DuckDuckGo added to Chrome's list of default search engines

The new update to the chromium engine that underlies the popular Google Chrome browser has quietly increased the list of default search engines it offers, expanding the choices that users can make for searching around the globe.

Move may be in response to criticism

Google has been facing scrutiny from privacy and monopoly fighting groups and has been accused of market distorting behavior both in the US and abroad. The changes to the number of alternative browsers listed with the Chromium 73 stable release yesterday may help stave off some of that criticism. Many governments are questioning how competition policy needs to be updated to help smaller innovators compete with tech giants such as Google. I might add Microsoft also uses pressure both to use its browser Edge and its search engine Bing. Personally, I find it worse than Google.

As a PC World article puts it: "One of the great horrors of Windows 10 is that Microsoft forces you to use Bing and Microsoft Edge with Cortana. When you search with Cortana, any web searches are automatically sent to Bing and displayed in the Edge browser, no matter what your default browser is." Unlike other browsers you cannot uninstall Edge. You cant uninstall Cortana, either just disable it. I don't use either but I can't free the space they take up.

In a note on the change in Chrome's default search engine list Orin Jaworsky a Google software engineer claims that the changes are simply based on usage statistics from recently collected data. The choices in different areas and countries loosely line up with the top four market share.

DuckDuckGo benefits from the new listings

The pro-privacy search engine DuckDuckGo(DDG) is now offered as an option in more than 60 markets. Previously the search engine was not offered as an option at all. Even when DDG is not listed as an option it can often be set as such at least on desktop computers, and no doubt on laptops as well as shown in the accompanying video. However having it on a list will make it simpler and available on mobile devices.

DuckDuckGo has its own website on which it says among other things:' "With our roots as the search engine that doesn’t track you, we’ve expanded what we do to protect you no matter where you go on the Internet. Check out our story...We extended our privacy protection beyond the search box with the launch of our new mobile app & browser extension, available on all major platforms." The extension was in January of last year.

In its home market France, Qwant has also been added as a default option but only in France. However, DDG is now offered in numerous countries around the world including much of Europe the US, Canada, and Mexico and several Latin American countries including Venezuela. Eric Leandri, Qwant co-founder, said thanks to Google for adding Qwant as a default option in France. Leandri still recommends that people use the Mozilla Firefox browser or the pro-privacy Brave browser. Leandri also said that it would have been even nicer if Google had added Qwant to the list in Germany and Italy where the search engine also has a following. Leandri thought that Google's move would not stop further regulation because of market domination.

Global market share of different search engines

Statcounter has data on market share of different search engines, globally, by country, region and type of device. Globally Google dominates the market with 92.9 percent penetration. Microsoft's Bing coming second with 2.38 percent share. Yahoo has 1.79 percent and Baidu. a Chinese search engine has 1.03. DuckDuckGo has only 0.38 percent. The situation can vary greatly from one country to the next. For example in China Baidu has 74.6 percent of the market while Google only has 2.03.

Google's Chrome Web Store refuses to allow extensions that mine crytocoins

On Wednesday April 4, Google's Chrome Web Store will refuse to accept extensions that mine cryptocurrencies. The company complains that over the past few months there has been a rise in "malicious extensions".



Extensions have hidden mining scripts
The extensions of concern appear to be useful but actually have embedded hidden cryptocurrency mining scripts that run in the background without the consent of the user. This consumes computer resources. The company says that existing extensions are to be delisted from the Chrome Web Store late in June. Extensions with blockchain-related purposes other than mining will continue to be allowed.
Google had previously allowed cryptocurrency mining extensions as long as this was the sole purpose of the extensions and users were informed about the process. Google claimed that 90 percent of all the extensions with mining scripts that were submitted failed to comply with Google policies. As a result they have been rejected or removed from the store.
Mining scripts reduce computing power
The mining can negatively effect the performance of a computer in that it uses up power solving the calculations needed to mine the tokens, a process described in the appended video.

Samsung now makes special chips for bitcoin mining. The chips used by miners have caused shortages in areas such as astronomical research.
Mining scripts even planted in public websites
Companies and hackers have planted backdoor coin mining scripts in public websites in effect stealing computational power for their own mining. Showtime websites were for a time involved.
James Wagener, Google's extensions platform product manage wrote in a blog post:“The extensions platform provides powerful capabilities that have enabled our developer community to build a vibrant catalog of extensions that help users get the most out of Chrome. Unfortunately, these same capabilities have attracted malicious software developers who attempt to abuse the platform at the expense of users.”
There have been numerous scams involving cryptocurrencies and this is just one of several. In many countries cryptocurrencies are being regulated. In some such as China fund-raising practices such as Initial Coin Offerings(ICOs) are banned. Cryptocurrency related ads are now banned on Google and Facebook and will be on Twitter as well.
The mining of cryptocurrencies uses tremendous amounts of power and many environmentalists oppose the practice. Mining companies search the world for cheap power sources to set up mining operations. Not all cryptocurrencies use mining to create the currencies.

Next Chrome browser to block most auto-play videos

In a move that many will welcome Google's Chrome browser new release in January of 2018 will mute most video autoplay videos

I find these autoplay videos most annoying. While you are peacefully reading text all of a sudden an autooplay video starts up noisily. Some of the videos are ads but many are actually related to the content of accompanying articles. If I want to watch the video, which I sometimes do, I can do so by clicking on the start indicator in the video window. If the website I am reading insists on needing an ad, it can always be placed so that once I click to start the video it plays before I get to watch it. While this may irritate some it is much less obnoxious than blatantly interrupting a person while they are reading.

In an official blog post, Google noted that in Chrome 64 it will block any autoplay that has sound but "autoplay will be allowed when either the media won't play sound or the user has indicated an interest in the media". I see no reason for the exceptions, as even a video playing without sound is a distraction. If a person is interested in the media they can click to start the video. There is no need for it to start automatically.

A similar feature is to be incorporated into the Apple Safari browser and was announced back in June. It will be available September 25 when the new Mac Operating System High Sierra will be launched. There is already an extension to the Chrome browser available for blocking autoplay videos available here. There is also an add-on for the browser Opera that will do the same thing. I use it. There is also an update coming in October for Chrome 63 that will you allow you to block audio for specific sites. When you load a website on Chrome 63 you can click on the "Page info bubble" that is to the left of the URL, and look for the Sound option which you can disable.

Google wrote in a blog post:“One of the most frequent user concerns is unexpected media playback, which can use data, consume power, and make unwanted noise while browsing. To address this, Chrome will be making autoplay more consistent with user expectations and will give users more control over audio.” Google also plans to provide Native ad-blocking features soon. Google's Sridhar Ramaswamy said: “We plan to have Chrome stop showing ads (including those owned or served by Google) on websites that are not compliant with the Better Ads Standards starting in early 2018,” Wikipedia describes native advertising as follows:Native advertising is a type of advertising, mostly online, that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases, it manifests as either an article or video, produced by an advertiser with the specific intent to promote a product, while matching the form and style which would otherwise be seen in the work of the platform's editorial staff. The word "native" refers to this coherence of the content with the other media that appears on the platform.The advertising is often effective because it appears and usually has the style of the informational content that surrounds it. Indeed it could be regarded as disguised advertising. Examples familiar to many people are promoted tweets on Twitter, and promoted posts on Facebook.

Another more drastic way of removing autoplay video ads is shown in the appended video. I haven't tested it out since I don't use Chrome but most of the comments claim it did. However the video is from May 2016 so Chrome may have changed by now in a way that does not allow what the video recommends.