Browser developers have recognized the danger, and have started to offer solutions. Mozilla was one of the first with their Mozilla Plugin Check, which checks the installed browser plugins after each Firefox update. The plugin check website can be accessed manually as well to check plugins not only in Firefox but all web browsers at any time. The implementation has its flaws though, as it will not warn users the moment their plugins become outdated, but only if they access the site manually or after updates.

A new Chrome Labs tool has become available in today’s Google Chrome Dev release that proposes a better solution. Disable outdated plug-ins will automatically disable plugins with known security vulnerabilities and offer update links for them.

This seems to suggest that plugins will only be disabled if an update is available, and not if a security vulnerability has been discovered and a patch is in the making.

Still, this ensures that plugins will be disabled in the Chrome web browser as soon as the plugin developer releases a new version of the plugin. Google is not offering a list of supported plugins, and it is not clear yet how many plugins are supported by the feature. It is however very likely that the most common plugins are supported.

Chrome’s implementation decreases the time it takes to notify the user about outdated plugins. While it is still not a 0-second defense, it offers reasonable protection and gets rid of outdated plugins on user systems.

An option to disable plugins based on security notifications would be the logical next step. This would block plugin vulnerabilities completely, providing that the security notifications are processed in a timely manner.

But the fear is only one side of the medal. Users who are careless about the installed plugins are benefiting immensely from the internal plugins. They personally do not have to follow the latest security announcements to update their plugins the second a new update is issued, Google does that for them.

Chrome users who prefer not to use the internal plugins can disable them easily.

The Chrome developers have added another powerful weapon to the web browser; Plugin controls that can be used to allow plugins only on whitelist domains, trusted domains that the user added to the browser.

The plugins will simply not work on other websites if configured correctly. That’s beneficial to users who need Flash or another plugin on a handful of sites only.

Google does not stop here, several interesting additions to Chrome’s plugin handling have been announced at the official Chromium Blog.

Google Chrome will protect the users from outdated plugins. It will simply refuse to run them and aid the user in updating the plugins so that they can be used again in the web browser. It is not clear how the plugin database will be maintained, it is however unlikely that all plugins available worldwide are listed in it. It is likely that the most popular plugins are maintained in the database.

Protection from out-of-date plug-ins: Medium-term, Google Chrome will start refusing to run certain out-of-date plug-ins (and help the user update).

A second interesting feature is the ability to warn users of plugins that have been infrequently used in the past. Some plugins are installed by software or the user and never used in the web browser. Chrome will warn the user about those plugins so that they can be deactivated in the plugin manager.

Warning before running infrequently used plug-ins: Some plug-ins are widely installed but typically not required for today’s Internet experience. For most users, any attempt to instantiate such a plug-in is suspicious and Google Chrome will warn on this condition

Those two additions can be very helpful and it is likely that other browser developers will offer those features in their browser eventually as well. Mozilla has already started to inform users about outdated plugins during updates.

Google Chrome users on the other hand have to press F11 once again to leave fullscreen mode to enter a new url in the address bar before they can enter fullscreen mode again. That’s not a practicable solution especially in situations where screen estate is scarce and every pixel counts (think netbooks and other devices with small computer screens).

The Chrome extension Toolstrip Address Bar provides an interesting solution to the fullscreen problem that Chrome users are facing. Once installed it will display a small arrow icon in the Google Chrome status bar. A click on that arrow will display an alternative address bar which can be used to load websites without leaving fullscreen mode in the Google browser (Ctrl left-click closes the address bar in the status bar of the browser again).

The address bar can also be displayed in normal mode where it becomes an alternative option to open new websites in the Internet browser. The extension can only be added to Google Chrome versions that support extensions which are currently only the developer builds of the Google browser. Google Chrome users can download and install the extension directly by visiting the forum page where it was announced.

The extension can only be installed in Google Chrome if extensions are enabled. This is done by launching the Google browser with the startup parameter –enable-extensions. A click on the download link on the Session Saver announcement page will then install the extension in the web browser.

A small icon is then added to the status bar of the Google Chrome browser. A click on that icon will open the Session Saver main window which can be used to save or load sessions. Previous browsing sessions (if they have been saved by the user) are displayed in a pulldown menu. They are identified by a unique name that is given to them at the time they were saved by the user.

Sessions can also be explored by clicking on the Show URLs button which will display a window with details on all stored sessions and their urls. Interested Google Chrome users can download the Session Saver extension from the Chrome Plugins website.