Google sends a nudge toward the unencrypted web

Starting in July, Google Chrome marked all HTTP sites as “not secure,” according to a blog post published today by Chrome security product manager Emily Schechter. Chrome currently displays a neutral information icon, but starting with version 68, the browser is warning users with an extra notification in the address bar. Chrome currently marks HTTPS-encrypted sites with a green lock icon and “Secure” sign.

Google has been nudging users away from unencrypted sites for years, but this is the most forceful nudge yet. Google search began down-ranking unencrypted sites in 2015, and the following year, the Chrome team instituted a similar warning for unencrypted password fields.

The Chrome team said the announcement was mostly brought on by increased HTTPS adoption. Eighty-one of the top 100 sites on the web default to HTTPS, and a strong majority of Chrome traffic is already encrypted. “Based on the awesome rate that sites have been migrating to HTTPS and the strong trajectory through this year,” Schechter said, “we think that in July the balance was tipped enough so that we can mark all HTTP sites.”

HTTPS encryption protects the channel between your browser and the website you’re visiting, ensuring no one in the middle can tamper with the traffic or spy on what you’re doing. Without that encryption, someone with access to your router or ISP could intercept information sent to websites or inject malware into otherwise legitimate pages.

HTTPS has also become much easier to implement through automated services like Let’s Encrypt, giving sites even less of an excuse not to adopt it. As part of the same post, Google pointed to its own Lighthouse tool, which includes tools for migrating a website to HTTPS.

I realized handing over my entire life to one platform had its downsides.

I deleted Google from my life, and I can show you how to do it, too.

After being a devoted Googler for many years, I realized putting all my data on one platform had its downsides. A couple of factors in particular drove me to make a clean break.

Deleting Google for privacy and security

The appeal of escaping Google comes down to privacy. Google collects an alarming amount of data about you. It’s safe to say that if you’re not a paying customer then you’re the product being sold, and that’s Google’s business model.

Security goes hand-in-hand with that. I’m sure Google’s servers are closely guarded, but I still didn’t want all my data to be concentrated in one place.

To Google’s credit, the company gives you tools to opt out of the give-us-your-private-data-for-our-services game altogether. We cover the basics in these two articles:

• How to download your Google data so you can see what’s being recorded.
• How to delete your Google data to protect yourself.

Deleting Google for social impact

Another reason to get rid of Google is make your choice as a consumer for a healthier, more responsible media. As a working journalist, I’m acutely aware that Google and Facebook jointly dominate the media distribution and discovery landscape. With no strong competitors to Google Search in particular, Google’s algorithms hold unprecedented sway over the discourse in our society.

The importance of search discovery means that publishers and journalists must write stories to match the queries typed in by readers. That means coverage is guided by readers’ preconceived notions about a news event, not by objective reporting. That’s a deeply disturbing state of affairs for any democratic society.

Google outwardly seems as dedicated to responsible stewardship as one could hope, but it’s still concerning enough to merit supporting alternatives and competitors.

How my Google-free experiment started

When I decided to drop Google, I had just left a full-time job at a company that used Google mail and other apps. I stopped using all Google products while I freelanced. Note: If you’re an Android user, this is basically a no-go. Fortunately, I use a combination of Windows PCs, Macs, and iOS devices, so I wasn’t trapped.

Everyone uses Google differently, but I focused on forgoing the services that are core to the experience: Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Maps, and Search.

Dropping Gmail was easier than expected. I tried Yahoo! Mail, but there were too many ads for my taste. The web interface for Apple Mail at icloud.com was just adequate. I found Microsoft’s overhauled Outlook web interface (and truly excellent mobile app) was the best alternative.

Instead of Docs, I tried Office 365 and iWork for iCloud. I liked them both better than Docs because I prefer native apps to web apps, and because I think both have more elegant designs—especially iCloud. Apple’s iWork for iCloud is similar to Docs in that it’s online-only, and designed for collaboration. It also has a mobile app. Office 365 will be pretty familiar to anyone who’s worked with Office’s desktop versions.

It was also pretty easy to kick Drive to the curb. Cloud storage competitors abound. I always preferred Dropbox to Drive anyway because I find that its OS X and Windows apps are better-integrated into the OS’s normal file browsing experience. Google Drive feels like it’s meant to be a place to store documents and back up files, not seamlessly augment your local storage—even though it does that in some ways.

Google Calendar has plenty of competition. This is a more personal choice, and people can get very attached—consider the furor when Microsoft shuttered Sunrise Calendar. On the other hand, it inspired us to find third-party alternative calendars, which could also replace Google Calendar.

What didn’t go well

I couldn’t quit everything Google offered so easily. Google Maps alternatives were a challenge. Your best bets are Waze or Apple Maps, but let’s be honest—they have nothing on Google Maps. Unlike Apple Maps, Waze has a web app, and powerful community-sourced data is its biggest selling point. But guess what? Google uses Waze’s data in Maps! So rather than gaining that feature, you’re just losing all the stuff Maps has that Waze doesn’t.

Google Search rules for a reason. The only two decent alternatives I found were Bing and DuckDuckGo.

Bing is a strong competitor. Some features, like video search, are even better than what Google offers. But Bing’s algorithm and the semantic search show more cracks than Google’s do.

DuckDuckGo isn’t as full-featured, but it records no user data—that’s the primary selling point of the platform. Both search options were passable, but Google has nailed semantic search with a precision that no one else can touch.

Back in Google’s grasp

I lived Google-free for five months, compromises and all. Then I was hired at a new job that required me to use Google. I considered the experiment a success, to the point that I was dismayed to abandon it at the new gig.

Google has us in its grasp for good reason. Looking back at my life without it, I can honestly say some alternatives couldn’t compare. Your mileage may vary based on which services you value most. If you decide to delete Google from your life, too, let us know how it goes on our Facebook page.

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If you spend most of your workday with Google’s browser, you’ll want to put these Chrome tips to work so you can get more done in less time.

Pinning tabs that you use throughout the day saves you screen real estate and keeps you from having to reopen tabs several times over. Right-click on a tab and select Pin tab to minimize it to the left side of the browser. It’ll be identifiable by the page’s favicon.

Keep in mind, when you close the browser, those tabs will reopen as pinned tabs when you relaunch Chrome. So if you don’t want to start your next session with 10 pinned tabs, you’ll need to unpin them by right-clicking and then selecting Unpin tab before closing the browser.

Reopen that tab you didn’t mean to close

There’s one, specific hotkey command that saves my bacon about 25 times a day: Control-Shift-T, which reopens the last tab closed. When you’ve got 70 or so different tabs open, you’re bound to close the wrong one from time to time.

That’s why it behooves you to memorize this command. Better yet, take a few moments to learn some of the other hotkeys shown here that will help you zip through your tabs, close them all, or quit Chrome altogether. Just as hotkeys help you work faster in Windows, the same level of convenience applies to Chrome.

Grab a Chrome extension

It’s very likely that your favorite desktop software has an accompanying Chrome extension that let’s you perform related tasks within the browser. If so, grab it. After all, the web touches a lot of aspects of the work you do. For example, Microsoft’s OneNote offers a useful Chrome extension for grabbing articles and other bits of the internet for later retrieval. Same goes for Evernote, another popular note-taking solution. And there’s a Chrome extension that notifies you of Skype alerts. Head to the Chrome Web Store to find the extensions you need.

Embrace Google Cloud Print

Google Cloud Print may still have that annoying beta tag, but it’s vastly improved since the service’s early days. It’s now reliable, and the fastest way to print a document without needing to futz with the Windows print menu.

Most printers can be added quite easily, so head to the Cloud Print site to enroll yours. Another great feature is that you can also save files right to Google Drive, helping you keep track of tax-payment confirmations or other key documents.

Know your history

Macs and iOS devices talk together very well through a feature called Handoff. Open a browser tab on the iPhone, and you can pull it up right away on your Mac.

Chrome has created something that’s not quite as seamless, but gets the job done for those of us who live outside of Fortress Apple. Control-H pulls up a list of your most recent tabs from all your devices. Next, touch Tabs from other devices to choose the site you want to check out. You can select what you were just looking at or something from a while back.

Go big (with text)

Save your eyes from strain. You can expand the text on a browser page in a couple of different ways. Hit Control+ to zoom in, and Control- to zoom out. Alternatively, pinching-and-zooming on a PC with a touchscreen will do the trick and gives you a more direct feel for what you want to see.

Control 0 will return you to the normal page size once you’re done with the close inspection.

Start off right

You can get right to work more quickly if you launch your browsing session with the sites you use most often. Go to Settings > On Startup and choose Open a specific page or set of pages.

Then, you can add your favorite pages by typing in the URLs or clicking the button for Use current pages. This’ll ensure that next time you launch Chrome, you can get right to work with the pages you need.

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As Google reaches a major milestone, let’s reflect on its uncertain future.

Google’s Chrome browser has just reached a major milestone, hitting its 50th release.

For Google, it’s a moment for positive reflection. To emphasize Chrome’s might, the company points to the browser’s 771 billion page loads per month, 1 billion monthly active mobile users, 9.1 billion auto-filled forms, and 145 million malicious webpages averted. One might also point to Chrome’s ever-growing usage, accounting for 47 percent of all worldwide pageviews, including mobile, according to StatCounter.

Indeed, Chrome has become an indispensable tool for many web users, and has served as a leader in the browser world. It introduced the idea of limiting menu clutter around actual webpages, and popularized the syncing of bookmarks, tabs, and browser history across devices. After all these years, it remains PCWorld’s most highly-recommended web browser.

Yet for all the good Chrome has done, Google’s browser now stands at a crossroads. Aside from just another way to browse the Internet, it’s unclear exactly what Google wants Chrome to be.

Browser or platform?

In the beginning, Google’s key tenets for Chrome were speed and simplicity. The browser’s minimal menu system (or “chrome,” hence the name) got out of the way, and its JavaScript engine crushed the competition as websites grew more advanced in the late aughts.

Those advantages are less pronounced now. Nearly every other browser has embraced restraint with their own chrome, and Chrome is no longer the clear victor in benchmarks. Meanwhile, the ever-increasing demands of the modern web have given Chrome a reputation for being a resource hog and a battery killer, even if other browsers aren’t markedly better.

A few years after Chrome launched, Google started broadening its ambitions. It introduced the Chrome Web Store, and eventually the concept of native Chrome apps with offline functionality. A Chrome app launcher followed, along with push notifications from web services and Google Now. These new features were supposed to turn Chrome into a platform-within-a-platform on Windows and Mac, while making Chrome OS into a legitimate desktop operating system.

But over the last year, Google has dismantled or abandoned many of those efforts. The Chrome notification center is now dead on Windows and Mac, as Google considersembracing native notifications on those platforms. The Chrome Web Store fell into disrepair years ago, and Google has shown little interest in cleaning it up. The Chrome app launcher got nixed on Windows, Mac, and Linux because no one was using it.

As for Chrome OS, its future is far from certain. Although the platform has traction in the education world, and probably isn’t going away, a merged Chrome-Android operating system for consumers seems likely.

Amid all these retrenchments, Chrome has introduced no big noteworthy features to its desktop browser. The most interesting browser developments are instead happening on alternatives such as Microsoft Edge (with its page annotation and embedded Cortana assistant) and Vivaldi (with its web panels and tab stacking).

Google may arguably be more interested in mobile Chrome, now that smartphone usage has eclipsed the desktop. But in a world of apps, Facebook, and Instant Articles, the idea that users will spend significant amounts of time in a browser seems quaint. Perhaps that’s why Google’s 1 billion mobile user statistic is on a monthly basis, not a daily one.

So as Google celebrates Chrome’s 50th release, it should also ask itself what Chrome is now trying to accomplish. Will it recommit to its original focus on speed and simplicity, or will it try to innovate with new features? Is Chrome a platform unto itself, or just a really good way to access webpages? Are the fates of the desktop and mobile versions intertwined, or are they separate? If Google can’t answer those questions, version 100 might not be so celebratory.

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Yesterday, on July 29, the White House made a pretty big announcement for the computing world: by 2025, the U.S. hopes to have on its hands a supercomputer so powerful that it can perform one quintillion, or 10¹⁸, operations each second. For those baffled by that unfathomably large number, it’s a billion billion.

This plan is part of an Executive Order, issued by President Obama, to see the creation of an ambitious scheme called the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI). The ultimate aim for the next decade is to maintain the U.S.’s current position as world leaders in the development of High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems.

Marrying incredibly powerful computers with vast amounts of storage, supercomputers have been pivotal in a variety of research fields, helping scientists to model an array of physical systems and natural phenomena. For example, researchers can simulate what happens when galaxies collide, or when molecules interact with one another. They can even help us to predict short- and longer-term trends involving different scenarios, such as the potential impacts of climate change, or what could happen during a disease outbreak.

Although the performance of these computers can be assessed in a variety of ways, a common measure is “flops,” or the number of calculations that can be performed each second. As it stands, the speediest supercomputer is China’s Tianhe-2, which, running at 33.86 petaflops, is capable of quadrillions of calculations per second, BBC News reports. But Obama wants to reach the next level, stepping into the exascale realm. Exascale computers are those capable of at least an exaflop, which is about a thousand times the speed of petascale systems. So that’s a pretty big leap.

But the potential of such systems could be huge. With the capacity to rapidly analyze such vast amounts of data, scientists could make significant progress in fields such as personalized medicine. By processing huge medical databases, scientists could better predict how certain drugs may interact with different populations of people or individuals with certain genetic variations, identifying those that may be particularly susceptible or unsuitable for various therapies. Furthermore, the storage and processing capacities could allow scientists to combine real data with simulations, which could allow for better predictions of weather or climate change, for example.

Although there seems to have been a focus on speed, the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology has pointed out that high-performance computing isn’t just about flops, but also ability. In order for the field to progress, researchers need to create systems that are capable of keeping up with huge amounts of rapidly growing and changing data. There is clearly a lot of work to be done, but the ambitious goal does not sound unachievable.

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There is a possibility that microsoft will be selling Windows 10 on USB flash drives.

As you may know, installing an operating system from a USB flash drive is easier and faster than installing it from an optical disc. A USB flash drive is not as bulky as an optical disc and doesn’t require an external case. You just take it out of your pocket, pull off the cap, and insert it into your computer’s USB port. USB flash drives are faster than optical drives too. USB flash drives have read and write speeds that measure in 10x megabytes per second (MB/s), while optical disc read and write speeds measure in 1x MB/s.

With that in mind, it’s no surprise that there are a multitude of articles on the web that describe how to create a Windows installation package on a USB flash drive. Microsoft even provides a tool that facilitates the procedure.

With Windows 10 on the horizon, there have been rumors floating around the web that in addition to making the upgrade available as a download, Microsoft will also be selling the retail copies of the new operating system on both DVD and USB flash drive.

As a regular follower of the German website WinFuture, I recently encountered an article that indicates that Microsoft will indeed be selling the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 10 Home and Pro on USB flash drives in addition to the DVD option. Having a USB flash drive option makes sense, because tablets don’t come with optical disc drives.

The WinFuture article contained a screen shot (Figure A) showing catalog details of the USB offerings. As you can see, it appears that the USB flash drive will contain both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Presumably, the USB flash drives will sell for the same price as the DVDs.

Figure A

Windows 10 Home and Pro will be sold on USB flash drives.

You can find a number of software reseller sites (mostly Canadian) with advertisements for the USB flash drive offerings of Windows 10 by Googling the part numbers shown in the screenshot: FQC-08788 for the Pro edition and KW9-00016 for the Home edition. However, keep in mind that we’ll have a clearer vision of the USB flash drive offerings once we get closer to the Windows 10 launch date of July 29th.

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Kirk Koenigsbauer, corporate vice president for the Office Client Applications and Services team said “Today we are taking a big step forward for Mac® users—Office 2016 for Mac is now available in 139 countries and 16 languages. Based on feedback from the great Mac Office community, we’ve made major updates to each of the apps, and we couldn’t be more pleased to deliver it first to our Office 365 customers.”

Unmistakably Office, designed for Mac

The new versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and OneNote provide the best of both worlds for Mac users—the familiar Office experience paired with the best of Mac.

If you already use Office on a PC or iPad, you will find yourself right at home in Office 2016 for Mac. It works the way you expect, with the familiar ribbon interface and powerful task panes. Mac users will appreciate the modernized Office experience and the integration of Mac capabilities like Full Screen view and Multi-Touch^TM gestures. With full Retina® display support, your Office documents look sharper and more vibrant than ever.

Office for Mac is cloud-connected, so you can quickly get to the documents you’ve recently used on other devices and pick up where you left off. New, built-in document sharing tools make it easy to invite teammates to work on a document together. When sharing documents, you won’t have to worry about losing content or formatting, as Office for Mac offers unparalleled compatibility with Office on PCs, tablets, phones and online.

Five modern, first-class applications

Word for Mac—Word’s powerful writing and reviewing tools make it easy to create great-looking documents. The new Design tab lets you easily apply designer-quality layouts, colors and fonts throughout your document. You can work on the same document simultaneously with your teammates and use threaded comments to have a conversation right next to the corresponding text.

Excel for Mac—The new Excel for Mac helps you visualize your information by recommending charts best suited for your data with chart previews. Familiar keyboard shortcuts, autocomplete and an improved formula builder save you time when creating spreadsheets or entering data. For deeper analysis, new PivotTable Slicers help you filter large volumes of data and discover patterns.

PowerPoint for Mac—PowerPoint’s improved Presenter View gives you full control when you present by showing you the current slide, next slide, speaker notes and a timer on your Mac screen, while the audience only sees your presentation on the big screen. The new animation pane helps you design and fine-tune animations, and the latest set of slide transitions add polish to your presentations.

Outlook for Mac—Managing your email, calendar, contacts and tasks has never been easier. The new Outlook for Mac has push mail support so your inbox is always up-to-date. The improved conversation view automatically organizes your inbox around threaded conversations, so you won’t have to hunt for related messages. And the new message preview shows you the first sentence of an email just below the subject line so you can quickly decide if you want to read it now or come back later.

OneNote for Mac—OneNote is the newest addition to Office for Mac. You can capture your ideas in digital notebooks and access them on any device. Find things quickly with the OneNote search engine that tracks your tags, indexes your typed notes and recognizes text in images and handwritten notes. Bold, italicize, underline or highlight notes, insert files, pictures and tables and organize your notes however you want. You can also share notebooks with friends, family or colleagues so everyone can work together on travel plans, household tasks or work projects.

Made better by Mac users

The customer participation in Office for Mac preview since its launch in March exceeded expectations, making it largest Office for Mac beta ever. Thanks to everyone who participated in the preview program and helped improve the product.

Mac preview participants provided with over 100,000 pieces of feedback. Based on this feedback, Office released seven updates in four months with significant improvements in performance and stability. Also added features like improved Mail Merge in Word, Propose New Time in Outlook and support for External Data Connections in Excel.

And the best news is that Office for Mac will continue to see ongoing improvements over time. With released updates and new features for Office 365 customers at least once per quarter.

Available today for Office 365 customers

Office 365 subscribers can get the newest version of Office for Mac today. All you need is an Office 365 subscription (Office 365 Home, Personal, Business, Business Premium, E3 or ProPlus), which includes the rights and access to use Office applications on Mac, Windows, iOS and Android devices, along with additional value in OneDrive and Skype.

Here are a few different ways to get Office 2016 for Mac today:

• Already an Office 365 customer? On your Mac, just browse to your account page (office.com/myaccount), sign in and follow the installation instructions. If you have Office 365 through your organization, go to portal.office.com/OLS/MySoftware.aspx.
• Are you a student? You may get Office 2016 for Mac for free or at a substantial discount. It takes only 30 seconds to find out at office.com/student.
• Otherwise, go to office.com/mac or buy an Office 365 subscription at your local retailer.

Office 2016 for Mac will become available as a one-time purchase option this September.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about the new Office for Mac. It’s one of many important releases this summer. “We released Word, Excel and PowerPoint for Android phones just two weeks ago, which join Outlook and OneNote for Android phones, and we are just weeks away from delivering Office Mobile apps for Windows 10.” said Kirk Koenigsbauer

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Is Microsoft really going to charge $100 to $200 to users who want the Pro edition or who don’t qualify for the free upgrade? Lets take a look at some alternative pricing ideas.

In Last week’s article, qw showed you how to reserve your free copy of Windows 10 upgrade from your Windows 7 and Windows 8.1 System. As you may know, the free upgrade will move you to the same edition of Windows that you’re currently running.

“When you upgrade, you’ll stay on like-to-like editions of Windows. For example, Windows 7 Home Premium will upgrade to Windows 10 Home.”

However, what if you get Windows 10 Home and then decide that you would like Windows 10 Pro? How much will it cost to upgrade? What if you are running Windows Vista or XP? Or, what if you are planning on building your own system and want to install Windows 10 from scratch? How much will you have to pay for Windows 10? Let’s take a closer look.

The free upgrade chart

Along with the like-to-like editions description, Microsoft presented an upgrade chart (Figure A).

Figure A

As you can see, this is how Microsoft will be doling out the free editions of Windows 10. For those getting the Pro edition of Windows 10, this will be perfect. And for most folks getting the Home edition of Windows 10, this will be a fine deal. However, what if you’re really a Pro type of user who just happened to end up with a Home edition of Windows 7/8? Will you be satisfied with the Home edition of Windows 10?

For example, my main system is running Windows 8.1 Pro with Media Center. However, my laptop is running the standard Windows 8.1, because that’s what was preinstalled when I purchased it last year from Dell. I’ve always wished that it had the Pro edition, as there are certain features that I’ve grown accustomed to on the Pro edition that I sorely miss, such as being able to configure my laptop as a Remote Desktop host.

I know that I won’t be satisfied with the Home edition of Windows 10 on my laptop.

The Windows 10 Pro Pack

Microsoft has released statements to various technology media sites, such as CNET, confirming the existence of an upgrade package called the Windows 10 Pro Pack that will allow you to move up from the Windows 10 Home edition to Pro edition. The Windows 10 Pro Pack will cost $99 (USD).

While that might not sound like a lot, when compared to FREE, it seems kind of unfair.

I understand that I’m getting a like-to-like edition upgrade, but I was hoping for some kind of break. After all, I’ve been a loyal Microsoft customer for years.

How about selling the Windows 10 Pro Pack for $39.99 for a limited time? Say, 90 days after launch? That would be more than acceptable to me–and it’s not unprecedented.

As you may remember, back when Windows 8 was first launched in October of 2012, upgrades to the Pro edition were priced at just $39.99 for anyone using an existing product. That offer ran until January 31, 2013. After that, the price of Windows 8 went up to the regular price point.

Retail packages

Microsoft has also released the MSRP for copies of the new operating system. Windows 10 Home will sell for $119 and Windows 10 Pro will sell for $199. Again, this seems to be a pretty stiff deal when compared to FREE.

This is the price that anyone using Windows XP or Windows Vista on a system that’s capable of running Windows 10 will have to pay for the full install of the new operating system. This also applies to users who are planning on building their own systems.

If the goal is to really get everyone off of old operating systems and onto Windows 10, Microsoft should offer these folks a special price for a limited time.

Again, such a deal is not unprecedented. When Windows 8 first came out, the retail package of the Pro edition cost $69.99.

If Windows XP/Vista users and system builders could get Windows 10 Pro for $69.99 for the first 90 days after launch, I think that a lot more people would go for it than if they have to pay $199.

What’s your take?

If you get a free Windows 10 Home upgrade, will you be satisfied–or will you want to move up to Windows 10 Pro? If so, would you be willing to pay $39 for the upgrade? If you don’t qualify for the free upgrade, would you be willing to pay $69 for Windows 10? Let us know

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Curious about what your competition does for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? If your answer is a resounding “yes,” then you’re ready to take your SEO to the next level.

Checking out your competition and learning which keywords they use can help you refine your strategy. This is a common form of analysis to use on any website, whether it’s your competitor’s site or your favorite website.

You can identify your competitor’s keywords in a few different places on their website:

Keywords in the Code — Start by checking out their meta tags, such as the title tag or the keywords tag. Typically, the first keyword in a title tag is usually the most important. Use these steps to view the code:

1. Go to the website, and then right-click the page.
2. Click View Source. A new window opens with the website’s code.

The <title>tag is near the top of the page. If the site includes it, the meta name=”keywords”tag should be a few lines below. Both of these contain your competitor’s keywords.

Our highly trained, courteous support staff is waiting to take your call. Whatever time it takes to assist you, that’s the time you’ll receive. We’ll resolve any issue to your complete satisfaction.

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