A new web browser, Browzar was released today. The 264kb download promises to make your browsing experience much more secure by not keeping any history, cache or autocomplete record and deleting all cookies at the end of the session. There is also no need for installation, so the program can be run off a flash drive or even from temporary folders (the ’run from site’ option in IE6). The browser is using the IE rendering engine, which means its restricted to Windows until they make versions for WebKit (Mac) and presumably Gecko (Linux). Browzar promises such versions are on the way.
The company behind Browzar is giving the download away for free, and hopes to monetise by including a proprietary search system in the browser. The search does achieve reasonable results, although the adverts could be labelled much more clearly. I particularly like their ‘Should’ve used Browzar’ campaign, reminiscent of the UK Specsavers’ TV ad series. They have a page of stories from people who have had their embarrassing web browsing history discovered.
All in all it is a good way for people with little tech knowhow to give themselves a little more privacy, but the approach obviously suffers from the fact that you are using your own IP and are not encrypting your connection in any way. Thus your ISP will know exactly what you have been up to. For full anonymity, most geeks turn to TorPark, a USB key installation of Firefox, which uses the EFF’s anonymous browsing system Tor.
Interestingly there are also 100% web-based solutions like Palary Browser trying to cater for the non-geek private browsing market.
Of course, a completely web-based solution might run over a secure connection, but it doesn’t have the benefit of actually giving you peace of mind that all traces of your browsing have been destroyed.
Palary is good for public/shared computers, though, where you don’t have install privileges.
BTW, Browzar has made BBC News. Big story, apparently.