A couple of new Firefox extensions emerged from Google Labs. The extensions offer Firefox users extra functions when browsing the web. Blogger Web Comments, created by Google software engineer Glen Murphy, lets users see what bloggers are saying about the page being viewed.
Also, one can create a blog post about the page without leaving the page to do so, thanks to the extension.
Murphy also included in his post a mention of Google Safe Browsing for Firefox. This is an anti-phishing tool, and alerts Firefox users if a page that asks for personal information appears to be a fake.
“By combining advanced algorithms with reports about misleading pages from a number of sources, Safe Browsing is often able to automatically warn you when you encounter a page that’s trying to trick you into disclosing personal information,” Google wrote of the extension.
Both extensions only work with Firefox 1.5 or later. Google noted that its Safe Browsing product is not perfect and stressed that users should look for other signs of phishing in pages requesting personal info.
In Safe Browsing, users can enable a feature called Enhanced Protection. Google described it in a FAQ about the extension:
If you enable Enhanced Protection, the Google Safe Browsing Extension will provide more up-to date protection by sending the URLs of sites that you visit and limited information about the site content to Google for evaluation.
When enabled, the URL of the site that you’re visiting will be sent to Google for evaluation. In addition, a very condensed version of the page’s content is sent to compare similarities between authentic and forged pages.
Foreseeing concerns about privacy, Google placed links to its Privacy Policy and the Firefox extension privacy policy in the FAQ.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
