Latest news with #Chromium
The Verge
8 hours ago
- The Verge
Microsoft is blocking Google Chrome through its family safety feature
Earlier this month, Microsoft's Family Safety feature, primarily used by parents and schools as a set of parental controls and filters, started randomly blocking Google's Chrome browser from opening on Windows. The first reports surfaced on June 3rd, with some Chrome users noticing the browser kept closing or wouldn't open. Microsoft has introduced a bug into Family Safety that specifically targets the Chrome browser and prevents it from functioning on Windows. 'Our team has investigated these reports and determined the cause of this behavior,' says Chrome support manager Ellen T. 'For some users, Chrome is unable to run when Microsoft Family Safety is enabled.' Other browsers like Firefox or Opera appear to be unaffected, and some users have even found that renaming to works around this issue. Schools or parents who have enabled Family Safety as part of a Microsoft 365 subscription can also disable the 'filter inappropriate websites' setting in Family Safety to get Chrome up and running again, but this does leave children able to access any website. It's unclear when Microsoft will fix the issue, which has been ongoing for more than two weeks. We reached out to Microsoft to comment on this problem earlier this week, but at the time of publication, the company hasn't responded. 'We've not heard anything from Microsoft about a fix being rolled out,' wrote a Chromium engineer in a bug tracking thread on June 10th. 'They have provided guidance to users who contact them about how to get Chrome working again, but I wouldn't think that would have a large effect.' Microsoft has a habit of doing weird things on Windows to steer people away from using Chrome. While this Family Safety issue is likely an innocent bug, Microsoft has used prompts, fake AI answers, malware-like popups, and even a poll injected on Google's Chrome download page to try and sway people to switch to its Edge browser. Earlier this year, Microsoft even used Bing to trick people into thinking they were on Google.
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Gizmodo
Download Chromium (free) for Windows, macOS, Android, APK and Linux
While Chromium is not a standalone web browser, it offers a clean, open, and customizable base for creating and testing one, which makes it a perfect choice if you're a developer or researcher of modern web technologies. As an open-source project from Google, it's completely transparent, and you can check its code and all the details on the Chromium project repository. You can use it to build a customized browser that isn't linked to any corporation, so you have complete control over how it uses user data. Many browsers use Chromium as a base since it supports modern web standards, and you can be sure that it will be able to render even the most complex applications quickly and reliably. This browser project is powered by V8 JavaScript and Blink rendering engines that are known for their reliable performance. Since it doesn't include any proprietary modules, with Chromium, you have no background tracking, collection of telemetry data, or automatic synchronization with commercial services, for example, from Google. You can keep every piece of data that Chromium collects locally unless you explicitly integrate it into a different service. Because of these features, you can find Chromium as the basis for many privacy-focused web browsers that are not related to Google. You can download the Chromium codebase and compile it to run on various platforms like Windows, macOS, Linux, BSD, or mobile operating systems. It follows the industry standard of write once, deploy anywhere, and adjusting it to different systems will only require making minimal adjustments. Chromium also has a multi-process architecture, meaning that each tab you open is isolated into its own sandbox and process, improving the performance and stability of the browser you build. With Chromium, you don't get automatic updates in the background, which can be a major benefit if you need to work in a highly controlled or secure environment. You can review each update manually and then decide whether to apply it. Chromium also doesn't include a built-in sync for user accounts or bookmarks, support for Flash, media codecs, or DRM (Widevine), which enables streaming services like Netflix, so keep that in mind when working on your custom solution. It's a project more targeted at developers, as it gives you access to tools like page inspection, memory and network monitoring, JavaScript debugging, and performance profiling out of the box. All of those are crucial when you need to test a website, create a web app, or develop browser extensions and review them in real-world conditions.
Time of India
12-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
The Browser Company launches AI-first browser Dia in beta
The Browser Company has released its AI-powered web browser Dia in beta, marking a dramatic shift from traditional browsing toward artificial intelligence integration . The new browser positions AI as its core feature, allowing users to interact with an intelligent assistant directly through the address bar without visiting separate AI platforms like ChatGPT or Claude. Dia's standout capability lies in its seamless integration of AI functionality into everyday browsing tasks. Users can query information across all open tabs, generate drafts based on tab content, and receive web summaries through a built-in chatbot. The browser's address bar serves triple duty, handling website navigation, search queries, and AI interactions automatically based on user input. The launch comes after The Browser Company discontinued development of Arc browser last year, acknowledging that while Arc gained enthusiast popularity, its steep learning curve prevented mass adoption. CEO Josh Miller recognized that users increasingly rely on AI tools for various tasks, prompting the company to reimagine browsing entirely around artificial intelligence. Built on Google's open-source Chromium project, Dia maintains familiar browser functionality while adding advanced AI features. The "History" feature allows the AI to reference seven days of browsing data for contextual responses, while "Skills" enables users to create code snippets for customized shortcuts and layouts. Although AI integration in browsers isn't entirely new, Opera and Google Chrome offer similar features, Dia distinguishes itself by making artificial intelligence the central experience rather than an add-on feature. Current Arc users receive immediate access to Dia beta, with invitation privileges for other users. Interested users can join the waiting list through The Browser Company's website as the company prepares for broader public release. AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
TechCrunch
11-06-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
The Browser Company launches its AI-first browser, Dia, in beta
Traditional web tools are facing an existential crisis as AI products and tools increasingly eat up attention — and therefore market share and money — from a wide swathe of products that people have used for years to interact with the internet. At least, that's what The Browser Company seems to think is happening. The company last year decided to stop developing its popular web browser Arc, acknowledging that while Arc was popular among enthusiasts, it never hit scale as it presented too steep a learning curve to reach mass adoption. The startup has since been heads-down on developing a browser that bakes in AI at the heart of the browser. That browser, called Dia, is now available for use in beta, though you'll need an invite to try it out. The Browser Company's CEO Josh Miller has of late acknowledged how people have been using AI tools for all sorts of tasks, and Dia is a reflection of that. By giving users an AI interface within the browser itself, where a majority of work is done these days, the company is hoping to slide into the user flow and give people an easy way to use AI, cutting out the need to visit the sites for tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude. Image Credits: The Browser Company Up front, Dia presents a straightforward interface. The browser is based on Chromium, the open-source browser project backed by Google, so it has a familiar look and feel. The marquee feature here is the AI smarts, of course. Besides letting you type in website names and search terms, Dia's URL bar acts as the interface for its in-built AI chatbot. The bot can search the web for you, summarize files that you upload, and can automatically switch between chat and search functions. Users can also ask questions about all the tabs they have open, and the bot can even write up a draft based on the contents of those tabs. To set your preferences, all you have to do is talk to the chatbot to customize its tone of voice, style of writing, and settings for coding. Via an opt-in feature called History, you can allow the browser to use seven days of your browsing history as context to answer queries. Another feature called Skills lets you build small snippets of code that act as shortcuts to various settings. For example, you can ask the browser to build a layout for reading, and it'll code something up for you — think Siri shortcuts, but for your browser. Techcrunch event Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Save $200+ on your TechCrunch All Stage pass Build smarter. Scale faster. Connect deeper. Join visionaries from Precursor Ventures, NEA, Index Ventures, Underscore VC, and beyond for a day packed with strategies, workshops, and meaningful connections. Boston, MA | REGISTER NOW Image Credits: The Browser Company Now, we have to note that chatbots in browsers are not a new feature at all. Several browser companies have integrated AI tools into their interfaces — for example, Opera Neon lets users use an AI agent to build mini-applications or complete tasks on their behalf, and Google is also adding AI-powered features to Chrome. The Browser Company says all existing Arc members will get access to Dia immediately, and existing Dia users will be able to send invites to other users.
Techday NZ
08-06-2025
- Business
- Techday NZ
3 key challenges in enterprise browser adoption: Lessons from Arc's pivot
When Joshua Miller's team at The Browser Company announced they were pivoting away from Arc — their beloved, innovative browser — the tech world collectively gasped. Here was a product with passionate users, glowing reviews, and genuine innovation. Yet it still couldn't crack the enterprise adoption code. Their story reveals uncomfortable truths about why enterprises struggle with browser transitions, even when the alternative is objectively better. The muscle memory problem "Switching browsers is a big ask," Miller admitted in his letter to Arc users. But in enterprise environments, it's not just big — it's monumental. You're not convincing one person to change their habits. You're orchestrating behavioral change across thousands of employees, each with years of accumulated muscle memory. Consider what Arc discovered about feature adoption: only 5.52% of daily users utilized multiple Spaces regularly. Their GitHub Live Folders? 4.17%. Calendar Preview on Hover — a feature the team loved — attracted a mere 0.4% of users. These weren't poorly designed features. They were features that required users to think differently. And that's where enterprise adoption dies — in the gap between what's possible and what people will actually do when they're trying to get work done. Arc called it the "novelty tax" — the price users pay for learning something new. In consumer markets, early adopters happily pay this tax. They enjoy the learning curve. But in enterprises, every moment spent learning new browser features is a moment not spent on actual work. IT departments understand this implicitly. When evaluating new browsers, they're not just looking at features. They're calculating the cost of confusion multiplied by every employee, every day, until new habits form. Even a five-minute daily productivity loss across a 10,000-person company adds up to 833 hours of lost work. Every. Single. Day. This calculation almost always favors the status quo, regardless of how innovative the alternative might be. The maintenance reality check Perhaps Arc's most sobering revelation was about maintenance. "We do regular Chromium upgrades, fix security vulnerabilities, related bugs, and more," Miller explained. Just keeping a browser secure and functional requires constant vigilance. For enterprises considering alternative browsers, this creates a dependency nightmare. You're not just adopting software — you're betting your security posture on a vendor's ability to keep pace with the relentless drumbeat of vulnerabilities and patches. Arc managed it, but at what cost? And what happens when the next innovative browser company can't? The AI fragmentation accelerant Just as enterprises were settling into a Chrome-dominated world, AI shattered the landscape again. Miller predicts "traditional browsers, as we know them, will die." He's not wrong. Chat interfaces are already acting like browsers. Different roles need different AI capabilities. The one-size-fits-all browser era is ending. This fragmentation makes enterprise standardization impossible. Your developers want AI-powered coding browsers. Sales wants CRM-integrated browsers. Executives want different AI assistants. Forcing everyone into one browser isn't just impractical — it actively hampers productivity. The path forward The Arc story teaches us that enterprise browser strategy must evolve. Instead of trying to standardize on one perfect browser — a goal that Arc proved is impossible — enterprises need browser-agnostic security layers. Protection that follows users across browsers, not solutions tied to specific platforms. Because in the end, the choice of browser is increasingly out of IT's hands — and that might not be a bad thing.
