Which is the safest way to browse the Web: Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox? According to the blog How to Geek, Edge has a slight edge. Many say Firefox has the last word on privacy, and we find that's it it's pretty private.
In 2015, Firefox instituted tracking protection. It removes all tracking elements from pages you visited using the private browsing feature. To use private browsing in Firefox, press control-shift-P for "private." On the Mac, press command-shift-P.
It was news to us that advertisers and websites can track you in Google or Microsoft's browsers even if you use the incognito or InPrivate modes. All those modes do is prevent your browsing history, cookies and cached data from being stored on your computer. You're still tracked, unless you use Firefox.
We don't care if we're tracked, because it means we'll see ads targeted to our interests. Of greater concern are viruses and hackers. Microsoft and Google use what's called a sandbox so that each component of your browser is kept separate, making it hard for a hacker to join them together. Firefox has more than 18,000 extensions, which are apps that live in the browser. As you might expect, sandboxing all of them has been a problem. They're still working on it. Google has more than 50,000 and managed to do it.
The only reason Microsoft Edge might be considered slightly safer than Google Chrome is that it keeps a better list of bad websites, making sure you steer clear of those. However, this shouldn't matter if you use anti-virus and anti-malware software.
More browsing
And now for something completely different. ... There's much more out there than you can ever find time for:
• Opera Mini. For smartphones and tablets, the Opera Mini browser claims to save up to 90 percent of data costs; we saved 50 percent. It also blocks ads and makes multi-tasking a breeze. In our tests, it was just as fast and lovely as any browser, even when watching a movie.
• ScienceDirect for phone, tablet or computer. This search engine lets you browse through the titles of 14,324,115 journal and book articles on just about any scientific research topic you can think of. Shouldn't take you more than a few decades. See anything you like? Open access books and articles are free; others are $35.
• Torch is a favorite browser of video pirates. (Computer only.) It has a built-in feature for downloading music and video from YouTube and Vimeo. It uses BitTorrent for rapid downloading of videos. It has lots of games.
App Store Warning
If you use a Macbook, you've probably noticed apps for sale in the App Store; scammers lurk there.
The most benign offer to sell you something you can already get for free, such as the online version of Microsoft Word. The worst install malware on your system. Look out for apps offering Microsoft templates. Get those for free at Templates.Office.com. For other apps in the App Store, look at reviews. Often, the first few are phony. Scroll past those to see what victims are saying.
Note: This sort of thing goes back many years -- in fact for all of the 36 years we've been writing this column. An easy way to get a product to sell is to find one that already exists for free and offer it for a price. We have seen this done with bundles of free programs as well as single ones. Take a look at Ninite.com for totally free programs.
Up to Speed
If your Windows 10 computer is running slowly, open the task manager for Windows or for your Web browser.
There are at least three ways to get to the Windows task manager. Bob uses control-alt-delete. (Control-shift-escape also works.) Or, right-click the taskbar at the bottom of your screen and choose "task manager." Each item on the list that comes up under "more details" is one of the processes or programs running in the background that is almost certainly slowing you down.
Joy's computer is often running at 99 percent of its brain chip's capacity, so clicking the task manager is an everyday thing for her. When Bob checked the brain on his PC, it was running at just 3 percent of capacity. (He says that fits well with his own brain activity.) Recently, a speech engine was hogging the lion's share of Joy's computer's resources. Since she hadn't been talking to Cortana (Window's voice assistant) lately, she clicked it and chose "end task." We also shut down Microsoft Search Protocol Host.
But it could be that having too many tabs open in your Web browser is the culprit. Rather than shutting them all down, find out which one is the resource hog. In Google Chrome, look for the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen. Click "more tools," and then "task manager." When we did this, we noticed one website, Techlicious.com, was the real pig. So we closed that tab. Or rather, Joy did. Bob tends to be a one-tab-at-a-time kind of guy. (You can do something similar in Firefox with an add-on.)
Chrome also has a "reset" button. Type chrome://settings in the search bar, and when you get to settings, type "reset settings." You can bring Chrome back to its original state. It keeps your bookmarks but gets rid of the junk that bogs you down.
Internuts
• "Step into a Miniature World of Animated Paper." Search on that phrase to find a National Geographic video full of leaping and flying paper creatures. It's origami gone wild.
• "Cute Animal Tweet Off." Search on that phrase to find articles collecting zoos' best cute baby animal photos.
Bob and Joy Schwabach can be reached by email at bobschwa@gmail.com and joydee@oncomp.com.
SundayMonday Business on 02/13/2017