megaproxy.com/freesurf/

In this guide I post the best Proxy servers services between those posted in MasterNewMedia’s “Bypass That Firewall” – Mini-Guide

Use Gmail As A Web Based Email Client

Giovanni Panasiti — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:40:08 +0000

Have you got a multitude of email addresses? Wouldn’t it be great to have them all together in one single place, that you can also check on the fly using just a web browser? No more Outlook, Thunderbird, and all those things?

Google’s own Gmail is simply the best webmail application ever: I have been using Gmail since it was in the invite-only beta phase, and it has been adding features over these years, coming to be an almost-perfect email web based client, and one of the best things it does, is the ability to send emails pretending to be another account, on a different domain and server. That’s what we will use in this mini-guide to transform a single Gmail account into an all-in-one email client for all of your address (that support forwarding).

Here’s how to do it:

Set up your other email(s) to forward to your desired Gmail account: to do this, you will simply have to look up into your settings panel. If you are using a hosted solution, as it is for your own domain, you can control mail forwarding within your control panel, or ask your host’s customer service to do it for you.
Set up Gmail to “send as” your alternative email address: go to Settings–Accounts, and under “Send mail as,” click “Add another email address.” Enter your name and alternative email address here. You may also add a “reply to” address if you want your users to reply to a different email by default.
The next step will be to validate your address: you will be asked to paste a verification code, in order to prove that this is really your account you are using: if you have correctly set up the forward on step one, you will receive the email directly in Gmail.

And that’s it! Now every email that’s sent to your old email address will be automatically forwarded to Gmail, and you will also be able to reply as if you were still using that email: to do this, everytime you compose a new email there’s a drop-down box from which you can choose the email that will result as the “sender” email. You can also select a default replying address in the “Settings” page

For any doubt just leave a comment below!

Photo Credit: Mailbox – Clix, Gmail Stamp – Marcofolio.net

Simultaneous Anonymous Browsing In Firefox: Private Browsing Window

Giovanni Panasiti — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 12:03:50 +0000

With version 3.5, Mozilla introduced in Firefox a new feature: Private Browsing. For those who don’t know, Private Browsing is a particular state of Firefox which allows people to browse anonymously on the web, without leaving any trace into the browser’s history, cookies, complement data, etc.

Unfortunately this feature in Firefox is not very practical to use: in fact, you have to close your actual session in order to start it.

Luckily there’s a plugin, Private Browsing Window, that lets you open a new completely independent anonymous window, like it is in Chrome’s Incognito Mode, so that you don’t need to close the current browsing session.

Once you have downloaded and installed it, restart Firefox and you will find a green icon on the right bottom of your browser, or a new voice into the Tools menu: clicking it will start a new private browsing session without leaving the “normal one”.

Installation Link: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/59736

Photo Credits: Safe Box – VisualPharm, Binary Code Background – Flavio Takemoto

Set Firefox As Your Default Browser

Nicolo' Canali De Rossi — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:17:58 +0000

By default when you first install an operating system on your machine, the default web browser that you find will be Internet Explorer on Windows and Safari on Macs…Only some Linux distributions have Firefox as their default browsing program.

It is really easy to set Firefox as default on any OS, but someone might not have had the chance to learn how yet…so here’s how to do it in two easy steps:

Click on Tools->Options from the toolbar, and the settings menu will open.

Open the Advanced Tab, and all the way down you will see a “Check Now” button: clicking that will make Firefox check whether or not it is the default web browser on your computer and, if not, it’ll prompt and ask if you wish to make it become the default browsing software.

Just click Yes and you’re done!

Now every time you open an HTML/XML file, a link, or anything that concerns browsing the Internet, Firefox will be the program that the operating system chooses to open that file or page.

How To Turn Firefox Into Google Chrome With Two Add-Ons

Nicolo' Canali De Rossi — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 18:31:29 +0000

We already showed how to make Firefox look like IE 7 using a theme. Well maybe you could prefer Google Chrome’s look to IE’s, but you cannot live without your Firefox?

To transform Firefox into Google Chrome, all wee need to use is two things : a full theme which will give the look and feel, and an extension that’ll move the tabs and make them look like Chrome’s ones.

Are you ready to start? Let’s begin!

Chromifox Basic Theme

This theme, which can be installed like any other theme from the Mozilla Add-ons page, will just give a new color and a new shape to our tabs. After installation, that’s how your browser will look like:

Install Chromifox Basic here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8782

Chromin Frame Add-On

Now, if you want to get the exact Chrome’s look, we just miss one little step: shifting the tabs up in the title bar, and give it the light blue color that Chrome has.

This extension just places the tab bar at the top of window, and replaces the title bar and window frame bringing it closer to the Chrome look.

Here’s what you will get:

Obviously Chromin Frame works with every theme, but it would not make sense to apply it to a non-Chrome theme…or would it?

Install Chromin Frame here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10091

That’s basically it! I hope this mini-guide was clear, but if you have any questions, or if you want to suggest another way to transform Firefox into Chrome, just post a comment!

How To Sync Your Bookmarks: Mozilla Labs Weave Project

Giovanni Panasiti — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:26:32 +0000

Today I want share with you a new way to sync your favorite bookmarks. Last month I told you about Backup And Sync Your Bookmarks And Your Password For Free – Xmarks. Today I’m going to introduce Mozilla Labs – Weave Sync

The Weave Sync add-on lets you securely take your Firefox experience with you wherever you go. You can now surf the Web on your PC, get up and go, and have everything waiting for you on your phone: your history, open tabs, bookmarks, the Awesome Bar – just as you had left it.

This add-on is a part of the Mozilla Labs Weave project which aims to integrate services more closely with the browser. Weave Sync currently supports continuous synchronization of your bookmarks, browsing history, saved passwords and tabs.

Get the same results on the Smart Location Bar across your devices, so you can get to your favorite sites with just a few keystrokes
Get up and go. You can continue what you were doing: have the ability to open any tab you have open on all your devices.
Keep the same list of bookmarks on all your devices.
Typing is hard. Now, you can easily sign in to all your favorite sites using your saved passwords (this is especially handy on mobile phones, where it’s hard to type in complex passwords)
Do it all securely: Weave Sync encrypts user data before uploading it to Mozilla’s servers, so that only you can access your data

How to start using Weave?

First, make sure you are running version 3.5 or higher of Mozilla Firefox.
Then, install the Weave Add-On.
Once you have successfully installed the Weave Add-On, open the Weave menu in the Tools menu or the bottom-right of the status-bar and select ‘Sign in’ to start syncing with Weave!

To know more about Wave: Official Website
To install Wave Sync: Click here

Make Your Extensions Work With Firefox 3.6

Giovanni Panasiti — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:53:32 +0000

If you’ve downloaded, like me, the Firefox 3.6 Beta release and you’ve seen that your favorite extensions don’t work on it this guide is for you.

I have not given up when my extensions didn’t seem to work properly and I tried a solution, and finally I found the solution in the How To Geek‘s web site. Here it is:

This is the error you get when you try and install an extension that isn’t compatible. Pay special attention to the Firefox version string, as we’ll need that later.
Type about:config into the address bar, and then after clicking through the warning, you’ll want to right-click in the list and choose New –> Boolean from the menu.
Now you’ll be prompted to enter the preference name. This is where you need to pay attention to the exact version you are using, because the preference has to be set for the exact version of Firefox you are using.
We’re using Firefox 3.6b3, as noted in the error message above, so the preference would be the following…note the capital C there, very important.
extensions.checkCompatibility.3.6b

Basically the format is extensions.checkCompatibility.VERSION.b for Beta releases or extensions.checkCompatibility.VERSION.a for Alpha releases. So if you were testing out Firefox 3.8 Alpha, you’d use extensions.checkCompatibility.3.8a as the preference name.
Yeah, that wasn’t the simplest thing. On the next dialog, just choose “false” and close the dialog.
Your extensions should now install. If they don’t, then you probably put the wrong version into the preference name.

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