Private surfing with Browzar
By Richard Koman - September 1, 2006
The BBC reports on Browzar, a privacy browser that operates as a shell on top of Internet Explorer. Unlike IE, Firefox, Safari or most any other browser, Browzar doesn't save surfing history, cache visited pages, or cookies beyond the browsing session.
We've had downloads from over 200 countries," said Mr Ajaz Ahmed, founder of internet service provider Freeserve and the man behind Browzar. "All sorts of people are using it: teenagers, mums and grandparents. Many don't realise that their browser doesn't offer them privacy and they learn the hard way."
None of this is rocket science - all browsers let you disable all of these settings in a preferences dialog. Yet, few people do it. So maybe a new browser is what's needed. But because it sits on top of IE, Browzar still exposes users to all the same security flaws that the underlying Microsoft browser faces.
By Richard Koman - September 1, 2006 | Permalink | Comment
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Comments (3)
Beware Greeks bearing gifts especially when they seem too good to be true (they invariably are not) See lots of negative comments about Browzar at WhatReallyHappened. It seems Browzar might be another take on the paranoia syndrome - that is frighten people into thinking they need something and offer the solution with a catch - in this case the catch is lots of false search results pointing at 'sponsored/paid for' links. Whatismore, its seems that it doesn't really offer any protection anyway....
Posted: September 4, 2006 9:58 AM
Phil: These companies only get one bite at the cherry. If they cannot provide a full-value experience, users won't be coming back, even if the product is improved. There are just too many apps to try out. Plus, the apps with a Google AdSense/ad netowrk business model are going to find it increasingly difficult to pay for continuing development unless they can build a very large user base very quickly. With so many of them competing for those clicks, the total pie gets very fragmented.
Posted: September 4, 2006 2:20 PM
The homepage in Browzar is hard coded to www.browzar.com/start/. It cannot be changed unless you edit Browzar's executable file:
http://rogerkarlsson.com/blogs/misc/change-browzar-home-page/
Posted: September 6, 2006 12:39 AM