Using more than one browser could be helpful

Do you have a particular browser that you would recommend?  

Unless you have a particular interest in internet software, you’re probably already aware of Chrome, provided by Google, Mozilla Firefox and Edge, which is Microsoft’s offering and replaces Internet Explorer. If you use Apple products, you’ll be familiar with Safari as well, but that’s probably it. However, there are plenty of others out there which are worth considering, either as a replacement for your existing product, or as an additional one. 

Why might you want to use more than one browser? It’s actually very helpful, because you can create almost a different “persona” for yourself. For example, I mainly use Chrome, and it logs me into my Google, Facebook and Twitter accounts and I know full well I’m being tracked and my search results are being affected. My second browser, Opera, allows me to browse the internet with an internal VPN active, so no site knows exactly who I am or where I am located, and it also means that I can search using Google (or obviously any others) without any chance that my results can be compromised by knowledge of what I’ve searched for before. 

So, if you’re looking for some options outside the ‘usual’ you may want to take a look at some of these:

Vivaldi It’s a new browser with lots of functionality; you can add default search engines and you have lots of control over privacy settings. It’s also fast, but doesn’t yet have a mobile version. Webuser magazine recently gave it top billing in its round up (issue 440). 

Opera As mentioned previously, comes complete with a native VPN, built in ad locker, screenshot tool and some excellent chat functionality. It’s got lots of extensions, but it isn’t as good as some of the other browsers out there for speed and memory. 

Tor The browser to use if you’re particularly concerned about privacy issues and/or you want to browse the dark web.

Maxthon I haven’t it tried myself; it has over 800 extensions but at a cost of complexity, so you may need to get used to exploring its menus and settings. 

Brave  Another browser recommended by Webuser magazine and it’s also very hot on privacy and blocks all tracking cookies from following you around the web. 

SearchLite 

Recently there was a bug in the Google image search function, which meant that thumbnails from pages that contained the image were not showing in the list of results. Typically, this only came to light after I’d written my column, but thankfully just before we went to press. 

However, I think it’s still worth looking at a brief overview of some of the other reverse image search options that are available.

Tineye allows you to upload or enter an image URL and it searches over 25 billion images in a second to find possible matches. The engine will then give you links to pages that contain the image and also indicate sites that have the image as a stock photograph that you can license. You can also filter by most changed, biggest image, newest and oldest. I like Tineye – it’s quick and easy to use and almost always comes up with the goods.

Bing Image Match also provides useful content, and more about the image than Tineye, so it’s easy to view the page(s) that contain the source image, with details of size and file size. Bing also provides lots of similar images. 

Yandex displays the original image, provides links to different file sizes, shows similar images and also sites where the image is displayed.

Site of the month

My site of the month is That’s nonsense which gives you lots of excellent advice and information about internet hoaxes, hoaxes on Facebook, in the news, and how to stay safe online. 

It’s a site which is similar to Snopes, and just as useful, informative and addictive. If you’re in any doubt about the truth of something, do use the site to check it out! IP