Current Events > AOL's browser actually still sports the classic Chrome appearance

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://discover.aol.com/products-and-services/aol-shield-browser

I am now tempted to try it based on this one singular fact.

I haven't used Chrome ever since they went to stupid flat tabs.

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I find the built in anti keylogger pretty awesome.

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Were sorry. This product is not available outside of the US or Canada.

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Cheater87 posted...

I find the built in anti keylogger pretty awesome.

Wait so do you use this?

I wonder how common it is for scripts or extensions to actually log your keys to begin with. I feel like if it were a serious problem the other major browsers would already be advertising that as a feature.

spikethedevil posted...

Were sorry. This product is not available outside of the US or Canada.

well it is America online >_>.

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Hexenherz posted...

Wait so do you use this?

I wonder how common it is for scripts or extensions to actually log your keys to begin with. I feel like if it were a serious problem the other major browsers would already be advertising that as a feature.

well it is America online >_>.

No, I don't use it, I was looking at the features it has.

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I seriously thought AOL had gone under, like Yahoo messenger..

Ruvan22 posted...

I seriously thought AOL had gone under, like Yahoo messenger..

AIM itself was taken offline.

Nowadays the site itself is much like Yahoo! - can check your AOL email, search the internet, look up weather and news, etc. Oh and the company was bought out by Verizon in 2015.

They have that free Chromium browser. They also have "AOL Gold" which is $5 a month and it's like the classic AOL browser lmao. And you can still buy dial-up service through them.

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Hexenherz posted...

AIM itself was taken offline.

Nowadays the site itself is much like Yahoo! - can check your AOL email, search the internet, look up weather and news, etc. Oh and the company was bought out by Verizon in 2015.

They have that free Chromium browser. They also have "AOL Gold" which is $5 a month and it's like the classic AOL browser lmao. And you can still buy dial-up service through them.

I suppose for people with heavy nostalgia glasses?

Or boomers who don't know any better -_- I can't imagine anyone subbing to anything AOL unless they live out in the middle of nowhere and really don't need the internet for anything other than looking up the occasional recipe and messaging their sister Ethel in LA.

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Well, I am going to download it because I like trying out different browsers (I srsly have Pale Moon and Seamonkey still installed on here lol).

Probably won't do more than take a look around the settings and stuff.

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Hexenherz posted...

Well, I am going to download it because I like trying out different browsers (I srsly have Pale Moon and Seamonkey still installed on here lol).

Probably won't do more than take a look around the settings and stuff.

I just remember AOL's browser being really.. clunky? Like hard to navigate between pages etc..

Ruvan22 posted...

I just remember AOL's browser being really.. clunky? Like hard to navigate between pages etc..

That's what their Gold browser looks like, just really saturated with buttons lol. It is making me a little nostalgic for the MSN browser. I don't know why but I'm a sucker for internet suites -_-


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Hexenherz posted...

Or boomers who don't know any better -_- I can't imagine anyone subbing to anything AOL unless they live out in the middle of nowhere and really don't need the internet for anything other than looking up the occasional recipe and messaging their sister Ethel in LA.

I read a report saying that most of AOL's money comes from old people dial up subscriptions they don't realize that they don't need anymore

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Back when registering new accounts that weren't Read Only was a problem for me, and I didn't understand how sessions and IP addresses worked, I downloaded a few really out there browsers. One was Avant, which I only remember because it had a built in video downloader feature and it looked incredibly Windows XP.

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OK so I was wrong (should have suspected as much), it uses the most recent Chromium build and has the flat tabs. There's a little orientation / introduction you can flip through to see the features it has and they also have outdated screenshots of the old Chrome interface lol.

It also has screen capture protection enabled by default which is kinda cool I guess? Idk.

The anti-keylogging feature apparently encrypts everything you type ... somehow. You can see it updating in real time in a box in the top right. If you mouse over the green box it just... disappears. lol it feels weird. In the screenshot below, you can see I wrote "I am so confused" but then the text in the green box is different. >_>



The bookmarks bar is completely naked. I would have expected a few AOL links there since it makes AOL your default everything else in the browser.

ALSO... No basic synchronization option. Don't know why they decided that wasn't necessary. You can only import settings from other browsers and that's about as fancy as it gets. Rest of the options are simplified versions of Chrome's. You can toggle the AOL browser's features on or off and that's about the only difference that I can see.

I like how I just entered the search for "I am so confused" and it shows me a chart for the ticker symbol for "AM" lmao. Good job AOL.

Well that was fun, gonna uninstall it.

edit: well I can keep it on if anyone has any special requests or something.

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Rapid99 posted...

Back when registering new accounts that weren't Read Only was a problem for me, and I didn't understand how sessions and IP addresses worked, I downloaded a few really out there browsers. One was Avant, which I only remember because it had a built in video downloader feature and it looked incredibly Windows XP.

Avant was awesome, same with Maxthon >_> Knowing that they're both Chinese I don't think I would use either of them now but they're still around.

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why not chrome? just because of the design?

i havent payed close attention, but i switched from firefox to chrome years ago, like 2007. i use brave browser for android and chrome + ublock origin for everything else.

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A lot of it is the interface.

I also don't like how Google is *so* invasive with their data collection. And I don't like the uncertainty that comes with a lot of their services (like how they just closed down Google +, Google Music is now closed and everything is on "YouTube Music", they've been talking about shuttering Hangouts for a while now).

Idk, I mean I still use YouTube of course and I have an Android phone but other than that I've just been migrating away from them.

I predominantly use FireFox (it is much better after the "Quantum" release several years ago), sometimes Vivaldi. Like I mentioned before I'm a sucker for internet suites, I grew up on Netscape Navigator, so I rarely use Seamonkey just for nostalgia's sake even though it doesn't receive too many updates and is lagging in a lot of ways behind FireFox now.


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I mainly use Opera and sometimes Vivaldi.

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I used Opera back when it was still an independent and innovative and original browser. After they sold out and switched to Blink I never looked back :|

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Hexenherz posted...

The anti-keylogging feature apparently encrypts everything you type ... somehow. You can see it updating in real time in a box in the top right. If you mouse over the green box it just... disappears. lol it feels weird. In the screenshot below, you can see I wrote "I am so confused" but then the text in the green box is different. >_>

Just makes it so no one can steal all your data and customize everything based off of every single thing you ever type. Internet is freaky.

Hexenherz posted...

ALSO... No basic synchronization option. Don't know why they decided that wasn't necessary. You can only import settings from other browsers and that's about as fancy as it gets. Rest of the options are simplified versions of Chrome's. You can toggle the AOL browser's features on or off and that's about the only difference that I can see.

Same reason. Synchronizing requires Cloud, which could get your data stolen.

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What if they... you know, encrypted the data on their cloud service? It's not impossible lmao, lots of places do it.

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