Older and outdated browser plug-ins could lead to potential vulnerabilities and security holes and make a way to enter malware and other security threats into your system.

Because current browsers have no built-in mechanism for auto-updating plug-ins, we need to check it regularly by hand for a safer web experience.

The security company Qualys has developed a Browser Checking tool for Google Chrome, Internet explorer and Firefox, which is similar to Mozilla Plugin Check that scans your browser for installed plug-ins and lets you know if they need to be updated.

However, currently this service scans only a few plugins and browsers, but they are very critical to the system security. Following are the list:

- Windows OS support expiration
- Browser version (IE 6.0+, Firefox 3.0+, Chrome 4.0+)
- Adobe Flash Player
- Adobe Reader 5.x and above
- Adobe Shockwave Player
- Apple Quicktime
- Microsoft Silverlight
- Microsoft Windows Media Player
- Real Player
- Sun Java
- Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) plug-in for Mozilla browsers, etc

This tool will also help you fix the security issues discovered by the scan. Interested readers can try it for Firefox, Google Chrome and Internet Explorer. [via]

The application called Bookmarks Backup lets you backup and restore your browser’s bookmarks, tabs, favorites and more with a few clicks. It supports latest Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari and Opera browsers.

Why a browser bookmark backup? There is always a chance that your browser could actually crash for various reasons and you could lose all your bookmarks.

Besides, it is useful when you reinstalling your operating system or want to transfer bookmarks to another PC.

Bookmarks Backup is a portable and best tool for backing up bookmarks, favorites, history, saved passwords, open tabs and pages for reuse. You can download Bookmark Backup free at source.

Here is a simple and lightweight solution to download videos from YouTube which works well on all major browsers including Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Opera.

The script adds an option to download YouTube videos as MP4 (HD) and FLV files. However, some browsers like Firefox and IE requires third party extension to work the script.

The script should work in:
- Firefox – install Greasemonkey first
- Google Chrome – no plug-in required
- Opera – no plug-in required
- Safari – install GreaseKit first)
- Internet Explorer – RequiredIE7Pro.

You can download the video in MP4 360p, 720p (HD), 1080p (HD) and FLV (FLV 360p, 480p) formats. Interested users can install the script on your browser from here.

But Opera (10.5) has a new private browsing feature that the other browsers currently missing. In Opera you can open a site in private browsing mode in a new tab while you are in normal browsing mode.

Here is how to enable Private Browsing Mode in Opera 10.50 and above. Opera supports private browsing mode both in tabs and windows.

1. To open a private browsing in tabs: Right click on tab’s “+” icon and select New Private Tab. Private tab got a lock like icon at the right side of the tab icon.

2. To open a private browsing window: Click on File menu, then select New Private Window. The private window is red colored. Any tab opened in the private window is a private tab.

Opera (10.5) is said to be the fastest browser on the earth and fully supports Windows 7 new feature Aero and Jump list. Interested users can download it from Opera website.

Because of this, browser developers have always trying to give best security features to their browser. But which one is the most secure – IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Opera?

Here is a new browser security test by NSSLabs (Feb 2010) comparing IE, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Opera.

The comparative test result called ‘Web Browser Security – Socially Engineered Malware Protection’ shows that IE8 catches the most malware, and that Opera catches nothing.

NSS Labs is the leading independent security product testing and certification organization. But there are some questions regarding their test. You can read more about it at: tinyurl.com/c3hzme or at: tinyurl.com/cah4re

However, in my belief, this study only tested one aspect of browser’s security – the built-in Anti-Malware & Phishing filters. I think IE8′s Smart Screen filter feature makes it a more secure browser.

Interested users can download and check out the new Web platform capabilities of Internet Explorer 9 from IETestDrive.com.

The current build does not have a complete GUI, but renders the page. It supports only Windows Vista SP2 or Windows 7.

You can read more about this developer preview of Internet Explorer 9 at here and can be downloaded at IE TestDrive. (via – Nirmaltv )

It looks very similar to Google Chrome (see screen shot) and according to Comodo it has more security and privacy features than Google Chrome.

Features of Comodo Dragon include:

• Improved Privacy over Chromium
• Easy SSL Certificate Identification
• Greater Stability and Less Memory Bloat
• Incognito Mode Stops Cookies, Improves Privacy
• Very easy to switch from your Browser to the Dragon

Comodo Dragon will run on Microsoft Windows 7, as well as Windows Vista and XP. Download Comodo Dragon (20Mb).

But, there are other types of cookies called Flash cookies (also known as PIE (persistent identification element), LSO’s (local shared objects) or super cookies) that your browser can not remove.

Even if you’ve deleted all your browsing history and normal cookies, Flash cookies are still there and offer unlimited user tracking.

Of course one can manage flash cookies from Adobe Settings Manager, but unfortunately Adobe’s “Flash Settings Manager” does not properly remove Flash cookies.

That means you need special tool to remove flash cookies to ensure your privacy. Here are 4 tools that you can use to remove flash cookies/super cookies from your computer.

1. Flash Cookie Cleaner: This is a freeware, portable application and there are no complicated settings or configurations needed. Just run the application, click on ‘Scan’ button. Then click on ‘View’ button to see who tracking you and click ‘Delete’ button to delete these cookies.
2. Flush Flash cookies- The program has three modes of operation:  Everything-wipe out all cookies,Everything but Site settings: With the Adobe manager (mentioned above) you can set preferences for each site you visit. This mode only deletes the cookies, not the Site settings. Everything but Adobe settings: Most people will not have configured the settings per site, but you may have changed the settings for Flash itself. This mode will get rid of all cookies and website settings but leave the settings for Adobe Flash itself.
3. FlashCookiesView is another small utility that displays the list of cookie files created by Flash component in your Web browser. For each cookie file, it displays the content of the file in readable format or as Hex dump. You can also select one or more cookie files, and then copy them to the clipboard, save them to text/html/xml file or delete them.
4. Flash Cookie Remover is another (currently beta) freeware, portable tool for removing flash cookies. No installation required. Just run the tool, scan and remove Flash cookies from your hard disk.

Hope above tools will ensure your internet privacy little more. (via)

Now you can add new features and functionality to your Google Chrome by installing extensions which were previously launched on the beta channel only.

There are thousands of add-ons / extensions available (official or unofficial) from extension gallery for downloading. (See 15 most popular add-ons for Google Chrome)

Download Google Chrome 4 stable version and browse the web faster, safer, and easier.

New features includes in Firefox 3.6

1. Made some changes to how we allow third party software to integrate with Firefox in order to prevent crashes.
2. The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
3. Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
4. Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
5. Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
6. Support for the WOFF font format.
7. Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
8. Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

Download Firefox 3.6