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New Features in Chrome DevTools 89
Earlier this month, Google released Chrome 89m, which includes several important updates to the DevTools, such as improved CSP violation handling, Puppeteer recording, improved cookie debugging, as well as many additional features.
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V8 JavaScript Engine 9.0 Improves JavaScript to WebAssembly Performance
The 9.0 release of the V8 JavaScript engine, powering Chrome and Chromium-based browsers, improves the performance of making WebAssembly calls from JavaScript, adds regular expression match indices, and speeds up super property access.
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New Features in Chrome 88 Devtools
The recent release of Chrome 88 includes significant updates to the Chrome DevTools that include improved network debugging, experimental CSS Flexbox debugging tools, improved frame details view, new WASM debug capabilities, and general performance improvements.
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Better SEO with Structured Data and Rich Snippets
Martin Splitt, search developer advocate for Google, recently explained at the Chrome Developer Summit 2020 how to use structured data to make a website eligible for rich results in Google Search. Rich results support semantic searches, stand out from ordinary search results, and may increase the click-through rate.
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Porting to Apple Silicon: Firefox Case
With the introduction of Apple Silicon, macOS developers will need to port their programs to the new CPU. For complex programs, this may be no small feat, though, as Firefox engineer manager Gian-Carlo Pascotto recounted.
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New Chrome Extension to Debug Compiled Wasm Code Stepping through C++ Source Files
Google recently presented the progress made by the Chrome DevTools teams to improve the developer experience of debugging WebAssembly files. A new extension (in beta) allows developers to debug C and C++ apps compiled to WebAssembly by stepping through the original source code.
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The Vivaldi Browser Improves Privacy Protection for Android Users
The Vivaldi web browser recently shipped with enhanced privacy protection for Android users. Vivaldi 3.5 will protect users against the leaking of their real IP address when using the WebRTC communication protocol in chat applications, closing another hole allowing users to be tracked online. Vivaldi 3.5 also allows mobile users to clear their browsing data when exiting the browser.
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Microsoft Edge Made Available on Linux
Microsoft recently announced the availability of the Microsoft Edge Dev Channel for Linux (initial preview release). The Edge browser is now available on all major operating systems, desktop and mobile. Enterprise developers, many of which use Linux, may now build and test web applications in their preferred platform. The move seeks to further position Edge as the browser for business.
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Microsoft Edge WebView2 Now Generally Available
After publishing last year a preview release of WebView2, a Chromium-based control to host web content within native Windows applications, Microsoft recently announced the general availability of WebView2 for production Win32 C/C++, .NET Framework, .NET Core, and .NET 5 applications. WebView2 provides two distribution models (evergreen/fixed) with a different update policy (automatic/manual).
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Test-Automation Playwright Tool Now Records and Replays Interaction Scripts, Captures Test Videos
Newly released Playwright 1.4 brings key improvements to the cross-browser test-automation tool. Using the now public Playwright command line interface, developers and testers will be able to record user interactions and replay them with automatically generated Playwright scripts, generate page screenshots, inspect Playwright selectors, and record videos of test scripts.
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Chrome 85 Adds 64-Bit Support on Android, Better Tab Groups, Avif Compression Format Support
The Chrome team recently released Chrome 85 with sizable new features. The Chrome app for Android will now be a 64-bit version. Tab groups can be collapsed and expanded. Profile Guided Optimization allegedly delivers up to 10% faster page loads. Highly-compressed AVIF videos will natively play in Chrome 85. Developer tools also see significant improvements.
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Cookie Recipes - SameSite and beyond - Rowan Merewood at web.dev Live
Rowan Merewood explained, in light of the new cookie policies being increasingly adopted, how to create and configure cookies according to the scope and security required by the situation. Merewood also showcased the options available to developers to trace and debug cookies sent in requests.
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New COOP and COEP Cross-Origin Policies for Increased Security in Chrome and Firefox
Eiji Kitamura recently addressed in a talk at Google’s web.dev live the new COOP and COEP policies that dictate how browsers handle cross-origin resources. The new opener (COOP) and embedded (COEP) policies set up a cross-origin isolated environment that protects against Spectre attacks while restoring powerful, previously disabled features (SharedArrayMemoryBuffer and more).
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Security Concerns for Peripheral APIs on the Web
Google has been promoting the inclusion of peripheral connectivity using Bluetooth and USB on web browsers for several years. Yet, it's meeting heavy resistance from other browser vendors such as Apple and Mozilla.
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The New Microsoft Edge - Microsoft Build 2020
Melanie Richards recently presented new and upcoming features for users and web developers that are being incorporated into the new Chromium-based Microsoft Edge. Since moving to Chromium, Edge has been slowing gaining user share, passing Firefox to become the second browser on desktop/laptop devices (according to netmarketshare).