HTTPS Search To Be Default For Firefox
@smriti-ZtAJsx
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Oct 23, 2024
Oct 23, 2024
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Firefox is soon to become the very first major browser to implement encrypted searching for all users by default. This coming development was announced on <a href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=633773" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">633773 - Use Google's HTTPS search by default</a>. The feature has already been implemented for the nightly developer trunk and would be soon available to the average end-user. A rather important update considering it will secure millions of users from snooping by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_packet_inspection" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Deep Packet Inspection</a> and #-Link-Snipped-#.
You are not entirely wrong if you have a faint memory of Google Chrome coming out with a similar SSL-encrypted search, but this feature was only limited to users who were signed in through their Google account, searching through Google.com. So, if a user is signed in to a regional Google domain, he/she cannot avail the feature. Firefox, on the other hand, makes the encryption available to all its users by making use of Google’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPDY" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Spdy</a>. SPDY is a networking protocol, similar to HTTP, with reduced web page load latency and improve web security.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Firefox will direct users to Google's HTTPS search engine using 3 different ways. The first is through the search bar on the right hand side of the navigation bar, where Google is the default search engine. The other way is the built-in <em>about:home</em> page, which directs searches to Google or else using the <em>“</em><em>I’m feeling lucky</em>†search.
Another important update that Firefox will be rolling out soon is the PDF.js extension that will allow users to open PDF files from the browser itself without any need for a plug-in. PDF.js is pure HTML5 and Javascript and has an open source code allowing developers to customize it and integrate into projects as they see fit. PDF.js is scheduled to arrive with Firefox 14.
Source &Â Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#
You are not entirely wrong if you have a faint memory of Google Chrome coming out with a similar SSL-encrypted search, but this feature was only limited to users who were signed in through their Google account, searching through Google.com. So, if a user is signed in to a regional Google domain, he/she cannot avail the feature. Firefox, on the other hand, makes the encryption available to all its users by making use of Google’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPDY" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Spdy</a>. SPDY is a networking protocol, similar to HTTP, with reduced web page load latency and improve web security.
#-Link-Snipped-#
Firefox will direct users to Google's HTTPS search engine using 3 different ways. The first is through the search bar on the right hand side of the navigation bar, where Google is the default search engine. The other way is the built-in <em>about:home</em> page, which directs searches to Google or else using the <em>“</em><em>I’m feeling lucky</em>†search.
Another important update that Firefox will be rolling out soon is the PDF.js extension that will allow users to open PDF files from the browser itself without any need for a plug-in. PDF.js is pure HTML5 and Javascript and has an open source code allowing developers to customize it and integrate into projects as they see fit. PDF.js is scheduled to arrive with Firefox 14.
Source &Â Image Credit: #-Link-Snipped-#