Password management is a part of all major web browsers, and it just may be helping thieves steal your personal data, from banking logins to Facebook accounts.

Chapin Information Services conducted 21 security tests on Opera 9.62, Firefox 3.0.4, Internet Explorer 7, Safari 3.2, and Google Chrome 1.0. The results were not good.

Opera and Firefox fared the best, both passing 7 tests, with Internet Explorer 7 passing 5 tests. Both Safari and Google Chrome only passed 2 tests each.

It looks like browsers makers have a lot of work to do. Full results and details on each test can be found on the Chapin Information Services website.

Google has finally taken Chrome off its training wheels and removed its beta tag. The move comes after Google says the browser has met strict performance and reliability requirements.

Released just over 100 days ago, the beta version has been downloaded roughly 10 million times and taken around 1% of the browser market. Far shy of Microsoft’s 70% for Internet Explorer.

The latest release doesn’t include any new features, and is still only available for Windows, but does fix a few of the remaining bugs.

Users already using Chrome will have their browser automatically updated in the next few days, or alternatively you can download the new version from the Google Chrome website. Happy browsing!

Google Chrome is to get the same level of customisation as Mozilla’s Firefox, with a new effort launched to make it possible for developers to create plugins for the popular browser.

Third party applications or addons are attributed to the huge success of Firefox, and is currently the number one most requested feature from Chrome users.

Aaron Boodman and a few others from the Chromium project last week released a design spec detailing their plan for developers.

The document also lists some extensions that the company would like to support, including both an ad and flash blocker – both of which are top addons for Firefox.

Google is yet to give a release date on the feature, but at least work is under way. Stay tuned for more information in the coming months.

Computerworld has posted an article comparing Firefox’s 3.1 beta to the latest Chrome beta.

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols put both of these browser through the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test. Not surprising the results were very stunning with Firefox 3.1 beta taking it out.

Of interesting note is that Firefox 3.1 beta is almost 25 times faster when rendering JavaScript compared to Internet Explorer 7.

You can read the article in full and get all the details.

New Google Chrome builds are showing support for Greasemonkey, albeit very basic and still in early stages of development.

Until now, Greasemonkey has been a Mozilla Firefox extension that allows users to install scripts that make on-the-fly changes to most HTML-based web pages.

Martin from gHacks writes “Only scripts in c:\scripts are loaded and only if the user adds the parameter –enable-greasemonkey by appending it to the program’s shortcut.”

Support for Greasemonkey has been added as of build 3499, which can be downloaded from the Chromium build FTP.

With all the news that Google Chrome’s market share has droped since it’s release, I thought it was only fitting to add some more statistics to the fire.

On another technology site that I run, browser stats were as follows for the month of September:

Browser Market Share for September

Through the month of September, Chrome’s usage has dropped around 30% from its release. Usage seems to have stabalised since then.

Of interesting note, is that Google Chrome has still gained a larger market share than Opera. It should also be noted that Chrome is still only available on Windows. Perhaps it’s market share will again increase when offical Mac and Linux versions are released.

Perhaps Google Chrome hasn’t shaken up the market as much as everyone predicted. Did you try Google Chrome and are you still using it?

WebKit passing Acid3

The WebKit development team has just passed another huge milestone. The WebKit browser engine used in Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome now fully passes the Acid3 test.

The Acid3 test checks how well browsers comply with the latest standards, in particular JavaScript and the Document Object Model (DOM).

Maciej Stachowiak of the WebKit team attributes this feat to “recent speedups in JavaScript, DOM and rendering.”

Unfortunately, it will be a few months before we see this in Safari and Chrome, but while you wait you can download a nightly build of WebKit and test this for yourself.

Chromium on Linux

Thanks to the CrossOver Chromium project, it is now possible to download Google Chrome for Mac OS X and Linux.

The Chromium project is an open source effort, built using the same code as Chrome and “aims to build a safer, faster, and more stable way for all Internet users to experience the web“.

At this stage, the browser does not run nativly on systems other than Windows, but the Chromium project has been made possible thanks to the CodeWeavers’ Wine development expertise.

You can download the CrossOver Chromium browser from the website or the links below:

Mac OS X
Ubuntu and Debian (32bit)
Ubuntu and Debian (64bit)

Google Chrome Go Green Theme

In less than two weeks since Google Chrome was released, die-hard fans and users are already customising the browser. ChromeSpots Google Chrome Themes forum has plenty of themes to choose from already.

Theme’s resembling Apple’s Safari, to Mozilla’s Firefox, and even deviantART have all been created.

Once you download a theme you will need to install it. The install path is as follows:

Windows Vista
C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\[current version]\Themes\

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\[current version]\Themes\

To install the theme simply copy the default.dll you have just downloaded to the above directory. I strongly suggest that you backup your current default.dll file before doing this. Unfortunately, for the time being, there is no way to manage multiple themes. However, this is definitely a promising start form theme developers. I look forward to seeing what’s to come.

Edit 2: Real full screen mode is available in the latest release of Google Chrome. You simply need to press F11.

Edit: For clarification – there is no full-screen mode in Google Chrome yet. This simply opens the browser maximized.

One thing that many users may find frustrating is that Google Chrome opens in window mode. Thankfully there is a simple fix for this. By editing the Google Chrome shortcut, you simply need to add the -start-maximized parameter to the end of the shortcut line.

Your new shortcut line should look something like this:

C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe -start-maximized

Problem solved! Chrome will now open in full-screen mode.