Big browser changes for Firefox and Chrome

Daniel Schiavone — Wed, 13 Dec 2017 18:06:50 +0000

Big browser changes for Firefox and Chrome

By Daniel Schiavone on December 13, 2017

There have been some big changes in Firefox and Chrome browsers recently. In November, Firefox released a completely revamped browser called Quantum. The new Firefox is significantly faster and has a new cutting edge user interface. These days it's hard to make a splash with a browser release but Firefox Quantum will make you want to switch your desktop browser. There are also many compelling reasons for moving to an Open Source. The most important is privacy. Considering the amount of data being collected by the Frightful Five, the benefits of moving to Firefox have become more compelling.

Meanwhile, Google has been pushing out a new version of Chrome. What a contrast in releases. Google has been warning users that the new release will label all pages not using SSL (HTTPS) as 'Not secure'. But the change goes much deeper. If your network connection isn't configured properly you might get a nasty message.

Help desks are going to be busy over the holidays. Here are some ways to troubleshoot if you get this message.

The update also introduces a redirect for any domain with a ".dev" extension to HTTPS. A lot of web developers are going to be searching Google to find why their local development site displays in other browsers but not Chrome. Developers might know about the new warnings about insecure sites but I suspect many of us missed the nuances of Chrome's latest release.

Browsers